was his task to elucidate the doctrine of the Imamate and
In this attempt Ja'far put the utmost emphasis on two |
Imam largely on the principle of Nass This is evident from
The second fundamental principle embodied in the |
therefore inherently possessed of all the authority to guide
As we shall see presently in the traditions of Al-Baqir and "This claim was perhaps initially less a matter of the knowledge |
gift inherited from Imam to Imam. Accordingly, as the exclusively With the Imamate thus based on Nass and 'Ilm, as According to the traditions related in this connection, Al-
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Ja'far explained that the Imamate is bequeathed from In explaining the position of the Imam, Ja'far made
Ja'far goes on to declare that the Imam of the time is the |
In fact, according to the Imam Ja'far's explanation, there As has been pointed out earlier, in order to prove his rights
It was at the time of Ja'far that such verses were being |
more weight to Ja'far's interpretations than to those who only
Like Nass, the "special knowledge" of religion ('Ilm) which
Another very relevant and rather difficult problem connected |
Qur'anic verse referring to the people of the House "from The tradition is a long one. But perhaps the most important
Through such traditions, Ja'far in his own lifetime
Such an hereditary claim to the Imamate based on Nass |
danger of persecution by the 'Abbasids, who also claimed "This affair (amr) [the Imamate and the esoteric meaning of In a conversation with Mu'alla b. Khunays, one of the "Keep our affair secret, and do not divulge it publicly, for The esoteric mysteries of religion were Wilayat Allah, |
secrets among the common people: "Our secret continued to A careful examination of the development of the concept In Al-Baqir's period the doctrine of Taqiya was established |
elaborated Taqiya as one of the doctrines of Shi'i faith out of It is, however, hardly disputable that the doctrine of Taqiya,
There is another important point which must be discussed |
addition to 'Uthmin. (45) Baghdadi says that As-Saba'iya This early group of ghulat seems to have been absorbed by
There was, however, another very active group in Kufa, |
al-Ju'fi, (50) Abu Hamza ath-Thumali; (51) and Mu'adh b. Farra
Perhaps no follower of Al-Baqir and Ja'far dared to go so
"'O Jabir, the first beings that God created were Muhammad If we compare the ideas of the ghulat concerning God's
It is perhaps for this reason that later ghulat groups accepted |
the views of Al-Baqir, and probably only little of what Jabir
However, in spite of the fact that ghuluw was repeatedly There are, however, numerous traditions in Kafi in which |
they declared that they were simply God-fearing men, Moreover, the fact that the ghulat or semi-ghulat were We have so far been discussing the extremists and semi- |
Ya'fur, a resident of Kufa. He opposed his fellow Kufans, There was still another group among the followers of Ja'far,
In this group, mention should first be made of Abu'l-Hasan |
great Mu'tazilite leader. This itself suggests that under After the death of Al-Baqir, Zurara belonged to the circle Zurara, who only occasionally paid visits to Ja'far in Among Zurara's pupils, who were all devoted followers of Together with other theological and scholastic problems, |
Zurara and his disciples evolved the theory that the knowledge
Abu Ja'far Muhammad b. Nu'man al-Ahwal was another
The greater part of his intellectual activities in promoting |
legitimist Imams on rational grounds. (86) As a zealous Another foremost supporter of Ja'far in this circle was Perhaps the greatest of all the Shi'i thinkers of Ja'far's The theories regarding God and other scholastic questions |
