The Attribute of Innovation in Imami and Ismaili Theology

God’s attributes are divided into two categories: intrinsic and actual attributes. Intrinsic attributes are those that are abstracted from the divine essence and their essence is due to the permanent connection between the essence of transcendence and attributes. Present attributes are attributes that are abstracted from the relation of the essential essence of existence with the creatures with an addition or a special relation considering that relation. Among the current attributes of God, the attribute of innovation has attracted many Imami and Ismaili theologians’ attention due to its wide application in Qur'an, Neoplatonic traditions, and philosophy to such an extent that such well-known personalities as Kennedy, Farabi, Sadiq, Mufid, Ibn Sina, Seyyed Morteza Alam al-Huda, Tusi, Tabarsi, Shahrzuri, and Hali from Nasafi’s Imamiyya Sect, Abu Hatem Razi, Sajestani, Ghazi Noman, Akhvana Al-Safa, Kermani, Nasser Khosrow, and Abu Faras from Ismaili Sect have discussed about the definition of innovation, as well as different related theories, and expressed its differences and similarities with other terms, such as creation, invention, command, emission, and will.The purpose of this study was to have a comparative view on Ismaili and Imami theologians’ theories and discover the similarities and differences between the them, as well as the components influencing on the definition of innovation and the difference between innovation and other near-meaning words.To discover the Imami and Ismaili thinkers’ views, especially the Ismaili’s, the books attributed to him were used as a criterion for judging and the works of the opponents of Ismailism and even those, who were in doubt about being in the group of Ismaili Sect though they were not included in the sources of this research.The Imami thinkers’ views on the definition of innovation were firstly ambiguous. Secondly, it was related to the period of presenting its minimum and maximum definitions. Thirdly, it was contradictory in terms of the condition expressing the statement of "I am not an object". The Ismaili scholars’ views were firstly highly contradictory and secondly a contradiction of "I am not an object"..Influenced by Neoplatonic philosophy, the Ismailis discussed the attribute of innovation more than the Imamis. The Imamiyyas and Ismailis considered innovation as one of the current attributes of God. They enumerated the most conditions for innovation. In both groups, there was a mistake in defining innovation as "creating me nothing". Some definitions of innovation in Imami and Ismaili theology were made with words, such as creation, construction, invention, etc., while their use seemed to be incorrect due to the semantic difference between innovation and those words. Ismaili theologians had made more efforts than merely introducing such terms as creation, construction, authorship, invention, etc. and explained better and more differences and similarities of the mentioned terms with innovation, whereas the ambiguity of the meanings of those terms still remained in the texts. The Ismailis had left fewer texts than the Imamis. Some thinkers of both groups discussed the attribute of innovation more than others and thus, their contents about innovation and the topics in its subset were not comparable to others. A noteworthy volume of the discussions on innovation in Imami theology was given in the interpretive texts on the occasion of the interpretation of the word "novel" in Quranic verses.