Aga Khan followers confused!!

[Guest]

The court records from the Haji Bibi Case indicate that the witnesses appearing before Judge Russell were “Khojahs” but they did not know the distinction between the sect of “Ismailis” and “Ithna'ashries.” <br> For those who are unfamiliar with the fundamental differences that separate these two sub-sects of Shi`ah Muslims, here is a brief explanation. Agakhani Shi'a Ismailis believe in an ever-living Hazar (present) Imam. Karim Aga Khan is the their Hazar Imam. Shi'a Ithna'ashries believe in a Ghayab (hidden) Imam. Their last (twelfth) Imam disappeared in a grotto and is expected to return during the final period of this earth. These two concepts are basically opposite. For any Shi`ah Muslim, Imam is the base of his religion, hence he must know with certainty the past and present status of his Imam. Below are four extracts from the Bombay Law Reporter (1908, Volume 11, pp.438, 440-42, 454): <p> 1. The first witness of the plaintiff goes as far as to say that he considers His Highness the Aga Khan and his family as his Murshed, i.e., spiritual leader....He concludes by saying that he is a Khojah, but he is neither Ismaili nor an Asnashari. He does not know the distinction between the two. <br>2. [Witness] Fazulbhoy Joomabhoy Lalji in the commencement of his evidence says there is no difference between the faith of a Khoja Ismaili and an Asnashari and he said to me that the Asnasharis believed in 12 Imams. Khoja Ismailis believe the same and never believed anything else. And again he says at page 345 that he really believes the first Aga Khan was an Asnashari. <p>3. Witness No. 3, Nathu Virji, is neither Shia Ismaili nor Shia Asnashari. He cannot say what sort of a Shia Khoja he is. He does not understand what is meant by Shia Ismailis nor Shia Asnasharis. But he believes only in the 12 Imams.<p>4. [Witness] Mahomed Nanji, commission agent and doing business on his own account....But although he says that he follows at present the Khoja Shia Ismaili faith, he cannot explain what Shia Ismaili means, and to the question “If those who follow the Shia Ismaili faith believe in Hazrat Ali, and those who have succeeded him on the gadi down to the present Aga Khan as their Imams, do you still consider yourself as a Khojah following the Shia Ismaili faith,” he answered “No;” from which it would appear as if his views on the subject of his own religion were somewhat obscure to say the least.<br>If the converted Khojahs were truly Ismailis believing in the Imamate of the ancestors of the Aga Khan from day one of their conversion by Pir Sadr-din, then such confusion would not have lasted for seven centuries. Secondly, if Aga Khan I, who arrived in 1840, had converted the Khojahs as Nizari Imami Ismailis upon his arrival, then these confusions would not have lasted for seven decades, by the time the witnesses appeared before the judge. The only logical answer would be that the indoctrination of the theory of “Hazar Imam” must be a very recent one, for the converted Khojah Ithna'ashries, the then followers of the Aga Khan I and II.