Imamate by an explicit designation (nass), and after him, his While so many speculative theologians from among the
To this list of the frequently quoted jurists of Ja'far's period |
important and outstanding jurist-traditionist, and formerly
It is important to note that almost all these jurist-
From this brief summary of the activities of individuals
There are many Shi'i creeds preserved for us by the earliest
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wilaya of Al-Hasan and Al-Husayn, the wilaya of 'Ali b. al- Having heard this, Ja'far declared: "This, by God, is indeed my religion and the religion of my Similar statements are recorded by Kashshi from Dawud The question of the Qur'an may serve as the best illustration "Our belief concerning the Qur'an is that it is the Word of God, |
(daffatayn). And it is that which is in the hands of the people, and In this statement of Saduq on the Qur'an, two points are
We are not, however, concerned here with the details of the
Keeping in view what has been discussed throughout this
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Notes to Chapter 11
(1) See Ibn Hazm's discussion in Friedlander, "The Heterodoxies of the Shi'ites in the Presentation of Ibn Hazm", JAOS, XXVI II ('907), p.74 (2) Ash'ari, Maqalat al-Islamiyin, ed. Helmut Ritter (Istanbul, 1929), pp.16-17 (3) A title with which the Sunni heresiographers describe the Twelver Shi'a. For the meaning and use of the term, see Watt, "The Rafidites: A Preliminary Study", Oriens, XVI (1963) (4) Tabari, II, p. 1700 (5) Hodgson, "How Did the Early Shi'a Become Sectarian ?", JAOS ('955), p.10 (6) For such claims made by these ghulat, see Nawbakhti, Firaq, pp. 25, 30, 39, 52-55; Sa'd al-Ash'ari, Maqalat:, pp. 33, 35, 37; Shahrastani, Milal, 1, pp.178, 176. Sa'd al-Ash'ari (Maqalat, p.37) writes that Bayan claimed the Imamate as the legatee of Aba Hashim, and not as that of Al-Baqir. (7) Kulayni, Kafi, I, p. 208 (8) ibid., I, p.261 (9) Hodgson, op. cit., p.11 (10) ibid. (11) Kashshi, Rijal, p.285 (12) Kulayni, Kafi, I, p.274 (13) Kulayni, Kafi, I, p.356 (14) ibid., pp.265 f.; Kashshi, Rijal p.427 (15) Kulayni, Kafi, I, p.318 (16) Kulayni, Kafi (17) ibid., p.462 (18) ibid., Pp.214-220 (19) See Kulayni, Kafi, I, pp.207 ff.; Saduq, Risalat al-Itiqadat, trans. A. A. A. Fyzee, A Shi'ite Creed (London 1942), p.96 (20) Kulayni, Kafi, I, pp.205, 207, 304 f. (21) ibid,, p.205 (22) ibid. (23) See Kulayni, Kafi; "Kitab al-Hujja", passim; Mufid, Irshad, I, Pp.304-13 (24) Qur'an, 111, 6 (25) Kulayni, Kafi, I, p.262 (26) See Wensinck, Handbook of Early Muhammadan Tradition (Leiden 1960), under the heading "'Ali" |
(27) Ibn Sa'd, II, p. lox
(28) ibid.
(29) Kulayni, Kafi, I, pp.330 f.
(30) "And God only wishes to remove from you [all kinds of] uncleanliness, O Ahl al-Bay: [of Muhammad], and thoroughly purify you." (31) See Tha'labi, Tafsir, p.402 (32) Kulayni; Kafi, II, p.488 (33) ibid. (34) ibid., p.487 (35) ibid., p. 486 (36) Kulayni, Kafi, I, p.483 (37) Qur'an, V, 67 (38) Qur'an, XVI, 106 (39) Kulayni, Kafi; I, p. 483 (40) "Das Prinzip der Takija im Islam" , ZDMG, LX (1996), pp.213-20 (41) Saduq, Creed, p.110 (42) Kashshi; Rijal p.419 (43) See E12 article "'Abd Allah b. Saba"' (44) Sa'd al-Ash'ari; Maqalat, p.20; Nawbakhti, Firaq, p.22 (45) Sa'd al-Ash'ari, loc. cit.; Nawbakhti; loc. cit. (46) Farq, p.32 (47) Kashshi, Rijal, p. 296; Shahrastani, Milal, I, p. 152; Ash'ari, Maqalat, pp. 6-9 (48) See Kashshi, Rijal 44 p. 148, passim; Nawbakhti, Firaq, p.34 (49) Kashshi; Rijal, p.223 (50) See Sam'ani, Ansab, p. 113b; Kashshi, Rijal, pp. 191 ff.; Najashi, Rijal pp.93 f. (51) See Chapter 9 (52) Ha'iri; Muntaha, pp.202 f.; Ibn Nadim, Fihrist, p.66 (53) Kafi, I, p.279 (54) See Ivanow, "Notes sur Umm al-Kitab", REI, 1932 (55) See E. E. Salisbury, "Translation of an Unpublished Arabic Risala", YAOS, 1853, pp. 167-3 (56) e.g., Kafi, pp. 365 ff.; Kashshi, Rijal pp. 324 f. (57) e.g., Kafi, I, p.308, passim (58) Ya'qubi, II, p.381; Kashshi, Rijal, p.224 (59) See Donaldson, The Shi'ite Religion, p.135 (60) Kashshi, Rijal, p. 224 See Hodgson, op. cit., p.13 (61) Kashshi, Rijal, p.247 (62) ibid. (63) ibid. (64) Tusi; Fihrist, pp.141 ff.; Ha'iri, Muntaha, pp. 135; Hill'; Rijal p.76 |
(65) Ha'iri; Muntaha, p.120
(66) Kashshi, Rijal, p.135; Tusi, Fihrist, p.146; Ha'iri, Muntaha, p.136 (67) Abu Ahmad Muhammad b. Abi 'Umayr Ziyad b. 'Isa, a traditionist and companion of Musa al-Kazim and 'Ali ar-Rida, who is said to have written four books. See Najashi, p.228; Ha'iri, Muntaha, p.254 (68) Kashshi, Rija1, p.135 (69) Kashshi; Rijal, p.138. For the reference to Khidr, see Qur'an, XVIII, 71 (70) Ibn Nadim, Fihrist, p. 220; Ha'iri, Muntaha, p.136 (71) Ha'iri, Muntaha, p.93; Ibn Nadim, Ioc. cit. (72) Ha'iri, Muntaha, p.110; Ibn Nadim, loc. cit. (73) Ha'iri, Muntah4, p.99; Ibn Nadim, loc. cit.; Tusi; Fihrist, p.202, referring to him as 'Ubayd b. Zurara (74) Ibn Nadim, loc. cit.; Kashshi, Rijal, p.176 (75) Ha'iri, Muntaha, p.131; Tusi, Fihrist, p. "7 (76) Kashshi, Rijal, p. 18 I; Ha'iri, Muntah4, p.68; Ibn Nadim, loc. cit. (77) Tusi, Fihrist, p. 188; Ha'iri, Muntaha, p. 182; Ibn Nadim, loc. cit. (78) A brother of Hisham b. al-Hakam; see Ha'iri, Muntaha, p.271 (79) Ash'ari, Maqalat, I, p. 43 (80) For the last two, see below, pp.307-8 (81) Ash'ari, Maqalat, I, p.28, referring to At-Tamimiya (82) See a detailed account of the activities of Zurara and his circle in Kashshi, Rijal pp. 133-61 (83) Detailed accounts can be found in Ash'ari, Maqalat, II, pp.36 f.; Baghdadi, Farq, p.43; Shahrastani; Milal, I, p. 186 (84) Kashshi, Rijal, pp. 185 ff; Najashi, Rijal, p.228; Sa'd al- Ash'ari, Maqalat, p.88; Tusi, Fihrist, p.223; Ibn Nadim, Fihrist, p.176; Ha'iri, Muntaha, p.295; Huh, Rijal p.138 (85) Najashi, Rijal p.228; Kashshi, Rijal p.187 (86) See Kashshi, Rija1, pp. '35 ff; Ibn 'Abd Rabbih, 'Iqd, II, p.465 (87) See Ibn Nadim, Fihrist, p. 176; Najashi, Rijal p. 228; Shahrastani, Milal, I, p.187 (88) Kashshi, Rijal p. 185 (89) Kashshi, Rijal pp.280 ff; Najashi, Rijal, p.305; Tusi, Fihrist, p.354; Ha'iri; Muntaha, PP.323-4. For his ideas, also see Ash'ari, Maqalat, I, p. 34; Baghdadi, Farq, p.139; Shahrastani, Milal pp. 184. Fakhr ad-Din ar-Razi, I'tiqadat, p.64; Nawbakhti; Firaq, p.66; Ibn Nadim, Fihrist, p.177 (90) A mawla of Kinda, but often described as the client of the Banu Shayban, because he attached himself to that tribe. See Kashshi, |
Rijal pp. 475 ff.; Tusi, Fihrist, p.353; Najashi, Rijal, p.304; Ibn Nadim, Fihrist, p.175; Ha'iri Muntaha, pp.322 ff. (91) A mawla of the Banu Asad, he lived in Basra, where he frequented the circles of the local Mu'tazilite mutakallimun. See Najashi, p. 176; Ha'iri Muntaha, pp. 207; Tusi, Fihrist, p.212; Kashshi, Rijal, p.213 (92) Kashshi, Rijal p.214 (93) See Ash'ari, Maqalat, I, p.48, and index; Shahrastani, Milal, I, pp. 184 ff., and index (94) Kashshi, Rijal, p.375. For the biographical data and detailed information on them, see Kashshi, Rijal, index; Najashi, Rijal index; Ha'iri, Muntaha, passim (95) Kashshi, Rijal, p.375 (96) See Kashshi, Rijal p.330; Ha'iri, Muntaha, p.17; Najashi, Rijal pp.7-10; Dhahabi, Mizan, I, pp.4-s (97) See Kashshi, Rijal p.330 (98) Kashshi, Rijal, p. 418 (99) See Kashshi, Rijal, pp. 419 f. (100) Saduq, Creed, pp.84 f.
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