Noorum-Mubin or Noor-e-Mubin

'Noorum-Mubin' is a voluminous book of the history of 50 Ismaili Pirs and 49 Ismaili Imams. It was written by A. J. Chunara and first published in 1936 by the Press Department of an Aga Khan religious institution called "Recreation Club", Bombay India (later the Ismailia Association), It has since been revised and reprinted many times. It contains numerous tales of supernatural feats performed by Ismaili Imams and Pirs. This book was recommended as "a must" for his Jamat by Aga Khan III, and the apocryphal Unique Legends it records are accordingly popularly accepted by Ismailis as their official history.

In April 1975, Aga Khan IV, the 49th Imam of Ismailis, passed the under mentioned Resolutions at the Ismailia Association Conference in Paris which he chaired:

Resolution No. 3.3.1 "The Nooran Mubeen no longer to be made available to the Jamat as a standard textbook of Ismaili history"
Resolution No. 3.3.2 "Notwithstanding the above, the Nooran Mubeen to remain as a document for research purposes."

A history of Ismaili Imams and Pirs highly recommended by the 48th Imam in 1936 was thereby withdrawn from circulation by the 49th Imam, within 40 years of its publication.

Another revision of the official position of Ismailis on critical literature concerns the Holy Quran itself, a book 1400 years old and ever in its original form. In 1899, the 48th Imam spoke of it as "1300 years old", "outdated" and "for people of Arabia only"; in October 1986, his successor declared over a television interview: "The only miracle which you have in Islam is the Quran". One must then wonder how matters as fundamental as the importance of the Quran could be the subject of such a radical change of opinion by the infallible and continuous Noor of Imamat!

Going through the history of Ismaili Pirs I have found more legends ascribed to Pir Shamshuddi’n (popularly known as Pir Shams) than to any other Pir. Out of the dozen or so recorded, below are brief accounts of a few the detailed accounts of which are recorded by A. J. Chunara in "Noorum-Mubin" (Gujrati), and in part by Abualy in "A Brief History of Ismailism" under the chapters ‘Imam Shamshuddin Muhammad', ‘Imam Kassam Shah’ and ‘Pir Shamsuddin’, respectively.

(Excerpt from 'Understanding Ismailism' by Akberally Meherally. The full book can be downloaded from www.mostmerciful.com)