Ismaili Ta'wil of al-Nizam — The Divine Order: How 67:3-4 ('Who Created Seven Heavens in Tiers — You Do Not See in the Creation of the All-Merciful Any Discordance [Tafawut] — Look Again: Do You See Any Cracks [Futtur]?') Are Read in Ismaili Ta'wil as the Cosmological Argument for the Da'wa Hierarchy — the Ordered Structure of the Universe as Evidence That All Reality Has a Hierarchical Nizam, Including the Spiritual Hierarchy of Imam-Hujja-Da'i-Mu'min

In Ismaili ta'wil, al-Nizam (النِّظَام — The Order, The System, The Arranged Structure; from *n-z-m*: to arrange in order, to string together [as beads on a string]; nazzama/yunazzim = to arrange, to organize, to put in order; nizam = the ordered structure, the system, the hierarchy; the Quran's cosmological order: the Quran repeatedly invokes the ordered structure of creation as evidence of divine wisdom: [1] 67:3-4 'alladi khalaqa sab'a samawatin tibaqan ma tara fi khalqi al-rahman min tafawutin farji' al-basara hal tara min futur' [who created seven heavens in tiers; you do not see in the creation of the All-Merciful any discordance; look again: do you see any cracks?]; the key words: *tibaq* [stacked, layered — the heavens in ordered levels]; *tafawut* [discordance, disorder, mismatch]; *futur* [cracks, breaks in the fabric]; the verse argues: look at creation — it is perfectly ordered, with no discordance and no cracks; [2] 55:7-8 'He raised the heaven and set the balance [mizan]; so do not transgress the balance' [the cosmos has a mizan — a balance or measure — that humans must respect]; [3] 36:40 'it is not for the sun to overtake the moon, nor for the night to outrun the day; each is swimming in an orbit'; the cosmological argument for hierarchy: in classical Ismaili philosophy [al-Kirmani, Nasir Khusraw], the ordered structure of the cosmos is the primary evidence for the ordered structure of the da'wa; if the Creator ordered the cosmos in levels [seven heavens, arranged in tiers, with no discordance], then the Creator's guidance for humanity must also be ordered in levels; the da'wa hierarchy is not an arbitrary human institution but a reflection of cosmic nizam in the human world; Ismaili ta'wil of al-nizam: [1] 67:3 as the cosmological argument for da'wa structure: the seven heavens in tiers = the seven levels of the da'wa hierarchy [in the most developed Fatimid formulations]: Imam, Bab, Hujja, Da'i al-Balagh, Da'i, Ma'dhun, Mustajib [the initiate]; just as there is no tafawut [discordance] in the cosmic hierarchy, there should be no discordance in the acceptance of the da'wa hierarchy; [2] the mizan [balance] as the measure of walayah: 55:7-8 establishes the mizan as the cosmic structure of balance; in Ismaili ta'wil, the mizan is the walayah-structure: the Imam's walayah-measure is the standard against which the mu'min's batin-development is assessed; [3] the futur [cracks] as batin-disconnection: 67:4 asks 'do you see any cracks [futur]?'; the cosmic answer is no — creation has no cracks; in Ismaili ta'wil, the mu'min's walayah should similarly have no futur: no cracks or breaks in the bay'ah-connection to the Imam; [4] individual vs hierarchical guidance: the Ismaili argument against both Sufi individualism and pure legalism uses al-nizam: guidance through a hierarchy [da'wa nizam] reflects the cosmic nizam; individual guidance without the da'wa nizam is trying to bypass the cosmological structure that God built into both creation and guidance; [5] Nizar Khusraw's argument in Zad al-Musafirin: Nasir Khusraw systematically argues that the universe's ordered structure [nizam] is evidence that the da'wa must also have a nizam; the Imam at the apex of the da'wa nizam is the earthly reflection of the First Intellect at the apex of the cosmological nizam) is the cosmological foundation of Ismaili da'wa theology.