Early Development of Shi'a Theology and Law
By: Syed Mohsin Naquvi April 24, 2005
As long as the Prophet (may our salams and Allahs peace be unto him, his holy family and faithful companions) was alive, the Muslims would just go to him and ask any questions they had regarding prayers or any of their worldly matters. That eventually gave rise to the corpus of hadeeth, which took nearly four hundred years to collect and to be compiled. Even though, the majority of the hadeeth had been compiled by the end of the fourth century of Hijra, some more collection and compilation went on for another three hundred years. That was because the later Muhadditheen felt that some of the most authentic reports were left out of the early collections. The prime example of those is the hadeeth that are found for example in Haakim's al-Mustadrak and they are not to be found in Bukhari, Muslim and even in Tirmizi.
A SUMMARY and an introduction to basic principles of faith:
We have pointed this out earlier, but let us just recap it. While that work was going on, there was another movement in effect. That was the discussion on the method of collection. Most Muslim scholars were driven by the facts of history, mainly the fact as to who actually ruled the Muslim state. That had naturally drawn the scholars towards the companions (SAHAABA) and later the followers (TABI'OON) of the companions of the Prophet. The family of the Prophet was sidetracked very early on from the actual governing machine. In spite of that, the members of the Prophet's family carried a lot of respect in the community for obvious reasons. There was a thinking that some members of the family of the Prophet were the actual heirs of the Prophet's legacy, both worldly as well as spiritual. That was, of course, based on Qur'anic verses and the Prophet's own statements[1].
As time passed, the importance of the family of the Prophet was reduced. However, that thinking continued, albeit among a minority of Muslims. It was that split in the intellectual, political, and spiritual thinking in the community that gave rise to the two main sects in Islam, the Sunni and the Shi'a.
The Sunni thinking upheld the right of the community to decide matters of spiritual as well as political dimensions by shoora, the Shi'a, on the other hand, upheld the right of the Ahlul-Bayt to rule on all matters spiritual as well as political.
Two Different Methodologies
While the Sunni majority had differing opinions over time and many scholars emerged who published their works, the main thinking stayed with the basic methodology, that is, the community had the right to decide matters by shoora. That gave rise to four major schools of law, the Hanafi, the Maliki, the Shafe'i and the Hanbali, over a period of a century. The first among them, namely Abu Haneefa, died in 150 A.H., while the last of them, Ahmad b. Hanbal, died in 241 A.H.
In parallel with that, the discussion on theology was also going on. Many different schools emerged in Sunni Islam which argued about the basic faith (other than the law for practice). The two main branches emerged as the Orthodox and the Rationalist. The orthodox school was identified with Al-Ash'ari. The Rationalist school was identified with the M'utazila.
There are differences between the four schools of Sunni law and the two schools of Sunni theology.
Very similar to those forces, there were forces running in the Shi'a community. However, as long as the twelve Imams lived, there was hardly any room for disagreement on the practice of law or the discussion of theology. All questions were invariably answered by the Imam of the time. Even if the Imam was living in difficult circumstances (like the fourth Imam after Karbala, the seventh Imam, and the eleventh Imam), there was always the opportunity for their followers to communicate with them. However, the Imams would encourage their disciples to engage in theological debate and watch over them. That practice has been specially identified with the fifth and the sixth Imams.
The Eleventh Imam was martyred in Samarra, Iraq, in the year 260 A.H. It was soon after that the twelfth Imam went into his minor occultation. During the following 70 years, the Imam kept in contact through one of the four NAWWAB (Uthman bin Sa'eed Umaari, his son Muhammad bin Uthman, Husayn bin Rawh Nawbakhti and Ali bin Muhammad Simmaari). After the death of the last NA'IB (Simmaari, who died in 329), the community went through a crisis. That period has been well documented and a description of how the community leaders were able to emerge with a viable system to lead the Shica has been given by professor Hussein Mudarresi Tabatabai (Princeton University) in his excellent work titled: CRISIS AND CONSOLIDATION, published by Darwin Press, Princeton, 1993.
