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The Sunni View
The Sunnis use the term Imaam synonymously with the term khalifah. A khalifah may be elected, or nominated by his predecessor, or selected by a committee, or may acquire power through military force. A khalifah need not be sinless. It is lawful for a person of inferior qualities to be made a khalifah while persons of superior qualities are present.
Development Of Jurisprudence And Theology
A. The Shiah School
During their life time the Imaams remained the chief exponents of the shariah, the Islamic law. Many of the Imaams, when the political atmosphere permitted, held theological classes and also taught other sciences.
Since the major occultation of the twelfth Imaam the Shias have, as commanded not only by him but also most of the preceding Imaams, sought guidance from mujtahids and followed the institution of taqleed.
Taqleed literally means to follow or to imitate someone. In Islamic jurisprudence it means to follow a mujtahid in matters pertaining to law. (XXI:7 and IX:124)
Taqleed applies only to matters of shariah. There is no taqleed in matters of beliefs (the articles of faith). A Muslim must seek to attain conviction of their truth through reflection and rational examination.
A mujtahid must be a person learned in all the Islamic sciences. At any given time there would normally be a number of persons qualified as mujtahids and it is not uncommon to have two members of the same family in taqleed of two different mujtahids.
Any muslim can address any question of law to any mujtahid, whether or not he is in the taqleed of that mujtahid and the mujtahid would issue a fatwaa giving his opinion on that subject. This would invariably be by way of a statement of the law which in the opinion of the mujtahid is the correct legal position. The fatwaa would be binding on all the persons in the taqleed of that mujtahid.
A mujtahid is so called because he does ijtehaad which term means to strive for deriving the laws of the shariah from its sources which are:
the Quraan;
the sunnah which mean the traditions (ahadees) and the practice of the Prophet and the Imaams;
reasoning (aql);
consensus of the mujtahids (ijmaa).
B. The Sunni School
The ruling khalifah invariably assumed the mantle of the chief exponent of the shariah.
For nearly a hundred years following the death of the Prophet the State retained absolute control over authentication, collection and publication of the sayings (ahadees) of the Prophet. A few unscrupulous khalifahs did not hesitate to use this power to legitimise their misdeeds by arranging to have apocryphal ahadees produced.
After the Banu Abbas came into power in 132 A.H. (750 A.D.), the formation of the Sunni community was formalised.
Although there are many sects and sub-sects in the sunni school of thought, the four main sects are-
The Hanafis, founded by Imaam Abu Hanifa an-Nu'maan ibne Thabit (died 150 A.H./769 A.D.). He is a scholar greatly respected not only by his followers but also the other sunnis.
The Malikis, founded by Imaam Abu Abdullah Malik ibne Anas (died 179 A.H./797 A.D).
The Shafeis, founded by Imaam Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibne Idris al- Shafei (died 204 A.H/819 A.D.)
The Hanbalis, founded by Imaam Ahmed ibne Muhammad ibne Hanbal (died 241 A.H./855 A.D.)
Although there are many irreconcilable differences in the four Sunni schools, in the main, however, they agree on the fundamental bases of their doctrines and laws. Each claims to have derived them from the following four sources:
The Quraan;
The Sunnah of the Holy Prophet and at times the Sunnah of the first four khalifahs;
The Ijmaa (consensus among the companions of the Prophet or of the religious leaders or among the followers);
The Qiyas (deduction of legal prescriptions from the Quraan and the sunnah through rational analogy).
The extent of the acceptance of the theological and legal doctrines of any of the above four sunni schools depended largely on the inclination of the ruler of the time. For example, although Abu Hanifa himself did not gain great popularity with the khalifah, his successor Abu Yusuf became a powerful figure in the court and held office of the Chief Kadhi.
The khalifah, however, always continued to remain the final arbiter in the exposition of the law and the jurists were relegated to an advisory role.
