7 - The Crown of Doctrines and the Mine of Instructive Points by al-Dāʿī Ibn al-Walīd

Summary

Chapter seven presents the views of a prominent leader of the Mustaʿlī Ṭayyibī branch of the Ismaʿili community, al-Dāʿī ʿAlī b. Muḥammad b. al-Walīd (d. 612/1215). Ibn al-Walīd was a prolific writer who authored several works on philosophy, theology, poetry, and commentary on the Qurʾān. He concisely explains key Islamic doctrines (monotheism, prophethood, the Hereafter, etc.) according to the Mustaʿlī Ṭayyibī tradition in his theological work, The Crown of Doctrines and the Mine of Instructive Points (Tāj al-ʿaqāʾid wa-maʿdin al-fawāʾid). The doctrines he supports in his chapter on the imamate largely correspond with those that appear in Twelver Shiʿi literature. He argues against the right of members of the community to choose their imams and endorses the need for their appointment by means of divine designation (naṣṣ). He believes in the perpetual necessity of the office and asserts that the nonexistence of a divinely designated imam is impossible; the imam is God’s living proof (ḥujja). The Ismaʿilis maintained that God’s proof played an essential role in humans’ acquisition of any knowledge relating to God or matters pertaining to religion that God desired humanity to know.