The important thing to note is that the year 329, which is the beginning of the major occultation of the twelfth Imam, is also the year of the death of the famous compiler of Shica hadeeth known as Al-Kafi. That means that Al-Kafi had already been compiled before the major occultation began. In fact, reports tell us that the book was actually named as Al-Kafi by the twelfth Imam himself. Some other books of hadeeth had also been compiled and their copies were kept by some of the Shi'a leaders before the Al-Kafi of Kulayni came to be widely known.
The Importance of IJTEHAD
Now that the direct communication with the living Imam had stopped, there was need to establish a new system of arriving at new and hitherto unknown problems in the community. That is the beginning of the institution of Ijtehad in the Shi'a community.
As we said, the year of the beginning of the major occultation (ghaybat-e-kubra) is 329 Hijra. Two great Shi'a scholars passed away in that year: Muhammad bin Y'aqoob Kulayni, as we said earlier, who is the author of the monumental work of hadeeth known as Al-Kafi, and, Ali bin Babwayh Qummi (the father of Shaykh Sadooq). Their works are clear evidence that the ulema of that time were already working in earnest to collect religious literature attributed to the Imams for the benefit of the future generations.
Not only that, the actual work of collection of hadeeth for the purpose of documenting both Usool and law had actually begun during the time of the Imams. The famous work known as Usool Arba-Mi'a (four hundred principles) had existed among the Shica scholars from the time of the fifth Imam. That in turn, was based on a document that is reported to have been dictated by the Prophet of Islam to Imam Ali; and Imam Ali had written that down on paper (or whatever else was available as writing material).
Two other important works that were collected during the time of the minor occultation of the twelfth Imam are:
Al-Mahaasin of Ahmad bin Muhammad bin Khalid al-Barqi (d.280 A.H.), a collection of 2606 reports.
By: Syed Mohsin Naquvi April 24, 2005
As long as the Prophet (may our salams and Allahs peace be unto him, his holy family and faithful companions) was alive, the Muslims would just go to him and ask any questions they had regarding prayers or any of their worldly matters. That eventually gave rise to the corpus of hadeeth, which took nearly four hundred years to collect and to be compiled. Even though, the majority of the hadeeth had been compiled by the end of the fourth century of Hijra, some more collection and compilation went on for another three hundred years. That was because the later Muhadditheen felt that some of the most authentic reports were left out of the early collections. The prime example of those is the hadeeth that are found for example in Haakim's al-Mustadrak and they are not to be found in Bukhari, Muslim and even in Tirmizi.
A SUMMARY and an introduction to basic principles of faith:
We have pointed this out earlier, but let us just recap it. While that work was going on, there was another movement in effect. That was the discussion on the method of collection. Most Muslim scholars were driven by the facts of history, mainly the fact as to who actually ruled the Muslim state. That had naturally drawn the scholars towards the companions (SAHAABA) and later the followers (TABI'OON) of the companions of the Prophet. The family of the Prophet was sidetracked very early on from the actual governing machine. In spite of that, the members of the Prophet's family carried a lot of respect in the community for obvious reasons. There was a thinking that some members of the family of the Prophet were the actual heirs of the Prophet's legacy, both worldly as well as spiritual. That was, of course, based on Qur'anic verses and the Prophet's own statements[1].
As time passed, the importance of the family of the Prophet was reduced. However, that thinking continued, albeit among a minority of Muslims. It was that split in the intellectual, political, and spiritual thinking in the community that gave rise to the two main sects in Islam, the Sunni and the Shi'a.
The Sunni thinking upheld the right of the community to decide matters of spiritual as well as political dimensions by shoora, the Shi'a, on the other hand, upheld the right of the Ahlul-Bayt to rule on all matters spiritual as well as political.
Two Different Methodologies
While the Sunni majority had differing opinions over time and many scholars emerged who published their works, the main thinking stayed with the basic methodology, that is, the community had the right to decide matters by shoora. That gave rise to four major schools of law, the Hanafi, the Maliki, the Shafe'i and the Hanbali, over a period of a century. The first among them, namely Abu Haneefa, died in 150 A.H., while the last of them, Ahmad b. Hanbal, died in 241 A.H.
In parallel with that, the discussion on theology was also going on. Many different schools emerged in Sunni Islam which argued about the basic faith (other than the law for practice). The two main branches emerged as the Orthodox and the Rationalist. The orthodox school was identified with Al-Ash'ari. The Rationalist school was identified with the M'utazila.
