The Zahir: Direct Address
In its zahir dimension, du’a is the most personal form of Islamic worship: a direct address to God without intermediary, in any language, at any time. The Prophet’s tradition is replete with specific supplications (the Ma’thurat, the morning and evening supplications, the du’a of distress). The Quran repeatedly commands the act: “Call upon your Lord in humility and privately” (7:55).
This dimension is fully valid and operative. The ta’wil does not replace the zahir of supplication.
The Batin: The Pathway Problem
The batin ta’wil begins with a theological observation: if God is absolutely transcendent (munazzah, beyond all description), how does a human soul “reach” Him through prayer? The kalam position is that God simply hears; the Ismaili position adds that divine response reaches the human world through the Imam’s mediation.
The Imam is the bab (gate) through which divine mercy and guidance flows into the created world. Du’a directed to God thus passes through the Imam’s mediation not as a condition of God’s knowledge (God knows all) but as a condition of the reception of the response: the guidance that answers du’a comes through the chain of the dawat.
Du’a in the Dawat Context
In Dawoodi Bohra practice, certain du’as are recited with the name of the Da’i al-Mutlaq explicitly invoked — not because the Da’i is divine but because the Da’i is the living link in the chain that connects the mumin to the Imam who is in seclusion (dawr al-satr). Calling upon the Da’i in du’a is an expression of this ta’wil: the soul turns toward the point of living mediation.
The Adab of Du’a
The adab (etiquette) of du’a — facing the qibla, raising the hands, beginning with praise and salawat, expressing gratitude before asking — corresponds in ta’wil to the sequence of the mumin’s orientation: first toward the absolute (tawbid), then through the chain (walayah), then making one’s specific need known.
See also: Understanding Walayah, Ismaili Al Mithaq, Ismaili Tartib Al Dawat, Ismaili Tawil Of Al Salat, Tawil Esoteric Interpretation