“Our values and principles come from the Qur’an, from the teachings of Prophet Muhammad (may peace be upon him), and from the Farmans of your Imams. I want you to live lives built on the foundations of our faith. Learn about our Tariqah, about our culture, our community history, learn from our literature, learn from the elders in the Jamat. This will help you to be clear and confident about your identity.” (Dallas, USA, Youth Mulaqat, 10 November 2025)

History and Core Principles of Ismailia Dārū’l-Ḥikmat

Registered as Institute for Spiritual Wisdom and Luminous Science (ISW&LS), U.S.A.

1. We, the members of Ismailia Dārū’l-Ḥikmat¹ (our original name), are profoundly grateful to our Creator that we are all born in the Ismaili Tariqah of Islam.
2. We are aware of our 49^th Imam Shah Karim al-Husayni’s emphasis on learning the esoteric (bāṭin or ta’wīl) of the holy Qur’ān, as he says:
   1. “It is important that if you recite or know parts of the Qur’an, you should be able to explain their meaning. Do not forget that our branch of Islam is an esoteric branch of Islam. Esoteric means that what is written is there, but its meaning is not there to everyone. It is there only to those who are part of our Jamat.” (Bombay, 22^nd November, 1967)²
   2. Further, the Imam says: “The Imam’s Taʿlīm lights the murids’ path to spiritual enlightenment and vision.” ³
   3. The Imam^c through his immense mercy, granted us a teacher who fulfilled our souls’ yearning to follow his farmans to learn the esoteric meaning of the holy Qur’ān, the final revelation of God.
3. The history of Ismaili da‘wat is in two great phases and is compared to the night and day of the physical world. During the night of religion, also known as dawr-i satr or the cycle of concealment, when the Imam’s adversaries create obstacles in conveying his ta‘līm to his murids, he appoints a religious hierarchy known as the ḥudūd-i dīn to impart it, as in the physical night when the light of the sun is unavailable it is conveyed by the moon and the stars. During the day of religion, known as the dawr-i kashf or qiyāmat or the cycle of unveiling or resurrection, when the Imam no longer has adversaries who create obstacles in conveying ta‘līm to his murids, he does so directly and there is no need of the ḥudūd-i dīn,⁴ just as when in the physical world the sun shines brightly there is no need of the moon or stars.
4. The dissemination of taʿlīm through the ḥudūd-i dīn continued up to the time of Imam Sultan Muhammad Shah^c. His is a very important and auspicious time in Ismaili history.⁵ The night of religion or the dawr-i satr (cycle of concealment) came to an end and the blessed day of religion or the cycle of unveiling or resurrection (dawr-i kashf or qiyāmat) began. He conveyed taʿlīm to his murids directly and to do so he travelled throughout the globe, wherever it was possible to do so. He made it easier for his obedient and diligent murids to attain spiritual enlightenment and vision by granting them the Supreme Name (ism-i aʿẓam) directly. He abolished the ḥudūd-i dīn with its extremely strict rules and conditions. This however does not mean that he abolished the daʿwat. He rather elevated the status of his murids by commanding them to consider themselves his ambassadors⁶ and permitted them to do daʿwat through their ethics, morals and good dealings with others. The 49th Imam continues the same qiyāmati taʿlīm, as he says in one of his farmans: “You know the history of the dais and the journeys they made on behalf of the Jamat and the Imam-of-the-Time. Then I wish you all to become dais in this generation of your family.”⁷
5. There were a number of outstanding dignitaries in our 48^th Imam’s time, such as Āghā ʿAbdu’ṣ-Ṣamad Shāh, Pīr Sabzali, Sayyid Shāh ʿAbdu’l-Ḥamīd, Sayyid Shāh Nawāz Shāh, Sayyid Munīru’d-Dīn, Sayyid Jalālī Shāh, Varas Ismail Gangji, Missionary Juma Bhagat, Missionary Kara Ruda, Missionary Husseini, etc.
6. Our teacher, ʿAllāmah Naṣīr al-Dīn Naṣīr Hunzai was specially blessed by Mawlana Sultan Muhammad Shah^c who gave him the Supreme Name (ism-i aʿẓam) in 1946 in Mumbai during his Diamond Jubilee.
7. During his sojourn in western China to serve the Jamat there from 1949 to 1954, he experienced a personal resurrection (qiyāmat) and was blessed with the everlasting wealth of the inner knowledge of the Qur’ān.
8. He established the Ismailia Dārū’l-Ḥikmat on 2^nd June, 1963 in Hunza State, to impart and disseminate this given knowledge (ʿilm-i ʿaṭā’ī) through writing and publishing books, epistles, poetry,⁸ translations of other Ismaili literature, lectures, teaching, etc.⁹
9. In 1963 there were no Jamati institutions in Hunza State, Gilgit Agency.¹⁰
10. The H.R.H. Prince Aga Khan Ismailia Supreme Council for Jamats of Hunza State, Gilgit Agency, Chitral State and Central Asia, known as “The Supreme Council” came into existence on 21^st March, 1969.¹¹
11. The Ismailia Association established its branch in Gilgit on 10^th June, 1972, nine years after the Ismailia Dārū’l-Ḥikmat.
12. Prior to 2^nd June, 1963, ʿAllāmah Naṣīr al-Dīn Naṣīr Hunzai continued his work on an informal basis. After the establishment of the Ismailia Dārū’l-Ḥikmat, with the blessings of Imām-i zamān^c, this work of disseminating the esoteric knowledge of the holy Qur’ān has continued and to date scores of books, epistles, poetry and lectures in print as well as digital format and websites have been shared with interested members of the Jamat as well as those outside the Jamat who are engaged in personal search for spiritual knowledge.
13. The entirety of this service has been done through what Mawlana Shah Karim^c has described as “Time and Knowledge Nazrana”, and in the form of material support for the publications in various forms.
14. All the office bearers and members of this esoteric organisation have received powerful motivation from the special hidāyat which Mawlana Shah Karim^c gave at the special mulāqāt granted to ʿAllāmah Naṣīr al-Dīn Naṣīr Hunzai in London on 21^st June, 2001.