There are differences between the four schools of Sunni law and the two schools of Sunni theology.
Very similar to those forces, there were forces running in the Shi'a community. However, as long as the twelve Imams lived, there was hardly any room for disagreement on the practice of law or the discussion of theology. All questions were invariably answered by the Imam of the time. Even if the Imam was living in difficult circumstances (like the fourth Imam after Karbala, the seventh Imam, and the eleventh Imam), there was always the opportunity for their followers to communicate with them. However, the Imams would encourage their disciples to engage in theological debate and watch over them. That practice has been specially identified with the fifth and the sixth Imams.
The Eleventh Imam was martyred in Samarra, Iraq, in the year 260 A.H. It was soon after that the twelfth Imam went into his minor occultation. During the following 70 years, the Imam kept in contact through one of the four NAWWAB (Uthman bin Sa'eed Umaari, his son Muhammad bin Uthman, Husayn bin Rawh Nawbakhti and Ali bin Muhammad Simmaari). After the death of the last NA'IB (Simmaari, who died in 329), the community went through a crisis. That period has been well documented and a description of how the community leaders were able to emerge with a viable system to lead the Shica has been given by professor Hussein Mudarresi Tabatabai (Princeton University) in his excellent work titled: CRISIS AND CONSOLIDATION, published by Darwin Press, Princeton, 1993.
The important thing to note is that the year 329, which is the beginning of the major occultation of the twelfth Imam, is also the year of the death of the famous compiler of Shica hadeeth known as Al-Kafi. That means that Al-Kafi had already been compiled before the major occultation began. In fact, reports tell us that the book was actually named as Al-Kafi by the twelfth Imam himself. Some other books of hadeeth had also been compiled and their copies were kept by some of the Shi'a leaders before the Al-Kafi of Kulayni came to be widely known.
The Importance of IJTEHAD
Now that the direct communication with the living Imam had stopped, there was need to establish a new system of arriving at new and hitherto unknown problems in the community. That is the beginning of the institution of Ijtehad in the Shi'a community.
As we said, the year of the beginning of the major occultation (ghaybat-e-kubra) is 329 Hijra. Two great Shi'a scholars passed away in that year: Muhammad bin Y'aqoob Kulayni, as we said earlier, who is the author of the monumental work of hadeeth known as Al-Kafi, and, Ali bin Babwayh Qummi (the father of Shaykh Sadooq). Their works are clear evidence that the ulema of that time were already working in earnest to collect religious literature attributed to the Imams for the benefit of the future generations.
Not only that, the actual work of collection of hadeeth for the purpose of documenting both Usool and law had actually begun during the time of the Imams. The famous work known as Usool Arba-Mi'a (four hundred principles) had existed among the Shica scholars from the time of the fifth Imam. That in turn, was based on a document that is reported to have been dictated by the Prophet of Islam to Imam Ali; and Imam Ali had written that down on paper (or whatever else was available as writing material).
Two other important works that were collected during the time of the minor occultation of the twelfth Imam are:
Al-Mahaasin of Ahmad bin Muhammad bin Khalid al-Barqi (d.280 A.H.), a collection of 2606 reports.
Basa'ir ad-Darajaat of Muhammad bin Hasan al-Saffaar (d. 290 A.H.), a collection of 1881 reports.
While the Usool Arba-Mi'a is a collection of the utterances of the Imams written verbatim and taken as dictation by their closest disciples, the two books mentioned above are basically collections of Imams' hadeeth with the relevant chain of narrators and transmitters.
In addition to that, we have to keep the fact in view that al-Barqi is known to have been a companion of both the ninth as well as the tenth Imams; and al-Saffaar is known to be a companion of the eleventh Imam. That means both of those scholars had the opportunity to hear the hadeeth of the Imams first hand, from the Imams themselves. Kulayni, obviously, did not have that opportunity. That is very obvious from their respective works. Both al-Barqi and al-Saffaar have compiled their books without any notes or introduction. In their view it was just important to preserve the utterances of the M'asoomeen. (Kulayni has taken reports from both of them.)
