Across families
Nizari Ismailism and Rastafari
Different families with 10 axes in close agreement — the sort of pairing a quiz weighting only the divine axes would never surface. Mean distance across all seventeen axes: 0.17 (0 would be identical).
Reads scripture allegorically through ta’wil, guided by a living hereditary Imam whose interpretation is authoritative for the present. The combination of esoteric reason and highly centralised living authority is close to unique in this matrix.
God — Jah — present within the person rather than above them, reached through reasoning together rather than through clergy, and lived out in ital diet and an African diasporic identity. Non-creedal by construction, so the dispersions are wide almost everywhere.
Where they agree
A1 Divine reality
Both sit at a divine reality certainly exists — a gap of 0.00.
E2 Origin of the cosmos
Both sit at an intentional act — a gap of 0.00.
E3 Locus of belonging
Both sit at leaning a people, inherited — a gap of 0.00.
B1 Source of truth
Both sit at between revealed and fixed and reason and direct experience — a gap of 0.03.
C3 The human condition
Both sit at between fallen and in need of rescue and ignorant but fundamentally sound and leaning ignorant but fundamentally sound respectively — a gap of 0.03.
D2 Centrality of ritual
Both sit at between essential and prescribed and optional or absent — a gap of 0.03.
A2 Personhood
Both sit at leaning a personal being one can address and a personal being one can address respectively — a gap of 0.07.
E1 Exclusivity
Both sit at between one true path and many valid paths — a gap of 0.07.
D1 Mechanism of the ultimate good
Both sit at between given as grace and achieved by effort or insight — a gap of 0.08.
A3 Plurality
Both sit at strictly one and leaning strictly one respectively — a gap of 0.10.
Where they part company
B3 Institutional authority
Nizari Ismailism: clergy and tradition decide. Rastafari: leaning individual conscience decides. A gap of 0.73 on an axis running from “clergy and tradition decide” to “individual conscience decides”.
B2 Reading of sacred text
Nizari Ismailism: leaning metaphorical, or no text at all. Rastafari: between literal and binding and metaphorical, or no text at all. A gap of 0.40 on an axis running from “literal and binding” to “metaphorical, or no text at all”.
All seventeen axes
| Axis | Nizari Ismailism | Rastafari | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| A1 Divine reality | a divine reality certainly exists | a divine reality certainly exists | 0.00 |
| A2 Personhood | leaning a personal being one can address | a personal being one can address | 0.07 |
| A3 Plurality | strictly one | leaning strictly one | 0.10 |
| A4 Locus | between wholly beyond the world and fully present within it | fully present within it | 0.30 |
| B1 Source of truth | between revealed and fixed and reason and direct experience | between revealed and fixed and reason and direct experience | 0.03 |
| B2 Reading of sacred text | leaning metaphorical, or no text at all | between literal and binding and metaphorical, or no text at all | 0.40 |
| B3 Institutional authority | clergy and tradition decide | leaning individual conscience decides | 0.73 |
| C1 Survival of the self | continues in some form | leaning continues in some form | 0.20 |
| C2 Shape of time | one life, then judgment | leaning one life, then judgment | 0.25 |
| C3 The human condition | between fallen and in need of rescue and ignorant but fundamentally sound | leaning ignorant but fundamentally sound | 0.03 |
| D1 Mechanism of the ultimate good | between given as grace and achieved by effort or insight | between given as grace and achieved by effort or insight | 0.08 |
| D2 Centrality of ritual | between essential and prescribed and optional or absent | between essential and prescribed and optional or absent | 0.03 |
| D3 The body | between to be disciplined and to be celebrated | between to be disciplined and to be celebrated | 0.16 |
| E1 Exclusivity | between one true path and many valid paths | between one true path and many valid paths | 0.07 |
| E2 Origin of the cosmos | an intentional act | an intentional act | 0.00 |
| E3 Locus of belonging | leaning a people, inherited | leaning a people, inherited | 0.00 |
| E4 Standing of nature | between creation, given for use and animate and itself sacred | animate and itself sacred | 0.37 |
Positions for Nizari Ismailism rest principally on Ismaili ta’wil literature and contemporary Imamate guidance; for Rastafari, on Rastafari oral tradition, the Holy Piby, and Chevannes’ ethnography. Per-cell sources are listed on each tradition’s own page.
The questionnaire places your answers on these same axes and ranks all 65 traditions by how closely they match. Take it.