Ascension of the Dais of Ismailli's

                                       
For the Sevener Ismāʿīlī, the Imāmate ended with Isma'il ibn Ja'far, whose son Muhammad ibn Ismail was the expected Mahdi that Ja'far al-Sadiq had preached about. However, at this point the Ismāʿīlī Imāms according to the Nizari and Mustaali found areas where they would be able to be safe from the recently founded Abbasid Caliphate, which had defeated and seized control from the Umayyads in 750 AD.

At this point, much of the Ismaili community believed that Muhammad ibn Ismail had gone into the Occultation and that he would one day return. With the status and location of the Imāms not known to the community, Ismailism began to propagate the faith through Dāʿiyyūn from its base in Syria. This was the start of the spiritual beginnings of the Daʿwah that would later blossom in the Mustaali branch of the faith as well as play important parts in the other three branches.

The Da'i was not a missionary in the typical sense, and he was responsible for both the conversion of his student as well as the mental and spiritual well being. The Da'i was a guide and light to the Imām. The teacher-student relationship of the Da'i and his student was much like the one that would develop in Sufism. The student desired God, and the Da'i could bring him to God by making him recognize the stature and light of the Imām descended from the Imāms, who in turn descended from God. The Da'i was the path, and the Face of God, which was a Qur'anic term the Ismāʿīlī took to represent the Imām, was the destination.

Shams Tabrizi and Rumi is a famous example of the importance of the relationship between the guide and the guided, and Rumi dedicated much of his literature to Shams Tabrizi and his discovery of the truth.


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