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PART III
The
Shi'ah - The Divine Code of Living
The Imamiyah Shi'as believe that an ordinance or order
of the Islamic code exists for every matter of life. The
Divine Law has not even ignored the "diyat"
(conciliation money) for injury of a very minor nature.
There is no action of a "mukallaf" (a sane,
adult person) which does not come under the scope of the
following definitions: "wajib" (compulsory);
"haram" (unlawful); mustahabb (desirable);
makruh (undesirable) and mubah (lawful). Whether it is a
matter of mutual transactions, trade, marriage or a
promise and a pledge, the religious code will certainly
guide us as to whether it is right or wrong.
The personality of the Holy Prophet (s.a.w.) was the
fountainhead of all divine orders. God the Almighty
conveyed these orders to the last Prophet (s.a.w.)
through "wahy" (revelation through Jibril) or
"ilham" (divine inspiration). The Holy Prophet
(s.a.w.) communicated them to the people according to the
circumstances prevailing, particularly to those
companions who had been close to him at all times, so
that they might carry on the mission of preaching
throughout the whole world. There were many ordinances
however which could not be taught, because the time for
them was not opportune, or because there was no need for
them during the time of the Prophet (it is also possible
that they could not be promulgated for some particular
reason known only to God). Hence some orders were known
while some remained secret. The Holy Prophet entrusted
these secret ordinances to his (divinely appointed)
vicegerents. Later every "wasi" (vicegerent)
communicated them to his successor, so that, according to
the need of the hour and the spirit of the time, they
might be made public.
The Holy Prophet taught as much as he thought proper
for the situation and as much as the companions could
understand according to their intellect. The recipients
of this teaching were blessed according to their own
capacity. It also happened that one companion received a
positive order concerning a certain matter, and others
heard a negative order in a matter resembling the former.
The result was that the act was one but orders were
(seemingly) two.
We must ask what the cause of this difference was. The
reality of the situation was such that each matter was
slightly different from the other: each had a particular
distinguishing aspect. Those present who reported what
happened at the scene, either did not pay attention to
this or that peculiarity, or, if they did recognise it,
did not mention this or that particular aspect. Because
of inaccurate description of the circumstances,
traditions may appear to contradict each other, but in
reality they each apply to different circumstances. This
inaccuracy caused difficulties in recognising the exact
meaning of an instruction given to us by the Prophet.
Accordingly, the companions who had the honour of close
companionship with the Prophet supported
"ijtihad". That is they realised the necessity
for a thorough investigation of the text of the hadith
and the situation in which it occurred. The different
aspects of the hadith were probed, since the apparent
meaning of the tradition is often different from the real
aim of the codifier. It has been pointed out earlier,
that these difference were largely due to faulty copying
or shortcomings on the part of the reporters.
Those companions of the Holy Prophet (s.a.w.) who were
just and trustworthy and who were also reporters of
traditions sometimes reproduced the statement of the
Prophet (s.a.w.) in exactly the same words in which they
had heard it, while sometimes, in place of the text of
the tradition, they would state the order or commandment
which was inferred from the tradition in question. In the
first instance their position is that of a reporter or
traditionalist, and in the second they have the position
of learned scholars who declare their opinion about the
meaning of the hadiths; the latter are also called
"mujtihids".
All Muslims who do not have this ability and so
therefore follow the opinion of the mujtahid, are called
"muqallid". The act of acting on the verdicts
of a mujtahid is called "taqlid".
After a thorough examination of this matter we find
that during the time of the Holy Prophet (s.a.w.), the
door of ijtihad was open and the companions of the
Prophet (s.a.w.) themselves acted upon it; of course at
that time ijtihad was not so strong as it is today,
because the people could ask the Prophet (s.a.w.)
directly about any matter they were not sure of.
As time passed, however, and relations between the
Arabs and non-Arabs increased, there were difficulties in
understanding the correct meanings of the Arabic
language. The number of traditions and reports became
larger. Among them were very many doubtful and fabricated
traditions. At this stage it was not easy to test the
validity of the religious orders. Accordingly
"ijtihad" grew stronger and the modes of
analysis of hadith were refined: scholars began to
distinguish between correct and the faulty statements.
The principle of preference was put into practice after a
thorough investigation of two conflicting hadiths. Among
the Imamiyah sect this blessing still exists.
We may observe, moreover, that all people are from one
of two groups according to whether they have knowledge or
not. Those without knowledge have to seek the help of the
other group in all matters of which they are ignorant.
Similarly in the religious world there are also two
classes: the learned mujtahid and the ignorant muqallid.As a matter of principle, the people of the second class
should turn to the people of the first class in order to
learn what they themselves do not know. Like all other
Muslims the Shi'a believe that all religious orders are
based upon the "kitab" (Qur'an), and the
"sunnah" (the sayings, practise or approval of
the Prophet, and, in Shi'ite Islam, the Imams). They add
to these "aql" (intellectual reasoning) and
"ijma" (consensus of opinion). The Imamiyah
sect do not agree with others in the following matters.
Firstly, the Shi'as never act upon "qiyas"
(arrival at decisions through analogy and reasoned
supposition) because their Imams have on many occasions
said that if supposition is allowed in religious matters
the entire structure of religion will be dashed to the
ground. We would have stated in detail the evils of such
a method had not the aim of this book been merely to
outline the fundamentals of Shi'a beliefs.
