The Two Deaths
Ismaili ta’wil distinguishes two senses of death:
al-Mawt al-Zahir (Physical Death): The biological end of life. This is real, affirmed by Ismaili doctrine, and produces its own religious obligations (ghusl, kafan, salat al-janaza, burial). It is not minimized or dismissed. The zahir of death is taken seriously.
al-Mawt al-Batin (Spiritual Death): The condition of the soul separated from the Imam’s guidance — cut off from ta’lim, alienated from walayah. In Ismaili reading, this is the more profound death because it has no natural end-point. A person can be biologically alive and spiritually dead for an entire lifetime.
The Quranic Evidence
Quran 6:122: “Is he who was dead and We gave him life and made for him a light by which to walk among the people, like one who is in darkness from which he cannot emerge?”
In Ismaili ta’wil, this verse describes:
- Dead → the person before receiving ta’lim from the Imam
- We gave him life → initiation into the batin through the da’wa
- Light by which to walk → walayah, the covenant with the Imam that orients every step
- Darkness → the condition of the one outside the da’wa
This is not metaphor only — it is the literal spiritual reality.
”Die Before You Die”
The hadith mutu qabla an tamutu (“Die before you die and you will find that you have already died”) — widely circulated in Sufi and esoteric literature, though its attribution to the Prophet is debated — describes the practice of voluntarily ending the ego’s dominance before physical death forces it. In Ismaili reading: the death of the nafs al-ammara (the commanding self that demands its own satisfaction) is the prerequisite for the soul’s full reception of the Imam’s light.
See also: Ismaili Tawil Of Al Barzakh, Ismaili Tawil Of Al Haqiqa, Ismaili Tawil Of Jannah, Ismaili Tawil Of Jahannam, Tawil Esoteric Interpretation