Third Grade. The daʿi next proceeds to point who can be accepted as the desired teacher and infallible guide, the Imam of Islam. There have been seven such Imams, as worthy of reverence by their religious characters as by their number, for the most important things in the universe, such as the planets, the heavens (Qur. 2, 29; 67, 3), the earths (id. 65, 12, of Bukhari Sahih 59, 2) are invariably in sevens. He then enumerates the seven Imams, the first six being ʿAli to Jaʿfar as-Sadiq, the seventh al-Kaʾim, “the chief,” whom some understand to be Jaʿfar’s son Ismaʿil, others his grandson Muhammad, whilst others again regard these two as but one. He next endeavoured to show that the other Shiʿites, who regard Musa as the seventh Imam, cannot be correct as they do not limit the Imams to the sacred number seven, but continue until twelve are reckoned in all. He then was accustomed to speak against the character of Musa, the son of Jaʿfar, asserting that Ismaʿil had deep knowledge of secret things, whilst Musa possessed no such supernatural enlightenment: he told anecdotes which placed Musa in an unfavourable light, and even attributed to him grave sins, so that it was impossible to regard him as the true Imam. Moreover it was agreed that, since Husayn, the Imamate can only be passed by direct succession, so it is not possible that it could be taken from one and given to his brother. The Ismaʿilians alone have inherited the accurate knowledge of secret mysteries bequeathed by Jaʿfar as-Sadiq to his son Ismaʿil.

Fourth Grade. In this grade instruction was given in the history of God’s revelation. The age of the world is divided into seven stages, each under the guidance of a prophet whose teaching surpassed that of his predecessors and abrogated it. Between each pair there were but “silent” guides who did not add to nor alter the revelation of the prophet who inaugurated that age. Each of these seven prophets had a coadjutor who was his authorised exponent to mankind at large. These seven prophets and coadjutors were—

Thus the seventh prophet al-Kaʾim, i.e., Ismaʿil or his son Muhammad, has abrogated the teaching of the Prophet Muhammad, and has given a new revelation. At this point, therefore, the convert was entirely separated from orthodox Islam which accepts Muhammad as the “seal of the prophets,” that is to say, the final completer of revelation, and was taught to regard his religion as obsolete.

Fifth Grade. In this grade it was taught that the traditional practices of the religion of Islam were merely temporary, a concession to the uninstructed multitude who could not yet understand the spiritual principles of iman: they were useful as an educative influence with the ignorant, but the Qurʾanic precepts on which some of them were based had an esoteric meaning quite other than their literal form, whilst the traditional rules which had added so much detail to the laws of the Qurʾan were baseless and negligible. The disciple was taught to replace the external precepts of Islam by inner convictions. If he was a Persian he was reproached with the servile submission which the Persians had rendered to an Arab Khalif: if he were an Arab he was instructed that the privileges of the Arabs have now been transferred to the Persians. In addition to this he was taught certain principles of geometry and the properties of numbers, all applied in a mystical manner to the claims of the Imamate. He was further informed that each prophet had twelve hujjaj corresponding to the twelve signs of the zodiac, to the twelve months of the year, to the twelve tribes of Israel, and to the twelve nugabaʾ whom Muhammad chose from the ansar or “helpers” at Madina. These numerals “seven” and “twelve” which have been shown to possess sacred meanings, were now cited to explain why men have twelve dorsal vertebrae, seven cervical vertebrae, etc. It is as well to note that when these teachings were first put forth the other Shiʿites who followed Musa and his successors had not yet made up the number of twelve Imams.

Sixth Grade. The missionary did not admit the postulant to this grade until he was perfectly assured as to his discretion and secrecy. In it the teaching that the ritual precepts of Islam as generally understood, were abrogated, was carried to its logical conclusion, and the convert was instructed to abandon the observance of prayer, fasting, pilgrimage, and all the other external practices of religion; or at least to observe them only in so far as they served as a bond of social usage or as expedient as a concession to their uninstructed companions. At the same time the teacher professed the utmost veneration for the men who had established these practices, and for the wisdom which had led them to do so. The daʿi then described to his pupil the doctrines of Plato, Aristotle, Pythagoras, and other philosophers, and exhorted them not to follow the traditions of religion which have been passed down as mere hear-say, but to test them by the methods of philosophy and to accept only those things which are endorsed by reason. Changing his former attitude, he then began to criticize the Imams unfavourably, and to contrast them with the philosophers to their disadvantage.