    This hidāyat is in a letter dated 16^th August 2004, of Vazier Shafik Sachedina who mentions it as follows: “You will recall that Mawlana Hazar Imam was very keen that ways and means should be found whereby your learning and scholarship can receive a wider Jamati exposure through collaboration with the Institute.”

15. We firmly believe that the work of this esoteric organisation is continuing to progress because of Imām-i zamān^c’s pleasure and blessings, although ʿAllāmah Naṣīr al-Dīn Naṣīr Hunzai passed away from this temporal world on 14^th January, 2017.
16. His aspirations and directions for the organisation were recorded as an audio and a transcript was made available, dated 3^rd December, 2016, just over a month before he passed away. He gave the responsibility of establishing the Zabīḥu’llāh-i Aʿẓam Khidmat Committee to his senior students, Dr. Faquir Muhammad Hunzai and Rashida Noormohamed-Hunzai for the future work of the organisation.
17. ʿAllāmah Naṣīr al-Dīn Naṣīr Hunzai is part of a heritage of Ismaili scholarship and learning which exists within the Shia Imami Ismaili Tariqah of Islam.
18. In keeping with this, his main focus is on the Centrality of Imamat¹² and the proofs of it from the holy Qur’ān. His books abound in the esoteric or taʾwīl teachings of the Qur’ān. In keeping with the great luminaries of the past, such as Sayyidnā al-Muʾayyad fī’d-dīn Shīrāzī, Sayyidnā Kirmānī, Sayyidnā Sijistānī, Sayyidnā Jaʿfar bin Manṣūr al-Yaman, Sayyidnā Qāḍī Nuʿmān, Sayyidnā Pīr Naṣīr-i Khisraw, he too discusses the Concepts of Qiyāmah and Ḥaẓrat-i Qāʾimu’l-qiyāmat in his prolific writings.
19. Additionally, he writes about concepts related to his own specific time, such as Monoreality, the Personal World, self-recognition and the recognition of God, Divine remembrance and the relationship between Spiritual Science and Physical Science, etc.
20. ʿAllāmah Naṣīr al-Dīn Naṣīr Hunzai’s contribution to the esoteric knowledge of the Ismaili Tariqah was due entirely to the blessings in the form of nūrānī taʾyīd, which he received from our 48^th Imam, Mawlana Sultan Muhammad Shah^c and from the 49^th Imam, Nur Mawlana Shah Karim al-Husayni^c.
21. He has written in detail about those concepts which Mawlana Sultan Muhammad Shah^c mentions in a concise form in his Memoirs in Chapter 8, such as the Islamic doctrine of Soul, the concept of a perpetual and constant Creation, the possibility of progress of an individual to Companionship-on-High and Monoreality and also the concepts that Mawlana Shah Karim^c has emphasised such as we are all from the Nafs-i wāḥidah, the importance of Divine remembrance, meritocracy and pluralism.
22. His teachings have resonated with Ismailis from all the traditions, such as the Central Asian tradition, the Pir Sadruddin tradition and the Arabic tradition. His classes have been attended by a diverse group of murids for a long time and reflect the Imams^c wish to promote diversity and pluralism within the idea of One Jamat.
23. Following the learning traditions of Ismailis from the past, classes are held regularly and consist of zikr, ginan and qasida recitation and lectures and discussions on all the subjects mentioned above.
24. On many occasions during his lifetime, he had clarified in his lectures that this blessing of taʾyīd knowledge from the Imam of the Time^c was bestowed upon him alone. He says: “If the knowledge of all these books belongs to the family of Partaw-yi Shah (Naṣīr al-Dīn) [and is] self-made, then wait and see that it will come to an end in a short while, because it is the cycle of Resurrection, in which very little respite is left for false things.”¹³

