Ismaili Ta'wil of al-Hayat — Divine Life: How 2:255 (al-Hayy al-Qayyum — 'The Ever-Living, The Self-Subsisting') and 3:2 Are Read in Ismaili Ta'wil as the Life-Giving Quality That God Transmits Through the Imam to the Believing Community — Biological Life as the Zahir / Walayah-Connected Life as the Batin — and Why Spiritual Death (Disconnection From the Imam) Is a More Profound Death Than Physical Death

In Ismaili ta'wil, al-Hayat (الحَيَاة — Life, The Living Quality; from *h-y-w/h-y-y*: to live, to revive; hayat = life in all its dimensions; hayy = the living [adjective]; the two great Quranic name-pairs of God: *al-Hayy al-Qayyum* [The Ever-Living, The Self-Subsisting — 2:255, 3:2, 20:111] and *al-Muhyi al-Mumit* [The Life-Giver, The Death-Bringer — 7:158, 57:2]; the philosophical significance of al-Hayy: God's life is the paradigmatic life; all biological life is derivative — it exists because God, who is essentially and necessarily alive, gives life to creation; the Mu'tazili/Ash'ari debate over the divine attribute of hayat: the problem of whether God's life is identical to His essence [Ash'ari: the attribute of hayat is a real attribute distinct from but inseparable from God's essence] or whether 'God is alive' means simply 'God is not dead/inert' [Mu'tazili: no real attributes beyond essence]; this is one of the central disputes in Islamic theology; 2:255 al-Hayy al-Qayyum in the Throne Verse [Ayat al-Kursi]: the Throne Verse opens with 'Allahu la ilaha illa huwa al-hayyu al-qayyum' [God — there is no god but He — the Ever-Living, the Self-Subsisting]; this is the most prominent Quranic occurrence of al-hayy as a divine name; its position in the Throne Verse associates divine life with God's absolute sovereignty over creation; 3:185 'every soul will taste death': the Quran acknowledges that biological life is temporary; death is universal for creation; only God is essentially alive; other levels of life: the Quran mentions multiple levels of life beyond biological: [1] the life of the heart: 6:122 'Is the one who was dead [mayt] and We gave him life [ahyaynahu] and made for him a light by which to walk among people...': spiritual death and spiritual life; [2] the life of the martyr: 3:169 'Do not think of those who were killed in the path of God as dead; rather they are alive with their Lord, being provided for'; [3] the life of the Quran: 'the Quran gives life to the dead hearts'; Ismaili ta'wil of al-hayat: [1] the zahir/batin of life: biological life [the zahir] is the ability to breathe, move, perceive; walayah-life [the batin] is the ability to receive batin-nourishment from the Imam and grow in ta'wil-understanding; biological life without walayah-life is zahir-life without batin; [2] the Imam as the channel of divine hayat: God is al-Hayy; He transmits this hayat to creation through a hierarchy of beings; in Ismaili ta'wil, the Imam is the primary channel through which God's life-giving quality reaches the community; the mu'min who maintains bay'ah and walayah receives this transmitted hayat in the batin dimension of his existence; [3] spiritual death as disconnection: 6:122 'one who was dead and We gave him life': in Ismaili ta'wil, this is the prototype of the mu'min's situation; disconnection from the Imam's walayah = spiritual death; reconnection through bay'ah = spiritual life; the most profound death is not biological but the severance from the Imam's hayat-transmitting walayah; [4] the martyrs' batin-life [3:169]: the martyrs who are 'alive with their Lord' are in Ismaili ta'wil the example of walayah-life persisting beyond biological death; what survives biological death is the batin-connection to the Imam established through bay'ah; [5] the da'wa as the living body: the da'wa community is the living body that transmits divine hayat from Imam to mu'min; the Imam is the head [ra's] through which God's hayy-quality flows into the body of the community) is Ismaili ta'wil's account of the transmission of divine life.