The Unknowable Lord Has Manifested: Quiddity of Deity Between Divine Immanence, and Divine Transcendence, in the Isma'ili Ginan Tradition
Proceedings of the Seventh Annual International Conference on Shiʿi Studies
Abstract: Absolute Divine transcendence, and concomitant necessary Divine immanence, are theological currents permeating the South Asian Shi'i Ismā'īlī tradition of the Gināns. The contrast between the articulations of Deus absconditus and Deus revelatus in the Ginān tradition reflects its Subcontinent vernacularism, Shi'i framework, and the influence and engagement of multiple Arabo-Persianate and South Asian spiritual streams of tradition. The Ismaili dā'īs, pīrs, and sayyīds, who composed the Ginān, themselves reflected differing articulations of ontotheosophical assertions about the nature of the Divine within the Ginān. The ginānic theological discourse stands between the concurrent assertions of nirguṇa (absolute transcendent formlessness) and ḥāḍar (immanent divine presence). This polarity between absolute negational theology, and absolute divine presence, could be perceived as an ontological tension. However, this study argues the two assertions are to be considered complementary, and coherent, within the onto-theological and onto-cosmological theosophical worldview of the Ginān. Surveying key theological assertions within the Ginān, these assertions are situated within a broader South Asian and Islamicate intellectual milieu, Shi'i, Shī'ī Imāmī Ismā'īlī and Ṣūfī. Ultimately, it is proposed the most consistent interpretive hermeneutical lens to read these ginānic themes was articulated by the invoking of the technical term of 'Monorealism' by Sir Sultan Muhammad Shah, the 48th Ismā'īlī Imām and 3rd Aga Khan. Reading the semantic domain of this term as entailing a modified articulation of panentheism, one that compromises neither Divine transcendence nor Divine immanence, we argue coheres most credibly with the modality of Divinity presented in the Gināns.
Author: Stephen Cúrto
Link to Full Paper: Academia.edu