Ismaili.NET - Heritage F.I.E.L.D.

The word ism (pl. asma) is derived from wasim meaning dyeing or spotting. Another view suggests that its root is samu meaning elevation or prominence. The Koran says, “And He gave Adam the knowledge of asma” (2:31). In the New Testament, the Opening sentence of St. John reads: “In the beginning was the “word” and the “word” was with God, and the “word” was God.” Paul Brunton writes that, “The “word” represents the very first motion of the Creative Power. The term, “God” does not here stand for the Absolute, the Great Void, which is the Ultimate of all things, but for the individualized Creator of a Universe.” Seyyed Hossein Nasr writes in Ideals and Realities of Islam (London, 1966, p. 142) that, “The Divine Word therefore performs two functions: it creates and it transmits the Truth. The world was created by the word and all revelation comes from the word or Logos. It is also through the word and the power of speech that man returns to God.”

Ali bin Muhammad relates that Imam Jafar Sadik said, “Verily, God, the Hallowed, the Exalted created a name not sounded by letter, nor expressed by word, nor manifested by body, nor indicated by similitude, nor emblazoned by colours” (al-Kafi, 1:280). Ali bin Ibrahim narrates Imam Jafar Sadik as saying, “Whoever has worshiped the meaning apart from the name, he, in reality, has worshipped the One God” (al-Kafi, 1:287).

The Great Name (ism-i azam) is a divine word – a vehicle of communication between God and man. It is a Supreme Name, the Unique Name (al-ism al-mufrad), the Name of Majesty (ism al-jalala).

Thus, ism-i azam means to give high prominence to a particular aspect of Divine Being. With its symbolic two syllables and four letters, this Name concentrates all the redemptive efficacy of the Divine Word. “God is present in His Name” say the Sufis. To the degree that, through the conjunction of this Presence and a serious concentration on the part of the invoker, he finds himself effaced, absorbed in the One invoked; the zikr becomes God’s zikr alone, in which the invocation, the invoked and the invoker are one with the One without second. Given its incomparable grandeur, the invocation of the Supreme Name can only be practical under certain conditions, with the authorization of the Imam. It may be mentioned that the very utterance of God’s Name has a tremendous purifying and elevating effect.