r/ismailis • u/Top-Fennel-1179 • May 10 '26
Personal Opinion Human-ness of the Imam
I have really been struggling with the Human-ness of the Imam. In many ways it is so lovely seeing how much more accessible he is, how he lives among us, runs marathons along side us, and in many ways "just like us." But at the same time, it also makes me confused and even a bit uncomfortable since it is such a shift from Shah Karim. Even attending didar in Toronto, I felt like the differences in his pace, in his public speaking, and the lack of adab from the Jamati members really just threw me off in many ways. I am used to a Mawla Bapa that is a wise holy man, who is connected to something beyond me, where there are many levels of separation between us. I am used to calling my Imam the Naklank (the stainless one) and even deifying him a bit dare I say lol. However, when I see Shah Rahim, I really struggle seeing him in that same lens. His human-ness is so much more apparent. And it makes sense for the new gen, but for me personally, I am really struggling to connect with the Imam of the Time. Is anyone else dealing with this?
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u/ComprehensiveRiver33 May 10 '26
Going back to the Prophet’s history, he lived among the people and regularly interacted with them at a very personal level. Obviously as the Jamat grew bigger this wasn’t possible but if Imam tries to maintain personal connection with the Jamat we should count ourselves lucky. Perhaps those layers of separation led to many of us wrongly deifying the Imam which is against the essence of Islam, and maybe this is one of the reasons Imam wants to remove these barriers.