التَّأوِيلُ الإِسمَاعِيلِيُّ لِلخَلق — الخَلقُ فِي التَّأوِيل: كَيفَ تُقرَأُ [الَّذِي أَحسَنَ كُلَّ شَيءٍ خَلَقَه] فِي 32:7 فِي التَّأوِيلِ الإِسمَاعِيلِيِّ
In Ismaili ta'wil, al-Khalq (الخَلق — Creation; khalq: from *kh-l-q*: to create, to measure out, to shape; al-khaliq = the Creator; al-makhluq = the created; khalq = both the act of creation and the created order [the creation]; the Quran's account of creation: [1] 32:7: 'alladhi ahsana kulla shay'in khalaqahu wa-bada'a khalqa al-insani min tin' [Who perfected everything He created and began the creation of man from clay]; [2] 36:82: 'innama amruhu idha arada shay'an an yaqula lahu kun fa-yakunu' [His command, when He wills a thing, is only that He says to it 'Be!' and it is]; [3] 2:117: 'badi'u al-samawati wa-l-ard — wa-idha qada amran fa-innama yaqulu lahu kun fa-yakunu' [Originator of the heavens and earth — when He decrees a matter, He only says to it 'Be!' and it is]; [4] 7:54: 'inna rabbakumu Allahu alladhi khalaqa al-samawati wa-l-arda fi sittati ayyam' [Indeed your Lord is God who created the heavens and earth in six days]; [5] 23:12-14: the stages of human creation — from clay, to drop [nutfa], to clot ['alaqa], to morsel of flesh [mudgha], to bones, to clothing of bones with flesh — then: 'fa-tabaraka Allahu ahsanu al-khaliqin' [Blessed is God, the best of creators]; [6] 55:1-3: 'al-Rahman — 'allama al-quran — khalaqa al-insan' [The Merciful — taught the Quran — created mankind]; the Quranic 'kun fa-yakun': the divine command 'Be! and it is' [kun fa-yakun] appears in: 2:117, 3:47, 3:59, 6:73, 16:40, 19:35, 36:82, 40:68; it represents the absoluteness of divine creative will — no gap between command and fulfillment; classical theology on creation: [a] creation ex nihilo [khalq min al-'adam]: the standard Islamic theological position; God creates from nothing; [b] no eternal matter: matter is created, not coeternal with God; [c] continuous creation [khalq mustamirr]: some theologians read divine creation as ongoing, not a one-time event; [d] the controversy over God's creative attribute [al-Khaliq]: is 'Creator' a eternal divine attribute or an attribute that actualized when creation began? Ash'ari and Maturidi positions differ; Ismaili ta'wil of al-Khalq: [1] the emanationist cosmology as ta'wil of creation: in Ismaili cosmology, creation is not a single originating act but an ongoing emanation [sudur] from the divine principle through the First Intellect [al-'Aql al-Awwal] and Universal Soul [al-Nafs al-Kulliyya] into the material world; 'kun fa-yakun' = the pattern of divine command transmitted through the emanation chain; the First Intellect 'comes to be' by the divine word; from the First Intellect, the Universal Soul; from the Universal Soul, the world; [2] 32:7 'who perfected everything He created': perfection [ihsan] in creation = the batin-meaning embedded in every created thing; God did not create meaninglessly — every created thing has a batin-meaning that ta'wil can unfold; the mu'min who receives ta'wil receives the 'perfection' that God embedded in the creation; [3] the Imam as God's khalifah [vicegerent] in ongoing creation: the Imam is God's deputy [khalifah] who continues the pattern of divine creation in the spiritual realm; just as God creates physical existence by the word 'Be!', the Imam's ta'wil creates batin-existence in the mu'min's soul; bay'ah is the mu'min's transition from non-being [of non-walayah] to being [of batin-hayat]; [4] 23:14 'the best of creators': the plural 'creators' [khaliqin] is deliberate — God is the best among those who create; the awliya' and the Imam are also 'creators' in the spiritual sense of bringing souls from batin-death to batin-life through ta'wil-transmission; [5] the six days of creation as six prophetic cycles: 7:54's 'six days' = the six cycles of prophets [Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Muhammad]; on the seventh day [the dawr of the Qa'im], God 'rested' = the full manifestation of the batin; human creation in stages [23:12-14] = the stages of the mu'min's spiritual development through the da'wa hierarchy) is Ismaili cosmology's most philosophically charged claim.
Creation as Cosmological Pattern
The Quran’s kun fa-yakun (“Be! and it is”) is among its most theologically charged phrases, appearing eight times in the text. It asserts the absolute directness of divine creative will: no material, no process, no intermediary — just the word and its immediate fulfillment. God does not make things by working on pre-existing material; He commands, and the commanded thing comes into being.
Ismaili ta’wil reads this not just as cosmological history (how the universe was made) but as an ongoing pattern that the Imam’s ta’wil repeats in the spiritual realm. Just as God creates physical existence by the word “Be!”, the Imam’s ta’wil creates batin-existence in the mu’min’s soul. Bay’ah is the mu’min’s transition from non-being (of non-walayah) to being (of batin-hayat). The word that brings this being into existence is the Imam’s ta’wil — transmitted through authorized bay’ah.
The Emanationist Reading
Ismaili cosmology does not read creation as a one-time originating act but as an ongoing emanation: from the divine principle through the First Intellect, through the Universal Soul, into the material world. This cosmological framework is the ta’wil of 36:82’s “kun fa-yakun”: the divine command is the First Intellect coming into being; the Intellect’s completion is the Universal Soul’s emergence; the Soul’s activity is the world’s continuous existence. Creation is not past — it is happening at every moment through the emanation chain.
The Perfection Embedded in Things
32:7 — “Who perfected everything He created” — means that God did not create arbitrarily or without inner meaning. Every created thing has a batin-meaning that ta’wil can unfold. The mu’min who receives ta’wil receives the “perfection” (ihsan) that God embedded in creation at its source. The world is not opaque; it is a text whose batin is readable by those who have received the Imam’s interpretive key.
See also: Ismaili Cosmology Hudud Al Din, Tawil Esoteric Interpretation, Bayah And Walayah, Ismaili Tawil Of Al Aql Wal Naql, Ismaili Tawil Of Al Nafakh