Ismailism

Ismailism is a branch in the Islam. They are a minority within the shia Muslims.

They are often misunderstood because lying is allowed in their field. But it certainly isn’t always allowed. The medievalist didn’t permit lying at all except for one circumstance; when your life is in a threatening situation and by lying you can escape this. So, immediate danger is the only exception.

Ismailists were Neoplatonists in the sense that you’re not supposed to reveal philosophical doctrines to individuals when you’re no expert in philosophy yet.

This early community was also interested in the nature of God and whether as human beings we can grasp his true nature, as we try to understand something infinite when we’re just finite. Also, we might ask if we can understand Him through human language. They discussed questions about the soul, where it is located and questions about the afterlife.

Ismailism beliefs in metapsychosis; the soul migrates from one human being into another, it transfers to the next sage. And this soul doesn’t die, it’s incorruptible. Therefore, every period of time, the imam the successor of Mohammed. He’s divine and infallible like the Pope.

They don’t believe in the existence of heaven and hell. The supposed punishment you get is the metaphysical soul, which will stop to intellect and would be worse than burning in hell.

We might wonder what the purpose of prophets is. Well, they outline outward meaning truths, they are useful but not that deep. We’re talking about religions here, it’s exoteric.

Then, we also have esoteric inner teachings contained in religion. This isn’t told by prophets but by the Imam.

Ismailism thinks that for some souls abstract rigorous training of philosophy is a too difficult practice. They use animals as symbolism, because rational argument doesn’t always work with the masses. The animals teach us how to learn moral codes and insist pursuing a rational mode of thinking about the world. Human beings have oppressed animals and acted arrogantly. Animals makes us think about what is outside the self and reminds us of our ill way of living. We’re invited to think in a universal intellectual way.

The key message is that metaphysical truths are greater than the human body. Think about the ontology of otherness. Animals take the podium away for the human beings, there’s a Copernican turn occurring. We’re not the centre of the cosmos, animals are no subjects. The only way to do philosophy properly is to understand and reflect in a much larger ontology.