Sunni faqt board top people8/6/2023 ![]() Imam Hussein epitomized opposition to tyranny, oppression, and the struggle against the chronic injustices of the world. ![]() No less significant to Shi’a collective consciousness were the humiliation and desecration of the body of the Prophet’s grandson. For over a millennium and until the advent of Ayatollah Khomeini, Shi’a ulema tended to shy away from politics-considering Sunni Caliphs as usurpers of power but advocating political quietism, especially considering the position of Shi’a as a perennial minority in Islamic thought. However, the example of Imam Hussein and subsequent killings of the Prophet Muhammad’s descendants by Sunni caliphs fundamentally shaped the Shi’a concept of jihad. According to the dominant Twelver Shi’a denomination, twelve imams-descendants of the Prophet-were the rightful rulers of the Muslim umma in its entirety. The Twelfth Imam was saved in order to eventually return as the Mahdi or the Guided One and, together with Jesus, “shall fill the earth with knowledge of God and justice.” But eleven were murdered and only the Twelfth Imam was saved and taken into occultation by God in 874. In sharp contrast with Sunni doctrine, a central belief of Shi’a communities is in the infallibility of the Imams and in the imamate’s leadership of the umma. However, with the Twelfth Imam in occultation, leadership of umma passed on to the mujtahids, learned scholars of Islam, as stewards until the return of the Mahdi. This transition of power from infallible to fallible leadership has left room for dispute, especially in terms of when and whether jihad should be declared. Ultimately, two schools of Shi’a jurisprudence emerged that addressed the ulema’s spiritual and socio-political role in the absence of the Hidden Imam. The Akhbari school, like Sunni Islam, generally argued that the Koran and the statements of the Prophet and the imams (akhbars) were sufficient to guide the faithful without the use of ijtihad-independent scholarly judgment and interpretation of holy scriptures. Significantly, the Akhbari school rejected the legitimacy of jihad during the occultation of the imam. In contrast, the Usuli school argued that the faithful required mujtahids to engage in ijtihad in order to continue guiding the umma. According to this view, every believer must follow a mujtahid, who acts as a marja’ taqlid: a model to imitate and follow. Senior mujtahids came to be called Ayatollahs (sign of God), which developed into the concept of a single marja’ taqlid to whom all others deferred. Consequently, senior mujtahids assumed the worldly duties previously considered prerogatives of the infallible imams. Mujtahids could now, among other things, declare jihad (holy war), and make binding legal judgments through the application of reason to extant Islamic sources.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |