Isma’ilism and the Qur’anic Sciences (2) Exegesis and Allegorical Interpretation, Similitude and Analogue

In this writing, the viewpoints of the Isma’ilian scholars on three disciplines of the Qur’anic sciences are examined.
The first discipline: similitude and analogue. Being inspired by the Platonic philosophy, the Esoterics regard the world of Creation as similitudes and analogues. In their opinion, the Revealed Books and the Qur’anic verses are, as a fact among the facts of the world of being, similitude to which there exist analogues. The abrogated and inconsistent verses are similitudes rather than analogues.
The second discipline: the exterior and the interior. In the Isma’ilian system of thought, similitudes are exterior and analogues are interior. The exterior and the interior are, as similitude and analogue, running in all creatures. Since their formation until the period of Fatimids and some of them up to the present, the Isma’ilians have been devoted to the exterior. The evidence of the theory of “the exterior and the interior” consists of a collection of rational proofs, verses, and traditions. Resolving inconsistency of the verses is the most important application of the above theory.
The third discipline: ta’wil, or allegorical interpretation. In this part of the article, a definition of ta’wil by the Esoterics and its difference with the views of the interpreters is given and then the reasons for ta’wil and the approach of the Esoterics to ta’wil are dealt with.