Secondly, if a tradition of the Holy Prophet (s.a.w.)
comes through the Ahlu 'l-bayt (a.s.) it is reliable,
otherwise it is unacceptable. The unauthentic traditions,
reported by persons like Abu Hurayrah, Samrah ibn Jundub,
Marwan ibn Hakam, 'Imran ibn Hattan al-Kharji and 'Amr
ibn al-'As for example, have no value in our eyes. Even
the Sunni 'ulama' have strongly condemned these
reporters, and have revealed the selfish or political
motives for their reporting false hadiths.
Thirdly, as we have seen, the door of
"ijtihad" is still open and shall remain open
forever. Among the majority community, however, the doors
of ijtihad are locked. When and on what basis this
practice started cannot perhaps be adequately answered
even by their 'ulama' themselves.
Besides these three matters, all other differences
pertain to the articles of practice.
One who, by reasoning and logic, gains the power of
drawing conclusions and making inferences can be said to
have reached the rank of being able to do ijtihad; the
mujtahid however should possess certain other qualities
if we are to accept what he says about the divine code to
be followed. The most important quality is that he
possess a sense of "adalah'' (justice).
"Adalah'' means that quality of the inner spirit
with which a man can abstain from carnal desires and can
develop a command over the correct performance of
compulsory acts. In other words it is the state of fear
of God which always permeates the just man's mind. It is
of several degrees, the highest being the degree of
"ismah" (infallibility) which is a condition
for the Imamate.
Besides this there are necessary or obvious matters
(those matters which pertain to sure knowledge in which
there is neither "taqlid" nor
"ijtihad", for instance the compulsion to
"sawm" (fasting) and "salat"
(prayers).
Similarly the fundamentals of religion are also beyond
the sphere of "taqlid", because they are
matters for personal investigation on the part of every
adult person: this search to determine for oneself the
truth and reality of the fundamentals of Islam depends on
the corresponding sagacity, understanding and cognition
of each individual and cannot be left to the opinion of
others. All other matters concerning the articles of
practice come under the scope of "ijtihad" and
"taqlid". indeed every action of man is
encompassed by this code of religion. Hence to know the
corresponding law for each action is very necessary.
There are only two ways of arriving at this knowledge:
taqlid or ijtihad. It should be remembered that it is
incumbent on each Muslim to make use of one of these two
ways; if not, he will have to suffer punishment on the
Day of Judgement. We may describe a Muslim's actions in
the following way:
a) Some actions are concerned with God and His
servants. These are called "ibadat" (acts of
service or slavery). Their correctness depends upon one's
making the intention of coming closer to God.
"Ibadat" may be either physical, like
"salat" (prayer), "sawm" (fasting)
and "hajj" (making the pilgrimage to Makkah),
or financial like "khums" (a giving of
one-fifth of certain commodities: e.g. booty of war,
treasure-trove, wealth from mineral desposits),
"zakat", "kaffarat" (fines or
penalties).
b) Some actions pertain to the individual and his
relations with society. They are of two kinds: involving
agreement between two persons (such as mutual
transactions and marriage), and others involving the
decision of just one party (for instance
"talaq" (divorce) and "itq" (the
setting free of a slave).
c) Some actions are purely individual and personal;
for example, eating, drinking and the clothes one chooses
to wear.
Fiqh
(Jurisprudence)
Fiqh deals with all the orders and commandments which
govern the previously mentioned actions. The most
important acts of 'ibadat are six in number: two are
purely physical ("salat" and "sawm"),
two are purely "financial" ("khums"
and "zakat"), and two are common to each
category ("hajj" and "jihad"). God,
the Almighty, says:
"You should perform jihad with your wealth and
yourselves." (jahidu bi amwalikum wa anfusikum).
Finally, "kaffarat" (penalties) are special
kinds of punishments for particular crimes.
1. Salat (prayer)
Like all other Muslims, the Shi'as too regard
"salat" as one of the pillars of religion. This
prayer is a means of bringing God's servant near to Him.
If one does not perform the prayer, the relation between
God and His servant is broken. That is why the traditions
of Ahlu 'l-bayt (a.s.) say that not offering the prayer
even once or twice is the distinguishing mark between
infidelity and Islam.According to the religious code "salat" has
great importance. No other act of worship can bear
comparison with it. The Imamiyah sect unanimously believe
that anyone who does not perform "salat" is a
great sinner: moreover he has no place in Islamic
society. He is neither credible nor trustworthy- One is
even permitted to criticize him behind his back. There
are very strict orders about "salat"; five
kinds of "salat" are compulsory;
1. The five daily prayers.2. The "salatu 'l-jum'ah" (the Friday prayers)3. "Salatu 'l-ayat" (on the occasion of a solar
or lunar eclipse, an earthquake, or any frightening
natural event). 4. "Salatu 'l-'idayn" (the salat of 'idu
'l-fitr and 'idu'l-azhar). 5. "Salatu Ka'bah).
In addition, an adult person may make
"salat" compulsory for himself by making a
promise or taking an oath to perform a certain number of
prayers or by accepting a reward for performing prayers
under certain conditions.Besides these, all other kinds of salat are
"nawafil" (supererogatory prayers). The most
important "nawafil" am those attached to the
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