Kulayni, on the other hand, has written a detailed introduction in his al-Kafi. We can gauge the political, religious and intellectual condition of the community from Kulayni's introduction. Apparently, he wrote the book after he received a request from a friend who complained that there was a great degree of discord in the community about the conflict in the Imams' traditions. In reply, Kulayni produced his work and also wrote to that friend. From his introduction, it becomes obvious that the arguments between the Tradionists and the Rationalists were in progress in the community. There were discussions also on the apparent contradictions in hadeeth reports. Kulayni collected all kinds of reports in his work. According to Andrew Newman, Kulayni did not consider it his job to sort out the apparent contradiction in some reports.
The first section in al-Kafi is Kitab al-Ilm wal-Jahl. This shows how important in Kulayni's view was the concept of reason, intelligence, or, intellect in Islamic theology. However, when you read his work closely, it appears that he repudiates the view of the Rationalists(اُصولی ) in juxtaposition to that of the Traditionist( اخباری).
That is a clear indication that the discussion between the ideas of Rationalism and those of Tarditionism were underway in Kulayni's time. However, at this time, there were no such groups as representing the two philosophies. Scholars had ideas which they would express from time to time. Mostly, scholars themselves debated within their own thinking between the two views. That is why we find both views in the works of scholars of the time as late as Mulla Baqir Majlisi.
The Rationalists became the Usoolis and the Tradionists came to be known as the Akhbaris in later times.
We can also reflect upon this phenomenon. In the time just after the Major Occultation of the twelfth Imam began, the intellectuals, community leaders, jurists and scholars became concerned that the utterances of the Masoomeen which had become a very definite part of law-giving and theological writings, may be lost. So they set about preserving them in writing. They could not see one thousand years down the road, not even five hundred years. That was because the firm belief among the Shi'a was that the twelfth Imam will reappear sooner rather than later and will eventually fill this earth with justice and equity. In the meantime, it was incumbent on the faithful to stay on the right path. The place where the twelfth Imam had disappeared at age six in 260 Hijra was actually known to the faithful in Iraq (Samarra). There are reports that the Shica would assemble in the morning and wait at the mouth of the cave till dusk hoping that the Qa'em would rise on that day. This practice was found to be present among the Iraqi Shi'a for some three hundred years after the beginning of the Major Occultation. As time passed, generations went by, new generations came along and new reports were discovered as to how and when the Qa'em would re-appear, that practice died out.
Also, as time passed and times changed, the community faced new problems; the need for Ijtehad was felt more and more. The Rationalist had always pressed for that any way. The Mujtahids were working in earnest to find solutions to new problems. However, the Traditionists view had not weakened to any considerable degree.
In the larger Sunni community, the debate between the Rationalists (the M'utazila) and the Traditionists (i.e., the Ash'ari) had been opened up by Haroon ar-Rasheed during his reign. He himself favoured the M'utazila and declared himself to be one of them. Two famous M'utazili scholars are az-Zamakhshari, the author of the well-known tafseer al-Kash-Shaaf, and Ibn Abil-Hadeed, the author of the monumental commentary (20 volumes) on Nahjul-Balagha. Eventually, the Traditionists won the day after a lot of debate, takfeer of the opponents and some violence too, ensued. It was that debate which had brought the issue of the creation of the holy Qur'an to fore. That is how the majority Sunni Muslims have been labeled as the Orthodox, because orthodoxy (tradionism) prevailed in the community at the expense of rational thinking. There is definitely a concept of Ijtehad among the Sunni Islam but it actually ends with the last of the four Imams of FIQH, namely Ahmad bin Hanbal.
Modern Sunni thinking, though is changing and there are forces which would want to open up the working of Ijtehad once again. Leaders like Ibn Taymiyyah, Muhammad Abduhu and Muhammad Abdul Wahhab have actually done that already by their respective works.
In the Shi'a community things went the other way. In the beginning, most scholars debated within their own mind between the two views. They sometimes expressed their views. Then the Traditionist view prevailed and the situation remained so for nearly half-a-millennium.
The debate really heated up at the beginning of the 11th century due to the work of Mulla Muhammad Amin Astarabadi (died 1033 A.H.).
The Rationalists (i.e., the Usoolees) were able to win the debate for good towards the end of the 12th century Hijra. Today in the world the great majority of the Ithna 'Ashari Shi'a are Usoolees. However, the work of Ijtehad was active all the same during that period.
