The Emergence of the Shīʻa

HSTAFM 162 January 26, 2016

The Family of the Prophet (ahl al-bayt)

Prophet Muḥammad |

Fāṭima ʻAlī (1) —Ḥasan (2) Ḥusayn (3)

ʻAlī Zayn al-ʻĀbidīn (4) Muḥammad al-Bāqir (5) Jaʻfar al-Ṣādiq (6) Mūsā al-Kāẓim (7) ʻAlī al-Riḍā (8) Muḥammad al-Taqī (9) ʻAlī al-Naqī (10) Ḥasan ʻAskarī (11) Muḥammad al-Mahdī (12)

Zaydīs — Zayd b. ʻAlī

Ismāʻīlīs — Ismāʻīl

Contemporary Twelver Shīʻa Doctrine

• The Five “Principles of Religion” (uṣūl al-dīn)

• Belief in the unity of God (tawḥīd)

• Belief in the mission of the prophets (nubuwwa)

• Belief in the compensation in the hereafter (maʻād)

• Belief in Divine Justice (ʻadl)

• Belief in the sacred nature of the Imams (imāma)

The figure of the Imām

• Imām as religious scholar

• Imām as initiatory guide

• Imām as the the revealed face of God

Kūfa and the Early Shīʻa• Kūfa as early base of ʻAlī b. Abī Ṭālib and his

supporters

• Ḥusayn inherits the leadership of the Shīʻa after the death of his quietist brother Ḥasan.

• The situation of Kūfa was deemed suitable for political revolt against the Umayyads by Ḥusayn’s cousin.

• Unbeknownst to Ḥusayn, the Umayyad governor of ʻIrāq, known as Ibn Ziyād, on orders from the caliph Yazīd I quells the political unrest in Kūfa.

The Battle of Karbalāʼ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aKAPL9Fkz4

‘Moderate’ Shīʻism

From 632 – about 765 ‘Shīʻī means…

• Belief that ‘Ali was the best and most knowledgeable of the Companions

• Or… that he have been the first caliph (but not necessarily that the first three were illegitimate).

• That in general the family of the Prophet had a prominent role in leadership of the umma.

Early Extremist Shīʻism (ghuluww)

Mukhtār b. Abi ‘Ubayd and the Kaysāniyya

• During the second civil war Mukhtār leads of group of Kufans, mostly non-Arabs, to support Muḥammad b. al-Ḥanafiyya (‘Ali’s son by a second wife, not Fatema), whom they believed was the mahdī (messianic figure)

• Rebellion starts in 685 CE, and it is crushed (and Mukhtar killed) in 687 by Ibn al-Zubayr

• When Muhammad b. al-Ḥanafiyya died in 701, the remaining Kaysāniyya believed that he had merely gone into occultation and would return as the Mahdi

The Legacy of Messianism

• Notion of living figure from the family of the Prophet as Mahdī

• Notion that an imam disappears, not dead but also not with us fully in this world, to reappear at some undetermined time as the Mahdī

Reoccurring themes in Shiite and even Sunni Islam

Ismaili/Sevener ShiismOriginally those who believed that the 6th imam’s son,

Ismāʻīl, his chosen successor who died before his father, was in occultation and would return as the Mahdi.

They set up armed camps for their followers in Syria, Southern Iraq and Algeria. All swore allegiance to the awaited imam.

Prophets only gave the external part of the religion - each one had an ‘Inheritor’ who told the inner meaning of the faith (Jesus’ was Peter). Then each was followed by 7 imams. Ismail went into occultation and will return to remove the Shariah so that mankind can follow the original religion of Adam: pure worship of the Creator.

Zaydī Shīʻism

• Originally developed in Southern Iraq, Daylam (south shore of the Caspian sea) and then the mountains of Yemen

• Any member of the family of the Prophet who has scholarly expertise and stands up against injustice can be the imam.

• Ali should have been first caliph, but Prophet’s edicts ambiguous—only the worst Companions are sinful

• Difference from Sunnism: Focus on the family of the prophet through ʻAlī, Mutaʻzilite theology (rationalism)

• Differences from Twelver Shiism: no appointed & exclusive line of imams, no focus on mahdī

The Formation of Doctrinal Twelver or Imami Shiism

874 or 878, 11th Imam dies with no known heir.

Yet Prominent Shiites close to the family say he had a son who was hidden away by the ‘Abbasids in Samarra. Fed up with the world, he went into a cave and disappeared, to return as the Mahdi and fill the world with justice as it was full of injustice

Until 941, a series of 4 ‘Ambassadors’ communicate with the 12th imam.

Twelver/Imami ShiismBy 950 CE Imami Shiite doctrine had formed:

• Pending the imam’s return, the Shīʻī ulama are responsible for guiding the religious lives of his followers: collect tithes etc.

• The sources for law and doctrine are:

• The Quran: as interpreted by the imams

• The Sunna of the Prophet (as understood by the Shīʻa)

• The Sunna of the Imams = infallible

• In the absence of evidence from these sources, ʻulamā can use analogical reasoning