Since the abolition of the institution of khilafah following the fall of the Ottoman Empire the sunni schools have not developed as fast as they need to so as to keep pace with the social, economic, political and scientific development. Some Sunni sects have recognized the need for ijtehaad, a few appear to concentrate on ijmaa as the main instrument for reform.
In addition to their differences in jurisprudence, the Sunnis and the Shiahs hold divergent theological views on various aspects of the articles of beliefs e.g. human freedom of action and the Justice of God (both discussed above), whether God has a corporeal form. Some sunni sects believe in anthropomorphism.
The Shiahs and the Sunnis, however, agree on the following fundamental beliefs:
That Allah is One and has no partners;
That Muhammad is the last Prophet of God;
That there will be Resurrection and Judgement.
Acts of Worship
The Arabic term used for Acts of worship is Ibaadah. This does not mean worship. It means service. To serve God in the manner in which He has commanded his creatures to serve Him is Ibaadah. The term would include all acts of piety as well as the mandatory acts of worship.
The mandatory acts of worship accepted by both the Sunnis and the Shiahs are:
1. Salaah (The Daily Prayers)
Every Muslim, from the time he or she attains puberty must perform the salaah. Except for a woman in menstruation, no person is excused from this act of worship.
Before a person begins his salaah he must perform the ritual ablution in the prescribed form. The object is symbolic preparation for the salaah and not, as often believed, cleanliness. A person has to be clean to perform the ablution (wudhoo). Then he stands facing Mecca and declares his intention to pray for gaining proximity to Allah. With this declaration he enters the formal state of salaah in which he remains until the completion of his prayers.
A salaah consists of a number of units called rakaahs. Each unit (rakaah) consists of
recitation of the opening chapter and one other chapter of the Quraan while in the standing position,
the bowing down (rukoo) and glorifying God in that position and
two prostrations each called a sajdaah in which again God is glorified. Then the second rakaah would commence.
The morning prayers to be performed between the dawn and sunrise have two rakaahs, the mid-day prayers four rakaahs, the sunset three and the evening four.
The prayers are ended by affirmation that Allah is One and has no partners and that Muhammad is His servant and messenger. Salutations are offered to the Prophet, all the righteous souls and all who are engaged in prayers.
Salaah is regarded as not only a ritual act of worship but a communion with the Maker. It is the most important form of ibaadah and sickness (other than insanity), age or infirmity is no excuse for not performing prayers.
Lapsed prayers constitute a debt to God and are a first charge on a muslim's time and conscience. In the event of a person having died without having said any of his lapsed prayers, the eldest son, or if the deceased is not survived by a son, his heir must say or pay someone to say the lapsed prayers of the deceased.
Seyyid Hossein Nasr writes in his Ideals and Realities of Islam:
" In the canonical prayers man stands before God as the representative of all creatures. He prays for and in the name of all beings."
Amongst the many sayings of the Prophet on the subject are:
" Salaah is the spiritual ascension of the faithful where he communes with Allah."
" The good deeds wipe out the evil deeds of a man. The salaah and patience (sabr) are the best of deeds."
Salaah is a spiritual activity where the person performing it is totally immersed, mentally and physically, in the remembrance of God. (XXIX:45, XXII:34 & 35, XXVII:1-3, XX:6-7 and 14, IX:71, LXXIV:38-48, VI:71 & 72, XV:98 & 99, XI:114 & 225).
2. Saum (Fasting).
The second act of worship is fasting in the month of Ramadhaan, the 9th month of the Islamic calendar. This is obligatory upon every mature muslim except the sick, the traveller, a woman during her menstruation period and those infirm by age.
Fasting involves refraining from eating, drinking and sexual activity from the beginning of the nautical dawn to sunset. But these are not the sole objectives. Fasting is a conscious obedience of Allah's command. It is the human being's struggle to dedicate a whole month to activities which please his Maker. "It is the means", says Nasr, "by which man pulls the reins of his animal desires and realizes that he is more than an animal."