The famous Indian Shi'a scholar of Awadh named Syed Dildar Ali (better known as the Ghufran Ma'ab) was an Akhbari in the beginning. When he traveled to Najaf he had debates there and was finally convinced by the ulema of Iraq of the usefulness as well as the necessity of the Usoolee views. He converted to that view and remained so for the rest of his life. For details, see A Socio-Intellectual History of the Isna Ash'ari Shi'a of India by professor A.A. Rizvi, Canberra, 1986.
While the collection and compilation of the hadeeth was in progress and scholars were spending more time and effort on collecting the hadeeth reports, the work of Ijtehad had also begun. That, obviously, brought in the practice of TAQLEED. People among the laity looked for more learned men than they themselves were for religious questions. The need for TAQLEED became obvious due to the Occultation of the Imam.
In parallel with that, the collection of hadeeth continued all the same.
Soon after Kulayni, came the pious and learned scholars like Shaykh Sadooq (d.381) who worked on compiling the traditions relating to Usool as well as law. His work I'tiqadatu-l-Imamiyya has listed the major aspects of the Shi'a belief. That book has been translated in to English by A.A.Fayzee and published by WOFIS, Tehran. His major work is MAN LA YAHDHRAHU AL-FAQEEH, which is one of the four major works of Shi'a Hadeeth.
Then comes Shaykh Mufeed(d.413), an able disciple of Sadooq. Mufeed is best known for his work known as Kitab al-Irshad. It consists of the biography of the twelve Imams, but the true significance of the book is in the fact that Mufeed has recorded those specific hadeeth reports which authenticate the Imamat of each Imam. He must have felt the need for such a book in his times.
Now both Sadooq and Mufeed are collectors of hadeeth thus they can both be viewed as the upholders of the Akhbari view. There is a curious fact about the pair. Mufeed wrote a commentary on his teacher's work cited above. In that, albeit politely and with due respect, he has disagreed with his able teacher on many points. For example, Sadooq writes that LAWH and QALAM are the names of two angels. Mufeed disagrees with that view and records his reasons. That is a very clear indication that ulema of that early a time were engaging in the practice of Ijtehad.
Then there are the two brothers Syed Murtadha (d.436) known as A'alam al-Huda and his younger brother Syed Radhi (d.410), the compiler of Nahjul-Balagha; both were taught by Shaykh Mufeed. There are some 72 known works which are attributed to Syed Al-Murtadha. One of them, Az-Zari'a fi Usool ash-Shari'a, is a book on Usool al-Fiqh. The fact that Usool-e-Fiqh (the basic principles on which Ijtehad is conducted) were being studied seriously and in detail, is an indication that the science of Ijtehad had taken definite shape by his time.
Shaykh Abu J'afar Toosi (d.460), who is the author of the other two major books of Shi'a hadeeth, namely Al-Istibsaar and Tahzeeb, is also the founder of the school of jurisprudence at Najaf. At that time the teaching, learning and recognition of the Mujtahid had become a very valid, tangible and well-known process. Najaf became an open university where students would come from all over the world and meet their peers and then go back after having studied with the best of them for disseminating the knowledge they had thus acquired. That is yet another indication of how intense the activity of Ijtehad and Taqleed had become by that time.
That process has continued in many famous names to our times, like:
1. Ibn Shahr Ashoob (d.588) compiler of the biographies of the Imams
2. Ibn Tawoos (d.664) collector of supplications and prayers of the Imams
3. Sh. Abul Qasim J'afar bin Hasan the Muhaqqiq al-Hilli (d.676)
4. Sh. Hasan bin Yusuf Allama al-Hilli (d.726)
5. Shaheed al-Awwal Shamsudeen Muhammad bin Makki (d.786)
6. Zayn-ud-Deen Ali bin Ahmad Shaheed at-Thani (d. 966)
7. Muqaddas Ardbeli (d.993)
8. Muhammad Baqir Majlisi (d. 1111) the compiler of the monumental collection of hadeeth known as Bihar-ul-Anwaar (102 volumes). Majlisi gets the credit of collecting the Ziyaraat of all the Imams and giving them wide currency.