Seventh Grade. Some of the missionaries were not themselves instructed in the doctrines of the highest grades, and only a select number were able to initiate converts into this seventh stage. This serves as the probable explanation of some events in the history of the sect which appear strange at first sight such, for example, as the estrangement of the most faithful and successful missionary Abu ʿAbdullah who, no doubt, revolted when he found the difference between the actual beliefs of the Mahdi ʿUbayd allah, and the doctrine which he himself had learned and taught. In initiating a disciple into this highest grade the daʿi first pointed out that there are in this world always correlatives, of which one is the cause, the other the result, as giver and recipient, teacher and taught, etc. Thus the Qurʾan tells us of God that “when he decreeth a thing he only saith ‘be’ and it ‘is’” (Qur., 3, 42), in which God, the First Cause, is the greater, the thing created only derives its being from him: and again, “all things have we created after a fixed decree” (Qur., 54, 49), and again, “he who is God in the heavens is God in earth also” (Qur., 43, 84). Hence, following a teaching of the philosophers, it is clear that from a Being who is only One, only one thing can proceed: but the world contains many things, so it cannot be the work of the One, but needs at least two Beings. Moreover, creation is not the bringing into being that which did not previously exist, but only the arrangement and disposing of things. At bottom this was intended to be a statement of the Aristotelian doctrine of the eternity of matter, and shows striking resemblances with the speculations of the Muʿtazilites. Thus Abu Hudhayl (d. circ. 226) held that before the creation the world existed, but in a state of perfect quiescence; creation was the introduction of change and movement, and this theory, in one modification or another, recurs in all the speculations of the later Muʿtazilites. Very similar is the teaching of al-Farabi (d. 339), who was himself a member of the Ismaʿilian sect, and held that the world proceeded from God in an instant of the immeasurable eternity which preceded time, but remained at rest until at creation God introduced movement and so produced time and change.

Such was the teaching of the seven grades which formed the original constitution of the sect. Later on two higher grades were added which, for the sake of completeness, we may consider here although they were no part of the original scheme.

Eighth Grade. In this the disciple learned that there are two Principles, the original and primary Cause, without name or attribute, the pre-existent (as-sabiq) who seems to be very much the same as “the first God” of Plotinus, and a Second proceeding from this First Cause, due to a thought in the pre-existent, i.e., as an emanation, just as the spoken word proceeds from the thought in the mind of the speaker. Of the pre-existent nothing can be stated but what is negative. The “Second” seems to be very similar to the Reason or Active Intelligence as defined by the philosophers on the basis of Alexander of Aphrodisias’ explanation of the teaching in Aristotle’s de Anima; not, as in the Zoroastrian system, a rival power, but an emanation which is an intermediary between the unknowable God and man. The true prophet, the daʿi declared, is shown, not by working miracles which impress the vulgar, but by the establishment of political institutions which equip a stable and well disposed government, and by the teaching of spiritual doctrines which give an explanation of the phenomena of nature. Then, as Nuwairi and Maqrizi state, the Qurʾan, the resurrection, the end of the world, the last judgment, and such like doctrines of Islam are explained away as having allegorical meanings: according to the batinite doctrine, all these things signify only the revolutions of the planets and of the universe in regular rotation, or the production and destruction of things according to the arrangement and combination of elements, as explained in the teachings of the philosophers.

Ninth Grade. In this grade the disciple was taught the doctrines of the philosophers and what they have stated about the heavens, the stars, the soul, the intelligence, and other like things: in all he was made grades which were a later addition were more definitely based on the teachings of the Greek philosophers which had been popularised in the Muslim world. At the same time the disciple learned that Abraham, Moses, and the other prophets were only founders of legal and social systems; they had received their learning from Plato, and the other philosophers who consequently are more important than the prophets commonly revered. He was especially taught to abhor the Arabs because they had been responsible for slaying Husayn, for which crime they were deprived of all rights to the Khalifate and Imamate, which were transferred to the Persians.