التَّأوِيلُ الإِسمَاعِيلِيُّ لِلإِحسَان — الإِتقَانُ وَالحُضُور: كَيفَ تُقرَأُ فِكرَةُ الإِحسَانِ القُرآنِيَّةُ [الإِتقَانُ وَفِعلُ مَا هُوَ جَمِيل — 16:90 'إِنَّ اللهَ يَأمُرُ بِالعَدلِ وَالإِحسَانِ وَإِيتَاءِ ذِي القُربَى وَيَنهَى عَنِ الفَحشَاءِ وَالمُنكَرِ وَالبَغي'] وَحَدِيثِ جِبرِيلَ ['الإِحسَانُ أَن تَعبُدَ اللهَ كَأَنَّكَ تَرَاهُ؛ فَإِن لَم تَكُن تَرَاهُ فَإِنَّهُ يَرَاك'] فِي التَّأوِيلِ الإِسمَاعِيلِيِّ
In Ismaili ta'wil, al-Ihsan (الإِحسَان — Excellence, Doing What Is Beautiful; from *h-s-n*: to be good, to be beautiful, to do well; ihsan = the state of doing what is excellent, beautiful, and beyond the minimum required; the three-level structure of Islam: [1] 'Islam' in the hadith of Jibrael = the five pillars [shahada, salat, zakat, sawm, hajj]; [2] 'Iman' = belief in God, the angels, the books, the messengers, the last day, and divine decree; [3] 'Ihsan' = 'that you worship God as if you see Him; if you do not see Him, know that He sees You'; the hadith of Jibrael [Sahih Muslim]: the stranger who appears at the Prophet's circle and asks three questions — what is Islam, what is iman, what is ihsan — and then departs; the Prophet reveals he was Jibrael teaching the people about their religion; the three-level structure has become the foundational taxonomy of Islamic practice: zahiri practice [Islam], internal belief [iman], and presence-worship [ihsan]; ihsan in 16:90: 'inna Allah ya'muru bil-'adl wal-ihsan wa-ita' dhi al-qurba' [God commands justice, ihsan, and giving to relatives] — ihsan here means doing more than the minimum, doing what is beautiful rather than merely obligatory; Quranic occurrences: muhsin [one who does ihsan] is among the most praised qualities in the Quran; 3:134 'God loves the muhsinun'; the muhsin does what is good even when not required; the Sufi reception: ihsan became the primary goal of Sufi practice — the state of constant divine presence [hudur]; the Sufi who has achieved ihsan acts in every moment as if seeing God; various methods [dhikr, muraqaba, khalwa] were developed to cultivate ihsan; Ismaili ta'wil of al-ihsan: [1] the three levels as zahir/batin structure: Islam [five pillars] = zahir practice; iman [beliefs] = the movement toward batin; ihsan [worshipping as if seeing God] = the batin-presence of walayah; the mu'min who has received ta'wil and acts from walayah-awareness is the Ismaili muhsin; [2] 'worshipping as if you see God' in ta'wil: the hadith's condition 'as if you see Him' is in Ismaili ta'wil the state of the mu'min who acts with awareness of the Imam's walayah — not God directly [which no created being can access] but the Imam as the earthly manifestation of divine presence; the Imam always 'sees' the mu'min through the da'wa hierarchy; [3] 'if you do not see Him, know He sees you': in ta'wil, this is the condition of the mu'min who has not yet reached direct walayah-awareness but knows that the Imam's presence encompasses them; it is the practice that builds toward the higher state; [4] ihsan as the goal of ta'wil: ta'wil is not merely an intellectual exercise — its purpose is to produce the state of ihsan, in which every action is performed with batin-awareness; the mu'min who receives ta'wil and acts from it is the muhsin; [5] 16:90's ihsan in ta'wil: 'doing ihsan' in ta'wil = acting in accordance with the ta'wil one has received; the mu'min who behaves zahirly correctly [justice, 'adl] AND bathni correctly [ihsan] AND supports the da'wa community ['ita' dhi al-qurba = supporting those with whom one has walayah-relation] fulfills 16:90 completely; [6] ihsan and khushu': the ihsan-state in worship is what produces genuine khushu' [reverence]; zahiri salat without ihsan is mechanical; the mu'min with batin-awareness prays with ihsan because they act with the awareness of the Imam's encompassing walayah) is the state-goal of Ismaili ta'wil practice.
The Third Level
The hadith of Jibrael structures Islamic practice into three ascending levels: Islam (the five pillars), Iman (the beliefs), and Ihsan (worship in divine presence). Each level contains and transcends the previous one; you cannot have genuine ihsan without iman, or genuine iman without Islam. The three form a hierarchy of interiority — from external practice to internal belief to full presence.
In Ismaili ta’wil, this three-level structure maps directly onto the zahir/batin architecture. Islam (the five pillars) is the zahir — universally accessible, externally observable, the shell of the faith. Iman is the movement from zahir toward batin, the internal orientation that takes the zahiri practice seriously as pointing to something beyond itself. Ihsan is the batin — the state of full presence, acting with walayah-awareness, experiencing in each action the encompassing reality of the Imam’s batin.
Seeing and Being Seen
The hadith defines ihsan with a double structure: “worship as if you see Him; if you do not see Him, know that He sees you.” The first is the higher state; the second is the practice that leads there. In Ismaili ta’wil, “seeing God” in worship is mediated through the Imam — the created being cannot encounter the divine directly, but can encounter the Imam’s walayah as the earthly manifestation of divine presence.
The second condition — “know that He sees you” — describes the state of the mu’min who has received ta’wil but has not yet internalized it fully. They know, intellectually and through bay’ah, that the Imam’s walayah encompasses them. They act accordingly, even when the felt experience of that encompassing is not yet constant. This knowledge-based practice gradually transforms into the direct ihsan-state.
Ihsan as the Goal of Ta’wil
Ta’wil is not primarily an intellectual exercise — it is a transformative one. The purpose of receiving ta’wil is not to know more interesting things about the Quran’s batin meanings but to achieve the state of ihsan: acting in every moment from batin-awareness, with the Imam’s walayah encompassing every act. The muhsin does more than the minimum because they are not calculating minimums — they are acting from a fullness of walayah-awareness that produces excellence spontaneously.
See also: Bayah And Walayah, Ismaili Tawil Of Al Mumin, Tawil Esoteric Interpretation, Ismaili Tawil Of Al Tawfiq, Ismaili Tawil Of Al Khushu