The institution of Taqleed and Ijtehad owes a lot to the work of Mulla Sadra (Sadrud-Deen Shirazi, d.1050), who actually was a philosopher in Islamic sciences.
The title of Ayatullah and Ayatullah al-Uzma for the great Mujtahid had not come into use until about early 1200's Hijra. A contemporary Iranian scholar named Aqeeqi Bakhsha'ishi has compiled a book titled Fuqh'ai Namdar-e-Shi'a. This is a compilation of the biographies of the great Shi'a jurisconsults. He begins the list with Ali bin Babwayh Qummi (father of Sh. Sadooq) and goes upto the ulema of our own time. The first name to which the title of Ayatullah is appended is that of Syed Muhammad Mahdi Bahr-ul-Uloom who died in 1212 A.H.
Until the middle of the 13th/19th century there would be only one great Mujtahid at a time who would be known as the Marj'a-e-Khala'iq and would be known as the Ayatullah. Beginning with the 1960's more than one Mujtahids were recognized as the Marj'a (the place of return, meaning grand mujtahid), like Ayatullah Abul Hasan al-Isfahani (d.1365/1946), Ayatullah Brujardi (d. 1381/1962), Ayatullah Muhsin al-Hakeem (d.1390/1970), Ayatullahs Khui, Khomayni and Shari'atmadar, Gulpaigaani and Shirazi, etc., who had lived and had taught mainly in the second half of the last century.
In addition to that, we have to keep the fact in view that al-Barqi is known to have been a companion of both the ninth as well as the tenth Imams; and al-Saffaar is known to be a companion of the eleventh Imam. That means both of those scholars had the opportunity to hear the hadeeth of the Imams first hand, from the Imams themselves. Kulayni, obviously, did not have that opportunity. That is very obvious from their respective works. Both al-Barqi and al-Saffaar have compiled their books without any notes or introduction. In their view it was just important to preserve the utterances of the M'asoomeen. (Kulayni has taken reports from both of them.)
Kulayni, on the other hand, has written a detailed introduction in his al-Kafi. We can gauge the political, religious and intellectual condition of the community from Kulayni's introduction. Apparently, he wrote the book after he received a request from a friend who complained that there was a great degree of discord in the community about the conflict in the Imams' traditions. In reply, Kulayni produced his work and also wrote to that friend. From his introduction, it becomes obvious that the arguments between the Tradionists and the Rationalists were in progress in the community. There were discussions also on the apparent contradictions in hadeeth reports. Kulayni collected all kinds of reports in his work. According to Andrew Newman, Kulayni did not consider it his job to sort out the apparent contradiction in some reports.
The first section in al-Kafi is Kitab al-Ilm wal-Jahl. This shows how important in Kulayni's view was the concept of reason, intelligence, or, intellect in Islamic theology. However, when you read his work closely, it appears that he repudiates the view of the Rationalists(اُصولی ) in juxtaposition to that of the Traditionist( اخباری).
That is a clear indication that the discussion between the ideas of Rationalism and those of Tarditionism were underway in Kulayni's time. However, at this time, there were no such groups as representing the two philosophies. Scholars had ideas which they would express from time to time. Mostly, scholars themselves debated within their own thinking between the two views. That is why we find both views in the works of scholars of the time as late as Mulla Baqir Majlisi.
The Rationalists became the Usoolis and the Tradionists came to be known as the Akhbaris in later times.
We can also reflect upon this phenomenon. In the time just after the Major Occultation of the twelfth Imam began, the intellectuals, community leaders, jurists and scholars became concerned that the utterances of the Masoomeen which had become a very definite part of law-giving and theological writings, may be lost. So they set about preserving them in writing. They could not see one thousand years down the road, not even five hundred years. That was because the firm belief among the Shi'a was that the twelfth Imam will reappear sooner rather than later and will eventually fill this earth with justice and equity. In the meantime, it was incumbent on the faithful to stay on the right path. The place where the twelfth Imam had disappeared at age six in 260 Hijra was actually known to the faithful in Iraq (Samarra). There are reports that the Shica would assemble in the morning and wait at the mouth of the cave till dusk hoping that the Qa'em would rise on that day. This practice was found to be present among the Iraqi Shi'a for some three hundred years after the beginning of the Major Occultation. As time passed, generations went by, new generations came along and new reports were discovered as to how and when the Qa'em would re-appear, that practice died out.
