Ismaili Ta'wil of al-Bayt al-Ma'mur — The Frequently Visited House: How the Quranic 52:4 ('By the Frequently Visited House [al-Bayt al-Ma'mur]') and Its Identification in Hadith as the Celestial Ka'ba Above the Seventh Heaven (Visited by 70,000 Angels Daily Who Never Return) Are Read in Ismaili Ta'wil as the Da'wa Community — the Living Human Assembly of Walayah That Is the Real 'Frequently Visited House' — and Why the Celestial Counterpart of the Physical Ka'ba Points to the Batin-Counterpart of the Zahir-Ka'ba

In Ismaili ta'wil, al-Bayt al-Ma'mur (البَيتُ المَعمُور — The Frequently Visited House; *ma'mur*: from *'-m-r*: to inhabit, to frequent, to build up; ma'mur = inhabited, frequented, well-attended; the bayt al-ma'mur is thus the 'well-inhabited/frequently visited house'; Quranic occurrence: 52:4 'wa-l-bayti al-ma'mur' — one of the five oaths in Surah al-Tur [52:1-6]: 'by the Mountain, by the Book written on fine parchment, by the Frequented House, by the elevated roof [al-saqf al-marfu'], by the swelling sea'; the Hadith identification: the Prophet's Night Journey and Ascension [Mi'raj] accounts include a stop at the Bayt al-Ma'mur in the seventh heaven; the Prophet saw Ibrahim leaning against it; 70,000 angels visit it each day, pray, and depart — and never return [a new group comes each day; since there are infinite angels, no group ever returns]; this establishes the Bayt al-Ma'mur as the celestial counterpart of the Ka'ba below; the zahir-batin structure of the Ka'ba: the Ka'ba in Mecca is the zahiri sacred house; the Bayt al-Ma'mur is its heavenly/celestial counterpart; the zahir-batin structure of place-sanctity is thus established by the Quran itself: there is an outer sacred house [Ka'ba] and an inner/higher sacred house [Bayt al-Ma'mur]; Ismaili ta'wil of al-Bayt al-Ma'mur: [1] the da'wa community as the Bayt al-Ma'mur: in Ismaili ta'wil, the 'frequently visited house' is the da'wa — the living community of walayah that is constantly renewed by those who enter through bay'ah; just as the celestial house is visited by 70,000 angels who perform their devotion and depart, the da'wa community is visited by souls who receive ta'wil and walayah and carry it outward; [2] the Imam as the Bayt al-Ma'mur: in some Ismaili formulations, the Bayt al-Ma'mur is the Imam himself — the living human dwelling-place of divine batin-knowledge; the Imam is the house in which the divine batin resides; to visit the Imam [physically or through bay'ah] is to visit the Bayt al-Ma'mur; [3] the Ka'ba and the Imam: the zahir Ka'ba [Mecca] = the shari'a; the Bayt al-Ma'mur [celestial Ka'ba] = the ta'wil; the mu'min who performs only zahir-tawaf [the walking around the Ka'ba] without batin-ta'wil has visited the Ka'ba but not the Bayt al-Ma'mur; [4] 'ma'mur' as living community: the word ma'mur implies both 'frequently visited' and 'well-populated, flourishing'; the da'wa community is ma'mur when it is alive with ta'wil-seeking mu'minun; a da'wa in which the mu'minun are disengaged from ta'wil is a kharab [ruined] house, not a ma'mur one; [5] the 70,000 angels who never return: the infinite renewal of the angelic visitors is read in Ismaili ta'wil as the infinite capacity of the Imam's batin to receive seekers; each soul that enters walayah receives what they need and carries it out; a new seeker arrives; the capacity is never exhausted because the Imam's batin is the overflow of divine reality) is the Ismaili ta'wil of the sacred house's celestial dimension.