Fasting also begins with a declaration of intent to fast for the attainment of proximity to Allah. (II:184, 185, 187)
It is incumbent upon a muslim to know why he prays and why he fasts. Imaam Ali says, "One who knows not why he prays or why he fasts, his prayers and fasts are little more than meaningless physical exertions, hunger and thirst."
3. Hajj (Pilgrimage To Mecca).
Every Muslim who has attained puberty and has sufficient means not only to undertake a journey to Mecca but also for the subsistence of his dependants during his absence, must once in his life time perform pilgrimage.
Kaaba is the edifice which was presented to God as a gift by His Prophets Abraham and Ishmael.
The rites for the pilgrimage begin on the 8th of the eleventh month and culminate into the Idd of Sacrifice on the 10th. (II:158, 196-203; III:97; V:3; XXII 26:33).
A muslim's journey to the House of God, and there seeking his Maker's forgiveness through expression of repentance and the performance of all the rituals attending pilgrimage, is a spiritual experience so overwhelming that the pilgrim's very soul appears to undergo a purification.
The pilgrimage has another philosophical aspect.
In the Quraan, like in the Old Testament, there is the story of Abraham having been commanded to sacrifice his son. The Quraan, however, states that the son was Ishmael.
The father communicates the message to the young lad who had just attained puberty. The lad exhorts the father to comply with the divine command adding, "God willing, you shall find me amongst the patient ones."
Unbeknown to the mother, the father and the son travel to the planes of Arafaa, a short distance from Mecca. There they spend the night in prayers. The following afternoon they travel to the town of Meena where the sacrifice was to take place. They spend the night on the outskirts of the town. The following morning they enter Meena.
On the way to the appointed place, the Satan tries thrice to lure them into abandoning the enterprise, but each time the father and the son chase him away by throwing pebbles at him.
When they get to the place of sacrifice, the father blindfolds his son saying that he did not wish the lad to see the anguish on the father's face. He then blindfolds himself for, as he reasoned, how could any father watch his son die ?
God saves Ishmael by substituting a ram and sends His salutations to Abraham for his act of obedience. God also promises Abraham to immortalize the event. (II:125-127; III:96-97; XXXVII:101-111).
The mother, on learning what had happened, screams and falls unconscious at the thought of what might have happened had Allah not intervened to save her beloved son. Shortly afterwards she dies and is buried close to Kaaba. Her burial place is treated as being included in the hallowed ground around which the pilgrim circumambulates.
Every pilgrim takes the same route which Abraham and Ishmael had taken. He too spends the first night, as they did, in Arafaa and the second night outside Meena. He too symbolically stones the satan at the three places in Meena.
While of-course the visit to the House of Allah has its own great spirituality, the pilgrim also must reflect upon the rituals which appear to enshrine family values, parents' love for their off-spring, the vanquishing of the satan, the one within man's heart, by symbolically stoning him and above all the willingness to make sacrifices for the pleasure of God.
4. Zakah. (The Wealth Tax).
Zakah, which literally means purity or purification, is a wealth tax of a small percentage (usually 2.5%) for the benefit of the needy in the society. It is regarded as a debt to God and must be distributed for the pleasure of Allah to the less fortunate amongst one's relatives, and the orphans, and the needy, and the wayfarers, and the beggars, and for the freeing of slaves. (II: 2-3, II-43, II:177, IX:11, XXII:41, IX:71, III:91, XIV:91, XXIV:22, XXVI:9, XIV:35-37, XXII:26)
There are innumerable traditions of the Prophet insisting upon zakah being paid by every muslim. Imaam Ja'far Sadiq said that the one who does not give zakah can not expect his salaah to be accepted by Allah.
The Doctrine Of Five Pillars:
Many Sunni theologians, instead of enumerating the Articles of Faith and Acts of Worship separately, state that belief in God and the Prophet as affirmed in the creed (the Kalemah), together with the foregoing four acts of worship constitute the Five Pillars of Faith.