Also, as time passed and times changed, the community faced new problems; the need for Ijtehad was felt more and more. The Rationalist had always pressed for that any way. The Mujtahids were working in earnest to find solutions to new problems. However, the Traditionists view had not weakened to any considerable degree.
In the larger Sunni community, the debate between the Rationalists (the M'utazila) and the Traditionists (i.e., the Ash'ari) had been opened up by Haroon ar-Rasheed during his reign. He himself favoured the M'utazila and declared himself to be one of them. Two famous M'utazili scholars are az-Zamakhshari, the author of the well-known tafseer al-Kash-Shaaf, and Ibn Abil-Hadeed, the author of the monumental commentary (20 volumes) on Nahjul-Balagha. Eventually, the Traditionists won the day after a lot of debate, takfeer of the opponents and some violence too, ensued. It was that debate which had brought the issue of the creation of the holy Qur'an to fore. That is how the majority Sunni Muslims have been labeled as the Orthodox, because orthodoxy (tradionism) prevailed in the community at the expense of rational thinking. There is definitely a concept of Ijtehad among the Sunni Islam but it actually ends with the last of the four Imams of FIQH, namely Ahmad bin Hanbal.
Modern Sunni thinking, though is changing and there are forces which would want to open up the working of Ijtehad once again. Leaders like Ibn Taymiyyah, Muhammad Abduhu and Muhammad Abdul Wahhab have actually done that already by their respective works.
In the Shi'a community things went the other way. In the beginning, most scholars debated within their own mind between the two views. They sometimes expressed their views. Then the Traditionist view prevailed and the situation remained so for nearly half-a-millennium.
The debate really heated up at the beginning of the 11th century due to the work of Mulla Muhammad Amin Astarabadi (died 1033 A.H.).
The Rationalists (i.e., the Usoolees) were able to win the debate for good towards the end of the 12th century Hijra. Today in the world the great majority of the Ithna 'Ashari Shi'a are Usoolees. However, the work of Ijtehad was active all the same during that period.
The famous Indian Shi'a scholar of Awadh named Syed Dildar Ali (better known as the Ghufran Ma'ab) was an Akhbari in the beginning. When he traveled to Najaf he had debates there and was finally convinced by the ulema of Iraq of the usefulness as well as the necessity of the Usoolee views. He converted to that view and remained so for the rest of his life. For details, see A Socio-Intellectual History of the Isna Ash'ari Shi'a of India by professor A.A. Rizvi, Canberra, 1986.
While the collection and compilation of the hadeeth was in progress and scholars were spending more time and effort on collecting the hadeeth reports, the work of Ijtehad had also begun. That, obviously, brought in the practice of TAQLEED. People among the laity looked for more learned men than they themselves were for religious questions. The need for TAQLEED became obvious due to the Occultation of the Imam.
In parallel with that, the collection of hadeeth continued all the same.
Soon after Kulayni, came the pious and learned scholars like Shaykh Sadooq (d.381) who worked on compiling the traditions relating to Usool as well as law. His work I'tiqadatu-l-Imamiyya has listed the major aspects of the Shi'a belief. That book has been translated in to English by A.A.Fayzee and published by WOFIS, Tehran. His major work is MAN LA YAHDHRAHU AL-FAQEEH, which is one of the four major works of Shi'a Hadeeth.
Then comes Shaykh Mufeed(d.413), an able disciple of Sadooq. Mufeed is best known for his work known as Kitab al-Irshad. It consists of the biography of the twelve Imams, but the true significance of the book is in the fact that Mufeed has recorded those specific hadeeth reports which authenticate the Imamat of each Imam. He must have felt the need for such a book in his times.
Now both Sadooq and Mufeed are collectors of hadeeth thus they can both be viewed as the upholders of the Akhbari view. There is a curious fact about the pair. Mufeed wrote a commentary on his teacher's work cited above. In that, albeit politely and with due respect, he has disagreed with his able teacher on many points. For example, Sadooq writes that LAWH and QALAM are the names of two angels. Mufeed disagrees with that view and records his reasons. That is a very clear indication that ulema of that early a time were engaging in the practice of Ijtehad.
