Ismaili Ta'wil of al-Hukm — Divine Authority and Judgment: How the Quranic Principle 'Authority Belongs to God Alone' (La Hukma Illa Lillah — 12:40) Is Given a Ta'wil Reading in Which the Imam Is the Earthly Vicegerent of God's Hukm, the Only Legitimate Channel Through Which Divine Authority Is Exercised in the World

In Ismaili ta'wil, al-Hukm (الحُكم — Authority, judgment, rule; from *h-k-m*: to judge, to govern, to exercise authority; also hakima [wisdom] — the same root; the Quranic verse: 12:40 'Authority [al-hukm] belongs to God alone — He commands that you worship none but Him. This is the right religion, but most people do not know'; 6:57 'Authority is only with God. He tells the truth, and He is the best of distinguishers'; 6:62 'Then they are returned to God, their rightful Master. Unquestionably, His is the judgment, and He is the swiftest of accountants'; the classical reading of la hukma illa lillah: the verse asserts divine sovereignty; God alone has ultimate authority; human government is legitimate only insofar as it implements divine law; the Kharijite use: the Kharijites in early Islamic history used la hukma illa lillah as a political slogan against human arbitration [in the first civil war]; they believed that submitting to human arbitration was shirk — associating human authority with God's; 'Ali ibn Abi Talib's response: 'This is a true principle used to draw a false conclusion' — divine authority is real but requires human implementation; the Mu'tazili reading: rational governance can participate in divine authority if it implements justice; the Sufi reading: hukm in ta'wil = the divine ordering of all things; the mystic submits to God's hukm in all circumstances [taslim]; Ismaili ta'wil of la hukma illa lillah: [1] the zahir: divine sovereignty is absolute — God's authority is not shared; [2] the ta'wil: 'authority belongs to God alone' does not mean no human exercises authority; it means that the only legitimate human authority is the Imam, who is God's khalifa; the Imam's hukm is God's hukm exercised through the Imam's knowledge of ta'wil; human political authority outside the Imam's sanction has no legitimate claim to the divine hukm; [3] the Imam as hakim: hakim [judge/wise one] and hukm derive from the same root; the Imam embodies divine wisdom [hikma] in his judgments and divine authority [hukm] in his governance; [4] 12:40 in da'wa context: this verse was Joseph's speech to his prison companions — in ta'wil, Joseph is a figure of the Imam; his speech to those in 'prison' [i.e., those imprisoned in the zahir without ta'wil] is the da'i's invitation to bay'ah; [5] hukm and ta'wil authority: the Imam's authority to deliver ta'wil is itself an exercise of divine hukm; no unauthorized person can 'judge' what the Quran's batin means — that authority belongs exclusively to the Imam; those who claim ta'wil access outside the Imam's da'wa usurp the divine hukm) is the Ismaili theology of authority as Imamic monopoly.