Antinomianism in the context of "Ismaili"

Ismailism, known historically and among practitioners as Esotericism, is a branch of Shia Islam. Like all Shia, the Ismailis emphasize a distinction between the exoteric (zahir) and esoteric (batin) dimension of Islam, and hold that the esoteric meaning was preserved from corruption by a line of descendants of Muhammad (imams). However, unlike other Shia, the Ismaili are characterized by a unique emphasis on the esoteric that approaches antinomianism.

The Isma'ili (/ˌɪzmɑːˈɪliː/) get their name from their acceptance of Imam Isma'il ibn Jafar as the appointed spiritual successor (imām) to Ja'far al-Sadiq, wherein they differ from the Twelver Shia, who accept Musa al-Kazim, the younger brother of Isma'il, as the true Imām.

The Privy Council of Scotland (c. 1490 — 1 May 1708) was a body that advised the Scottish monarch. During its existence, the Privy Council of Scotland was essentially considered as the government of the Kingdom of Scotland, and was seen as the most important element of central government.

In the range of its functions the council was often more important than the Estates in the running the country. Its registers include a wide range of material on the political, administrative, economic and social affairs of the Kingdom of Scotland. The council supervised the administration of the law, regulated trade and shipping, took emergency measures against the plague, granted licences to travel, administered oaths of allegiance, banished beggars and gypsies, dealt with witches, recusants, Covenanters and Jacobites and tackled the problem of lawlessness in the Highlands and the Borders.

A dervish, darvesh, or darwīsh (from Persian: درویش, romanized: Darvīsh) is a Muslim who seeks salvation through ascetic practices and meditations. It can refer to an individual or to a member of a Sufi order (tariqah). Their focus is on the universal values of love and service, deserting the illusions of ego (nafs) to reach God. This is usually done by performing a lifestyle which decreases bodily function to a minimum in order to attain what would be called "esoteric knowledge" in Western terminology. In most Sufi orders, a dervish is known to practice dhikr through physical exertions or religious practices to attain the ecstatic trance to reach God. Their most popular practice is Sama, which is associated with the 13th-century mystic Rumi.

For centuries, this was an individual practice, but in the 12th century, it began to be mostly practiced in fraternities. The oldest historical fraternity is the Qadiriyya order, founded by Abdul Qadir Gilani. According to Islamic beliefs, each order derives their history from the Prophet Muhammad and are authorized by God (Allah) and taught by the angel Gabriel. The theology of such fraternities is always based on Sufism and can vary from quietism to anti-nomianism. Those adhering to law are called ba-shar and those who do not follow law are called bi-shar. In folklore, dervishes are often credited with the ability to perform miracles and ascribed supernatural powers.

Wahdat al-wujūd (Arabic: وحدة الوجود "unity of existence, oneness of being") is a doctrine in the field of Islamic philosophy and mysticism, according to which the monotheistic God is identical with existence (wujūd) and this one existence is that through which all existing things (mawjūdāt) exist. This doctrine, which in recent research is characterized as ontological monism, is attributed to the Andalusian Sufi Ibn Arabi (d. 1240) but was essentially developed by the philosophically oriented interpreters of his works. In the Early Modern Period, it gained great popularity among Sufis. Some Muslim scholars such as Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1329), ʿAbd al-Qādir Badā'ūnī (d. 1597/98) and Ahmad Sirhindi (d. 1624), however, regarded wahdat al-wujūd as a pantheistic heresy in contradiction to Islam and criticized it for leading its followers to antinomianist views. In reality, however, many advocates of wahdat al-wujūd emphasized that this teaching did not provide any justification for transgressing Sharia. The Egyptian scholar Murtada al-Zabidi (d. 1790) described wahdat al-wujūd as a "famous problem" (masʾala mashhūra) that arose between the "people of mystical truth" (ahl al-ḥaqīqa) and the "scholars of the literal sense" (ʿulamāʾ aẓ-ẓāhir). The Ni'matullahi master Javad Nurbakhsh (d. 2008) was of the opinion that Sufism as a whole was essentially a school of the "unity of being".

Another name for this doctrine is Tawhid wujūdī ("existential monism, doctrine of existential unity"). The adherents of Wahdat al-Wujūd were also known as Wujūdis (Wujūdīya) or "people of unity" (ahl al-waḥda).