Then there are the two brothers Syed Murtadha (d.436) known as A'alam al-Huda and his younger brother Syed Radhi (d.410), the compiler of Nahjul-Balagha; both were taught by Shaykh Mufeed. There are some 72 known works which are attributed to Syed Al-Murtadha. One of them, Az-Zari'a fi Usool ash-Shari'a, is a book on Usool al-Fiqh. The fact that Usool-e-Fiqh (the basic principles on which Ijtehad is conducted) were being studied seriously and in detail, is an indication that the science of Ijtehad had taken definite shape by his time.
Shaykh Abu J'afar Toosi (d.460), who is the author of the other two major books of Shi'a hadeeth, namely Al-Istibsaar and Tahzeeb, is also the founder of the school of jurisprudence at Najaf. At that time the teaching, learning and recognition of the Mujtahid had become a very valid, tangible and well-known process. Najaf became an open university where students would come from all over the world and meet their peers and then go back after having studied with the best of them for disseminating the knowledge they had thus acquired. That is yet another indication of how intense the activity of Ijtehad and Taqleed had become by that time.
That process has continued in many famous names to our times, like:
1. Ibn Shahr Ashoob (d.588) compiler of the biographies of the Imams
2. Ibn Tawoos (d.664) collector of supplications and prayers of the Imams
3. Sh. Abul Qasim J'afar bin Hasan the Muhaqqiq al-Hilli (d.676)
4. Sh. Hasan bin Yusuf Allama al-Hilli (d.726)
5. Shaheed al-Awwal Shamsudeen Muhammad bin Makki (d.786)
6. Zayn-ud-Deen Ali bin Ahmad Shaheed at-Thani (d. 966)
7. Muqaddas Ardbeli (d.993)
8. Muhammad Baqir Majlisi (d. 1111) the compiler of the monumental collection of hadeeth known as Bihar-ul-Anwaar (102 volumes). Majlisi gets the credit of collecting the Ziyaraat of all the Imams and giving them wide currency.
The institution of Taqleed and Ijtehad owes a lot to the work of Mulla Sadra (Sadrud-Deen Shirazi, d.1050), who actually was a philosopher in Islamic sciences.
The title of Ayatullah and Ayatullah al-Uzma for the great Mujtahid had not come into use until about early 1200's Hijra. A contemporary Iranian scholar named Aqeeqi Bakhsha'ishi has compiled a book titled Fuqh'ai Namdar-e-Shi'a. This is a compilation of the biographies of the great Shi'a jurisconsults. He begins the list with Ali bin Babwayh Qummi (father of Sh. Sadooq) and goes upto the ulema of our own time. The first name to which the title of Ayatullah is appended is that of Syed Muhammad Mahdi Bahr-ul-Uloom who died in 1212 A.H.
Until the middle of the 13th/19th century there would be only one great Mujtahid at a time who would be known as the Marj'a-e-Khala'iq and would be known as the Ayatullah. Beginning with the 1960's more than one Mujtahids were recognized as the Marj'a (the place of return, meaning grand mujtahid), like Ayatullah Abul Hasan al-Isfahani (d.1365/1946), Ayatullah Brujardi (d. 1381/1962), Ayatullah Muhsin al-Hakeem (d.1390/1970), Ayatullahs Khui, Khomayni and Shari'atmadar, Gulpaigaani and Shirazi, etc., who had lived and had taught mainly in the second half of the last century.
NOTES:
[1] For a thorough and comprehensive discussion on this topic, see, Wilfred Madelung, Succession to Muhammad, Cambridge University Press, 1997
[1] For a thorough and comprehensive discussion on this topic, see, Wilfred Madelung, Succession to Muhammad, Cambridge University Press, 1997
__._,_.___
| Reply via web post | Reply to sender | Reply to group | Start a New Topic | Messages in this topic (1) |
Support Jammu and Kashmir Women who are victim of all victims.
http://jammukashmir.khidmat.org
Donate by Paypal
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=4GHHMZSYJ7GKQ
Visit http://khidmat.org
http://jammukashmir.khidmat.org
Donate by Paypal
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=4GHHMZSYJ7GKQ
Visit http://khidmat.org
.
__,_._,___
No comments:
Post a Comment