The Isma’ili Muslims are a branch of Shi‘a Islam which traces the religious and spiritual authority of the Prophet Muhammad through his cousin and son-in-law ‘Ali, the first Imam (spiritual leader) and thereafter by heredity through the Imam’s descendants. The Isma‘ilis are so called because following the death of the fifth Imam Ja’far al-Sadiq, they accepted his elder son Isma‘il as his legitimate successor to the Imamate and traced the Imamate among the lineal descendants of Isma‘il. Meanwhile, the majority of the Shi‘a, later known as the Ithna ‘Ashari (Twelvers) traced the Imamate through Imam Ja’far’s younger son Musa al-Kadhim and through a few more generations until the disappearance of their twelfth Imam in the ninth century.
The Isma‘ili branch was itself subdivided upon the death of their nineteenth Imam, al-Mustansir-bi’llah, with the Nizari Isma‘ilis accepting his son and heirdesignate Abu Mansur Nizar as the next Imam while the other branch known as the Must‘alian Isma‘ilis followed another son Ahmad Must‘ali. The Must‘alian Imams were believed to have gone into concealment a few generations later and are now represented by da‘is who lead the communities. The Nizari Isma‘ilis were further subdivided over the succession to their twenty-first Imam Shams alDin Muhammad. One group followed his younger son Qasim Shah as their Imam while the other followed Muhammad Shah – these groups being known as the Qasim-shahi Nizaris and Muhammad-shahi Nizaris.
Today, the Imam of the Nizari Qasimshahi Isma‘ilis is His Highness Prince Karim Aga Khan IV known to his murids as ‘Mawlana Hazar Imam’ (our lord the present Imam). The Muhammad-shahi community lost contact with its last known Imam, Muhammad Baqir, in the nineteenth century and the bulk of this community transferred its allegiance to the Qasim-shahi Imamat during the Imamate of Sir Sultan Muhammad Shah Aga Khan III, the predecessor and grandfather of the present Imam. Technically the term “Isma‘ili” embraces all those Shi‘a groups which affirm the Imamate of Isma‘il ibn Jafar. In the present time, the term ‘Isma‘ili Muslims’ is most often used to designate to the Nizari Qasim-shahi branch lead by the Aga Khan. Through all the various schisms that have occurred within the Shi‘a community, the matter of succession to the Imamate was of paramount importance and became the determining factor of these events.
By Khalil Andani – Click here to read.
