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Chapter 7
The Second Discussion
The leadership belonging to the Prophetic Household and to
Imam Ali, played out in the "natural phenomenon" so far alluded to
consists of two types of authority.
The first is intellectual authority; the second, authority
associated with governing and societal activity. Both were embodied in the
person of the Prophet. In the light of what we have learned with respect to
circumstances, the Prophet had had to determine the most fitting extension of
his rule which could sustain each of these two authorities, in order that
intellectual authority might fill any lacunae to be faced by the Muslim mind. A
proper notion needs to be advanced - i.e. the Islamic viewpoint -
on any intellectual or life issues evoked. It must explicate what appears
ambiguous and obscure in the Holy Book. [143]
The Qur'an constitutes the primary source for intellectual
authority in Islam. Finally, the purpose is for socio-political authority
to resume its course and to lead the trek of Islam along a societal path.
These two types of authority are combined within the
Household of the Prophet by force of those circumstances we considered earlier.
Prophetic traditions have always confirmed this. The prime example of a
tradition dealing with intellectual authority is the hadith of the "Two Weights" (hadith al-thaqlayn), where
the Prophet proclaims:
I am about to be summoned [before my Lord], and must comply.
I leave with ye two weighty things: God's Book, a rope from Heaven to Earth;
and my progeny, the members of my Household. God the Gracious, the All-Knowing
has informed me that they shall separate not to the day when they will be
restored to me at the Basin. You behold how, you do by them after I am gone!
[144]
The chief example of a Prophetic stipulation concerning
authority in the exercise of leadership over society is hadith al-Ghadir. It is presented by Tabarani, on the grounds of
its universally-accepted soundness, through Zayd b. Arqam's words:
The Messenger of God gave his sermon at Ghadir Khum beneath
some trees, declaring. "O People, I am about to be summoned [before my
Lord], and must comply. I shall be held to account and ye shall be held to
account. But what will you say?" They replied, "We shall testify that
you have delivered [the Message], striven and counseled. May God reward you for
it!" He then told them, "Would you not testify that there is no god
but God [Allah], and that Muhammad is his Servant and Messenger that His
Paradise is real and His Hell-Fire real; that death is real; that the
resurrection after death is real; that the Hour shall without a doubt come;
that God resurrects all those who lie in their graves?" They said:
"Nay, we shall testify to all this!" To which he replied, "O God
be Thee Witness! O People God is my Guardian and I guardian of the faithful. I
am more so than their own selves. For whomsoever I am a guardian, he too [i.e.
Ali] is his guardian. Lord, guard over the one who guards over him, and be a
foe to his foe." [145]
Thus, of a considerable number of like traditions, these two
outstanding Prophetic hadiths provide
for the embodiment of both kinds of authority in the Prophet's Household. The
Islamic current upholding the devotional act based on the Prophet's full
stipulations believed in these authorities, and comprised those Muslims who
were the benevolent friends of the Household.
But whereas the socio-political authority belonging to
every Imam implies the exercise of power while he lives, intellectual authority
is a permanent, unconditional reality unconfined to the period of his lifetime.
Therefore, it has a living, practical meaning for every period. So long as the
Muslims needed a definitive understanding of Islam, an acquaintance with its
provisions, legality, prohibitions, concepts and moral values, there will be
need for an intellectual Divinely-defined authority epitomized, firstly,
by the Book of God; secondly, by the Prophet's Tradition (sunnat rasulihi)
and that of the immaculate descendents, if the Household, who never have and
never would diverge from the Books as indeed the Prophet himself has
stipulated. [146]
Fronts they very outset, the second tendency, which upholds
independent legal judgement rather than the devotional act according to the
text, had decided. with the death of the Prophet on transferring the authority
for exercising political power to some leading personalities of the Muhajirin, thereby conforming with
shifting and rather maleable considerations. Immediately following the
Prophet's death, the transfer of power to Abu Bakr was based on what came out
of the limited discussions at the Saqifah session. [147] Umar later ascended
to the Caliphate after being appointed by Abu Bakr [148]; Uthman followed suit
through an undesignated appointment by Umar. [149] Accommodation, a third of a
century after the Prophet's passing, led to the infiltration to positions of
power by the offspring of all those Meccans who had held out to the last (al-Tulaqa)
[150] and who just yesterday had been fighting Islam.
All that relates to political authority in its exercise of
power. Intellectual authority, on the other hand, was difficult to institute in
the members of the Household. Independent legal judgement therewith led to
dispossession of their political authority, since the latter's institution
entailed the creation of objective conditions for a transfer of power to them
and a merging of the two kinds of authority.
However, it was equally difficult to acknowledge
intellectual authority in a power-wielding Caliph, the requirements of
intellectual authority being different from those of the exercise of power. The
feeling that a person is qualified to exercise power did not automatically imply
that his installation as intellectual leader - the highest authority
after the Qur'an and Prophetic Tradition in matters of theoretical
understanding - was thought feasible. This kind of leadership required a
high degree of refinement and theoretical comprehension, and clearly none of
the Companions was more adequately endowed with it than the rest, if the
members of the Household are excluded.
[151]
The result was that the balance of intellectual authority
continued to swing for some time. The Caliphs, in many instances, dealt with
Imam Ali on the basis of his intellectual authority, or something approaching
that. So much so that the Second Caliph repeated many times that "If not
for 'Ali, Umar would surely have perished. God forbid that there be a problem
and no Abu Hasan to [solve] it..." [152] Nevertheless, after the Prophet's
passing, the Muslims in time became accustomed to see Imam Ali and the
Household as ordinary subjects, whose intellectual authority was not
indispensable, but transferable to some reasonable substitute. That substitute
was rot to be the Caliph himself, but the Prophet's Companions.