Summary of Core Principles:

1. Members of Ismailia Dārū’l-Ḥikmat are devoted murids of the Imam^c, who aspire to obey his farmans regarding the esoteric understanding of the holy Qur’ān.
2. In pursuit of this ‘personal search’ they have been motivated and empowered by the teachings of ʿAllāmah Naṣīr al-Dīn Naṣīr Hunzai, who represents a continuity of such search throughout the history of the Ismaili Tariqah.
3. The participation of members in the work of disseminating this esoteric knowledge is voluntary in the spirit of our Tariqah and is based on Mawlana Shah Karim^c’s public statement that voluntary service is “enlightened self-fulfilment”.¹⁴
4. We are fully aware that the progress and success of our work of disseminating esoteric knowledge of the Ismaili Tariqah is due entirely to Imām-i zamān^c’s pleasure and blessings.
5. As murids of the Imam of the Time, our members are conscious and fully aware of the importance of the practice of ethics, such as integrity, honesty, humility, trustworthiness, forgiveness and generosity, etc., all of which become doubly important for us because we have been blessed with the recognition and service of this sublime esoteric knowledge of the Imam.

The Need to Record the History and Core Principles Above:

1. To correct any misperceptions, which may exist within the organisation or outside about our underpinnings and history.
2. To ensure the smooth running of our esoteric (bāṭinī) organisation for the present and the future.
3. To guard against any distortion of the founder, ʿAllāmah Naṣīr al-Dīn Naṣīr Hunzai’s knowledge, teachings and the educational methods he used.
4. To ensure that his directions, both in his own final words and the transcript of the audio are understood and adhered to by all concerned.
5. Throughout his life, in his lectures and writings ʿAllāmah Naṣīr al-Dīn Naṣīr Hunzai has emphasized that the taʾyīdī knowledge he was imparting belonged to the Imam of the Time^c and that on his passing it would return to the Imam of the Time¹⁵ because it was a trust from him.

NOTE:

A civil society organisation like ours which publishes esoteric Ismaili literature, conducts classes in various centres, encourages research and dissemination of such knowledge through online lectures, celebrations (Jashns), Newsletters, etc., is often not fully understood by all members of the community.

The above Core Principles serve several purposes:

1. Inform the membership of its history, raison d’être and underpinnings;
2. Introduce us correctly to members of the wider public who use our websites,
3. Another significant reason is to ensure that our identity is not misrepresented by certain groups who misuse the Founder, ʿAllāmah Naṣīr al-Dīn Naṣīr Hunzai’s name and literature to serve their own ulterior purposes.