The Shiahs list the five Articles of Faith as the roots of religion (Usool-e-Deen) and the Acts of Worship as the branches of religion (Furoo-e-Deen).
In addition to the above acts of worship the Shiahs believe in the following acts of worship (The sunnis regard them as mandatory acts of piety):
5. Jihad Struggle Or Striving:
There are two kinds of jihad, the major jihad and the minor jihad.
The Major Jihad: (Jihad Al-Akbar)
This is the struggle against one's inner self (nafs) to subjugate and control one's passions and carnal desires. The base self (nafs-e-ammara) must be controlled by the conscience (nafs-e-lawwama), and only when one succeeds in this struggle does one attain the perfect self, the self at peace with itself (nafs-e-mutmainna). To those who attain this state, the God says:
" O the soul at peace, return to your Lord, pleased with His good pleasure AND enter into the company of My true servants. Enter the Garden !." (LXXXIX:27-30).
The Minor Jihad (Jihad Al-Asghar)
This means to struggle for Islam. Not for extension of boundaries, not for personal glory, not for the glory of any tribe, community or nation, but for the defence of Islam and the protection of its values. Such a struggle can take many forms, through the use of pen, through the use of tongue or through the use of the sword. This last form is often referred to in the Quraan as Qitaal (warfare).
In the Shiah theology, a general qitaal can be declared only by an Imaam. A mujtahid has no authority to summon Muslims to a jihad involving qitaal.
6. Amr Bi L-Ma'Aroof (Directing Others Towards Good).
It is an act of worship for a Muslim to advise and direct others to the doing of good deeds for the pleasure of Allah.
7. Nahy 'An Al Munkir (Directing Others Away From Evil).
Similarly it is the duty of every Muslim to advise others against committing sins. (III:103, 109, 113; VII:199; IX:71, 112; XXII:41; XXI:17.)
8. Khums (The One-Fifth Tax)
Only the Shiahs believe in this additional tax and they regard it as a major obligation of every Shiah Muslim. It was instituted by God as a token of regard for the Prophet and his family. (VII:1:41; XXXIII:27; LIX:6-9).
It is a 20% tax on all earnings after deduction of house-hold and commercial expenses.
Khums is paid to the mujtahid and is divided into two equal portions. One half of all receipts of khums by the mujtahid is the portion belonging to the Imaam in occultation and the mujtahid spends this portion in educational, social and economic projects for the betterment of the Shiah community. First priority is accorded to the community from which the khums was received. The second half is distributed amongst the poor and deserving descendants of the Prophet (the sayyids) each of whom may receive only up to a year's subsistence.
Other Acts Of Piety
Theocentricity:
Islam does not have the concept of secularism. All human activities must be either in accordance of the law (the shariah) or the prescribed code of conduct. An act which accords with either is an act of piety.
A muslim's must consider his life on this earth as a journey from his Maker to his Maker and must strive to gain the pleasure of his Maker. "Give glad tidings to the steadfast who say........We are from Allah and to Him we return'. Such are they upon whom are blessings from their Lord, and mercy. Such are the rightly guided." (II:155-157).
The purpose of every creation, other than humans) is to serve mankind (XXXI:20; XLV:13; LXVII:5). Man, who has been created of the best structure (XCV:4), must serve none other than Allah.(LI:56-58). It will be beneath the dignity and status of man to worship any being, thing or power other than Allah.
The doctrine of the Unity of God is not just an article of faith. It is an important factor in man's comprehension of himself and his raison d'etre. God the One, the Indivisible must be his sole Guide in his journey on this earth.
The sixth Imaam explaining the Unity of God said, " The true ibaadah is for the human being to ensure that the essence of the unity of God lies between his intent and his deed.
The Prophet has said, "Man's every action must incline towards Allah".
The Islamic ethical code is too vast and extensive to permit a full discussion in this course. We shall, therefore, confine ourselves to a cursory glance at a few aspects of the code of conduct.
