Esoteric Haqiqi Fasting is obligatory all-year; the Ramadan Zahiri Fasting is optional

ISMAILI GNOSIS

MAR 06, 2024

In contemporary Ismaili Muslim practice, the obligatory religious duties (wajibat) for all Ismaili Muslims are Du‘a (daily prayer), Dasond (zakat), and obeying the farmans of the Imam of the Time. All mandatory and optional ritual practices for Ismaili Muslims are based on the guidance of the Imam:

“Who are [our] spiritual children? For this, there are two points: the first is submitting the Mal-i Wajibat (Dasond), the second is performing worship, that is, reciting the Du‘a. These two matters are obligatory in our Din. If one does not keep these two things then one is not our murid.”

Imam Sultan Muhammad Shah Aga Khan III,
(Mumbai, January 25, 1926; translated by Khudabux Talib)1

“He whose Du‘a and Mal-i Wajibat (Dasond) are proper can go to his Original Abode (asal makan).”

Imam Sultan Muhammad Shah Aga Khan III,
(Karachi, February 9, 1950; translated by Khudabux Talib)2

According to the guidance of Mawlana Sultan Muhammad Shah decreed in farmans delivered in the early 1900s, the exoteric (zahiri) fasting from food and drink in the month of Ramadan is not an obligatory religious practice (wajib, fard) for Ismaili Muslims today. Rather, the zahiri fasting of Ramadan is an optional or discretionary practice that Ismaili murids may or may not choose to practice based on their own discretion and spiritual disposition.

Contrary to modern popular notions, the historical and normative definition of a “Muslim” is not a person who practices the so-called “five pillars” of Islam (Shahada, Prayer, Zakat, Fasting, Pilgrimage). This notion that Muslim = performer of five pillars is a later Sunni Muslim construct created by Sunni jurists. In reality, the Sunni hadith literature is full of examples where a person need only affirm the Shahada to be counted as a Muslim. Throughout Muslim history, Sunni and Shi‘i scholars have vehemently disagreed on what exactly are the “necessities of religion” (al-daruri min al-din) whose acceptance make one a Muslim and whose rejection take a person outside of Islam.

Most modern Twelver Shi‘i scholars, including Ayatullah Khomeini and Ayatullah Khamenei, hold that the minimum requirement for being a Muslim is to believe in the Unity of God (tawhid), the Prophethood of Muhammad (nabuwwah), and the Day of Judgment (qiyamah). Not believing in or not practicing a particular religious practice (such as five prayers or Ramadan fasting) is not sufficient to declare someone non-Muslim.

Mawlana Hazar Imam has likewise stated that affirming the Shahada (la ilaha illa Allah, Muhammadun Rasul Allah) is sufficient for a person to be Muslim and that such a person’s Islam cannot be questioned. Believing in one God and the Prophethood of Muhammad and earlier Prophets are among the essential “Roots of Religion (usul al-din) common to all Muslims; whereas particular Muslim practices such as prayer, fasting, pilgrimage, etc. are subsidiary Branches of Religion (furu‘ al-din) whose format and interpretation vastly differ across Muslim communities.

source https://blog.ismailignosis.com/p/do-ismailis-have-to-fast-in-ramadan