The principle of the Companions' collective authority was
gradually postulated thus, in place of the authority of the Household. The
substitute became palatable once the properly appointed authority was passed
over, because the Companions' generation was said to have kept close company
with the Prophet, thrived while he lived, embraced his experience, heeded his
words and practice. [153] For all practical purposes, the members of the
Household lost their God-given distinction to form part of the
intellectual authority merely as Companions. But the Companions themselves were
apt to experience sharp differences and conflicts, which sometimes reached the
point of hostilities, with each party drawing the other's blood, impugning his
honour, hurling accusations of deviation and betrayal. [154] These differences
and accusations, occurring as they did inside the intellectual leadership and
doctrinal authority itself, engendered all manner of intellectual and doctrinal
conflict [155] within the body of the Islamic community. The latter reflected
the conflictual dimensions of the intellectual leadership established by
independent judgement.
[143] Please refer to what we have tried to establish in the
Appendix concerning this question: that is, the scope of Imam Ali's power; his
comprehension of God's Book; his grasp of the "particular" and the
"general" (of its various applications); of the abrogating and
abrogated verses, its provisions and laws, the text's explicit and implicit
senses. See, for example, Suyuti's al-Ittiqan IV:234.
[144] Al-Hakim al-Nisaburi, al-Mustadrak ala al-Sah'ih III:119, where the author
says, "It was corrected according to conditions set by al-Shaykhayn
[i.e. al-Bukhari and Muslim] and presented by al-Muslim accordingly
(cf. IV:1874. See Sahih al-Tirmidhi's I:130
; al-Nassa'i, al-Sunan
al-kubra V:622; Imam Ahmad b. Hanbal's Musnad IV:217, III:14-7 - Imam. See also Sunan al-Darimi II:432 (Ch. "Fazia'il al Qur'an"?
(Dar Ihya al-Sunnah al-Nabawiyyah).
[145] On the margins, Imam Baqir al-Sadr points out
the following:
Hadith al-Ghadir
is widely reported in books on traditions by both Shiites and Sunnis. The
experts reckon the number of Companions who reported this hadith to be
over a hundred. Those belonging to the following generation [al-tabi'in] who
relate it number over eighty; those in the second century Hijri who committed
the Qur'an and the traditions to memory nearly sixty individuals.
Cf al-Allamah al-Amini, Kitab al-Ghadir. In this book, the Allamah al-Amini
offers a number of hadiths reported
by Zayd b. Arqam in their different version. It appears that Imam al-Sadr
collected these accounts in exactly the same form. (Cf. "al-Ghadir" I:31-6; also, in the Appendix,
see how the hadith in question was
presented, including in Sunan Ibn Majah I:11 (of the Introduction)). See Musnad
Imam Ahmad b. Hanbal IV:281, 368 (Dar Sadir).
[146] The famous hadith
al-thaqlayn, about which we have already given explanation.
[147] Cf Tarikh al-Tabari, "Nusus
al-Saqifah" II:234.
[148] Ibid; see the description of Umar's
investiture.
[149] See the description of the six consultative members
involved in Uthman's investiture, see Ta'rikh
al-Tabari II:580. Cf Imam Ali's "Shaqshaqiyyah
Address," Sermon No. 3, Nahj al-balaghah,
edited by Dr. Subhi al-Salih, p. 48.
Also, Ibn Abi al Hadid's commentary on it I:151 ff (ed. Abu al-Fadl Ibrahim; and Abd al-Fattah
Abd al-Maqsud), al-Saqifah
wal khilafah, p. 264.
[150] Al-tulaqa is a term used to
describe those who embraced Islam only at the moment when Mecca was gained
over, including Abu Sufyan and his son Muawiyah (Tarikh al-Tabari II:161), this with the knowledge that they were
both among those referred to as "al-muallafat
qullubuhum" (cf. Tarikh al-Tabari II:175).
[151] Their need for Imam Ali's authority, according to
many textual sources showing their open admission to this effect (cf. Suyuti's Tarikh al-khulafa, p. 171); whereas Imam 'Ali never had to seek the authority of any one of
them in matters of law or its provisions.
[152] Al-Tabaqat al-kubra II:339.
[153] Imam Baqir al-Sadr's appraisal of the first
generation of Companions reveals the extent of objectivity maintained in his treatment
of both the Muslims' history and the role of those who began teaming around
Islam. Secondly, substituting the Companions for the Household was hardly
accepted by many prominent Companions, such as Salman, Ammar, Abu Dharr, al-Miqdad
and others - they all remained loyal to the Household. Thirdly, although
the ways of the Companions or their utterances prevailed, there was not
complete acceptance that their views were defensible. It suffices to say that
the way of the two Elders (i.e. Caliphs) was proposed to Imam Ali the day of
consultation, but was not accepted. See the knowledgeable and quite
satisfactory discussion in al-Allamah Muhammad Taqi al-Hakim, al-Usul al-ammah lil fiqh al-muqaran, pp. 133-42.
[154] Note the accusation by Umar b. Khattab, the second
Caliph, against Khalid b. al-Walid of having killed a Muslim and then
turned on his wife (Ta'rikh al-Tabar'i
II:274 [Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyyah).
[155] Cf Dr. Muhammad Salaam Madkur, Manahij al-ijtihad concerning the emergence of theological (kalamiyyah) and legal (fiqhiyyah) factions and schools in Islam, along
with the disputes that erupted among them. See also Shahrastani, al-Milal wal-nihal I:15ff.