Pursuit of Knowledge:
Islam regards ignorance as impure (najasah) and the acquisition of knowledge as a great act of piety. "One who has knowledge can never be equal to the one who is ignorant" (XXXIX:9).
The Prophet has said:
"It is the duty of every muslim male and every muslim female to seek knowledge".
"Seek knowledge even if you have to travel as far as China for it."
"Sitting an hour in a learned gathering is better than a thousand nights spent in performance of (optional) salaah, and better than engaging in a battle for the sake of God on thousand occasions. If one leaves one's house with the intention of gaining knowledge, for every step that he takes God shall bestow upon him the reward reserved for a prophet."
Parents:
Respect for, and obedience and kindness to, parents are enjoined upon Muslims. Obedience is, however, excused where the parents require injustice to be perpetrated. (XVII:23, XXIX:8, XXXI:14, XLVI:15-18).
The Prophet has said:
"It is an act of worship to look at either parent with affection and kindness".
"Allah is pleased when one has pleased his parents, and Allah is angry when one has angered either parent".
"Paradise lies under the feet of your mother".
Charity:
Quraan enjoins the spending of one's wealth in the cause of Allah, for the poor, the needy, the freeing of slaves, the curing of the sick and other good causes. Charity is a precondition to the attainment of piety. (II:195, 215, 245, 254, 261, 262-273; III:92; XXXVI:47; LVII:10, 11; LXIV:15-18)
There are innumerable traditions of the Prophet and the Imaams on the merits of charity. In one of these it is said, "If you have nothing to give, give a kind word or even just an affectionate smile."
Dissemination of knowledge by a scholar is an act of charity. So is the visiting of a sick.
Caring for the bereaved is also a great act of piety. There is a tradition which requires the extended family or the community to feed the immediate family of the deceased for at least three days after the death has occurred and to offer them solace and comfort.
Resisting Oppression:
Imaam Ali has said:
"
To suffer oppression passively is as bad as to commit oppression".
"He who makes no effort to alleviate the suffering of an oppressed one is an oppressor".
Justice:
A muslim is required to act with justice in all his dealings with other human beings and in all circumstances. (IV:58, 105, 135; VII:29; XVI:90).
In IV:135 the Quraan says:
"O You who believe, be staunch in justice.......though it may be against your interests, or the interests of your parents or near relatives, and whether you are dealing with a rich person or a poor person. Remember Allah is nearer to them both in compassion. Therefore do not follow your low desires."
Lewdness And Indecencies:
These are totally forbidden. (XVI:90)
Idle Chatter, Slander and Infringement of Privacy:
These are totally forbidden. (XLIX:11 & 12)
The Freeing of Slaves:
This is not only an act of piety but is also prescribed as the primary penalty for certain wilful acts or omissions e.g. failure to fast or repay a lapsed fast, infringement of any regulation required to be observed during pilgrimage etc.
Liberation of slaves was also highly recommended as an atonement for various sins.
Ill treatment of slaves and servants is also forbidden.
It is highly recommended that zakaah and other alms be spent for liberating slaves. (XXIV:33; IX:60; II:177; XC:12, 13).
Reasoning And Reflection:
"Will they not reflect and ponder on the Quraan or are there locks on their intellect ?" (XLVII:24)
"Say unto them, O Muhammad: I exhort you unto one thing only. That you awake for Allah's sake, by two or singly, and then reflect." (XXXIV:46)
"In the creation of heavens and earth and in the difference between night and day are tokens for men of understanding. These are those who remember Allah, standing, sitting, and reclining, and consider the creation of the heavens and the earth, (and then cry out): Our Lord! Thou hast not created this in vain. Glory be to Thee !" (III:190-191).
The eighth Imaam has said:
"Worship does not lie in engaging oneself in saying prayers endlessly or in fasting copiously, but in engaging oneself in the contemplation of the works of Allah."
