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Ismaili Digest

Editor's Choice -- Ismaili Ignition -- What does personal search really mean? Do we have it correct?

A fundamental aspect of our faith is the idea of "personal search." However what does this actually mean?

Does "personal search" mean there are "no black and white answers" to faith related questions we have? That every interpretation is automatically correct? This is also known as relativism. Relativism claims there is no absolute truth, no single correct interpretation, but Hazar Imam has rejected relativism as "unprincipled."

In a previous Editor's Choice newsletter (here: http://isma.li/yI7Kqe) we highlighted research from Harvard, Pew and others who found that congregations of churches professing such "liberal theology ... that there is no single 'correct' interpretation of Scripture" always shrank.

On the other hand, then, does "personal search" mean there are clear, black and white answers to our faith questions and we are to search for those answers? However, even if the Imam himself has given us answers, how can we be sure we have actually understood him correctly?

And what then of those who do claim final, absolute, definitive answers (other than the Imam, whom we accept has those answers)? About whom Prince Rahim said, "Rather than seeing religion as a humble process of growth in faith, some people presume to claim that they have arrived at the end of that journey and can therefore speak with near-divine authority."

How then do we reconcile the tension between personal search and absolute answers without personal search degenerating to "unprincipled relativism" while also avoiding self-righteous claims to absolute truth and the rigid, orthodoxy it brings with it?

In these three Ignition Questions [IQs] below we propose a fresh perspective to this tension.

In IQ #3 , we suggest the notion of Intellectual Satisfaction. While relativism asserts there is no absolute truth, Intellectual Satisfaction asserts there is absolute truth, but no absolute certainty because, by definition, human beings are limited and can never know anything with absolute certainty. As Hazar Imam has said we must "recognize our own creature hood, and thus our human limitations."

However, if there is no absolute certainty then IQ #5a suggests not only are interpretation errors possible (as both as Mawlana Sultan Muhammad Shah and Hazar Imam have said), but that they are inevitable and we suggest one aspect of personal search is about reducing those interpretation errors. And that requires openness to new perspectives so IQ #5b suggests a simple question you can ask yourself to assess your open-mindedness.

Best regards
Ismaili Digest

Editor's Choice

No Black & White Answers, or Absolute Proof or Intellectual Satisfaction. Where Does the Ismaili Tariqah Stand? | Ignition Question #3

In answering questions on matters of faith, we generally find two opposing camps: one absolutist (claiming to offer authoritative answers or "proofs") and the other relativistic (suggesting there are no absolutes and, therefore, no clear answers). This Ignition Question suggests perhaps our faith has a more nuanced, fulfilling position to answer faith questions that accepts absolutes while also allowing personal intellectual satisfaction without degenerating to relativism.

Continued Here » http://isma.li/nl9ODE

Editor's Choice

Part 1: If "there are no wrong interpretations," then why do we even need Hazar Imam to interpret our faith for us? | Ignition Question #5a

We often hear "there are no wrong interpretations" of our faith. But is this idea at odds with what Mawlana Hazar Imam and Mawlana Sultan Muhammad Shah have told us about our personal interpretations? Or has the emotional, spiritual, experiential side of faith (where mistakes can't happen) been confused with its intellectual side (where mistakes can happen)? And has the "right to interpret" been confused with "being right?" In Part 1, of this two-part Ignition Question, we look at these questions and suggest we should not focus our personal efforts on trying to be "right" about our interpretations -- but simply "less wrong."

Continued Here » http://isma.li/t2ckis

Editor's Choice

Part 2: Have you ever changed your own interpretation of Hazar Imam's guidance after hearing someone else's point of view? | Ignition Question #5b

In Part 1, of this two-part Ignition Question, we highlighted remarks from Imams that advise us that we may indeed make mistakes in our own, personal interpretations of our faith. However, knowing we may be mistaken, in theory, is one thing. Admitting we are wrong, and changing a deeply held position or belief or worldview on some issue, is quite another. Here, in Part 2, we introduce a new perspective on open-mindness and see what "abandoning false conceptions" about faith, as Mawlana Sultan Muhammad Shah advises us to do, actually looks like in practice.

Continued Here » http://isma.li/Gr8Y9S

About Ismaili Ignition

Ismaili Ignition (@ Ismaili Digest)

Ismaili Ignition is a unique project which hopes to encourage the Jamat to push the boundaries in how we think about issues and matters related and relevant to our community today. Ignition publishes original, thought provoking, fresh, new 21st Century perspectives and insights into our faith and community you won't find anywhere else.

Continued Here » http://isma.li/ignition

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