Batin (Islam)

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Bāṭin or baten (Arabic: باطن) literally means "inner", "inward", "hidden", etc. The Quran, for instance, has a hidden meaning in contrast to its exterior or apparent meaning, the zahir (zaher). Sufis believe that every individual has a batin in the world of souls. It is the inward self of the individual; when cleansed with the light of one's spiritual guide, it elevates a person spiritually.^[1][2] This notion is connected to Allah's attribute of the Hidden One, who cannot be seen but exists in every realm.

Many Ismaili Muslim thinkers have stressed the importance of the balance between the exoteric (zahir) and the esoteric (batin) in the understanding of faith, and have explained that spiritual interpretation (ta’wil) entails elucidating the esoteric meaning (bātin) from the exoteric form (zahir).^[3]

Hence, early Muslim heresiographers identified Ismailis as Batiniyya, or Esotericists, due to their focus on the inner meaning.^[4] As mentioned above, comprehension of the faith is achieved through searching and finding this inner meaning, therefore great emphasis is placed on the batin by Ismaili Pirs in their composition of ginans. According to Ismaili tradition, ginans are ‘supreme knowledge.’^[5] Pirs convey an inner meaning within their ginans to spread knowledge of the faith to their believers. This exemplifies the significance of the balance between the exoteric (the literal meaning of the ginan), and the esoteric (hidden meaning of the ginan). The esoteric meaning is searched for to uncover this ‘supreme knowledge.’

In the Ismaili Muslim tradition, it is believed that the esoteric aspect of the faith can only be fully understood by the ahl al bayt – the family of Muhammad, who are in possession of this knowledge, or gnostic wisdom.^[6] It is conveyed only by the Imam of the time descended from Muhammad or his supreme representatives – the Pirs, hujjats, and those whom the Imams appoint

In a wider sense, batin is the inner meaning or reality behind all existence, the zahir being the world of form and the apparent meaning.^[7]

A grounding feature of Ismailism is the co-existence of the physical and the spiritual, the zahir (exoteric) form and the batin (esoteric) essence. The esoteric is the source of the exoteric, and the exoteric is the manifestation of the esoteric. This concept is highlighted in the “Epistle of the Right Path”, a Persian Ismaili prose text from the post-Mongol period of Ismaili history, by an anonymous author.^[8]