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46-511: The term Akhbari comes from khabara'at , news or reports, while Usuli comes from Uṣūl al-fiqh , principles of Islamic jurisprudence. Akhbaris, unlike Usulis, do not accept Usul al-fiqh -- i.e. the attempt to draw up a coherent set of legal principles based on rulings made by the Imams prior to the Occultation ( ghayba ) of the last Imam, "married with other sources of revelation (such as

92-521: A mujtahid when seeking to determine Islamically correct behavior. Since the crushing of the Akhbaris in the late 18th century, it has been the dominant school of Twelver Shi'a and now forms an overwhelming majority within the Twelver Shia denomination . The name Usuli derives from the term Uṣūl al-fiqh (principles of jurisprudence). In Usuli thought, there are four valid sources of law:

138-583: A "source of imitation" (Arabic marja taqlid مرجع تقليد, Persian marja ) or less exaltedly as an "imitated one" (Arabic مقلَد muqallad ). However, his verdicts are not to be taken as the only source of religious information and he can be always corrected by other muqalladeen (the plural of muqallad) which come after him. Obeying a deceased muqallad is forbidden in Usuli. Taqlid has been introduced by scholars who felt that Quranic verses and traditions were not enough and that ulama were needed not only to interpret

184-468: A condemnation of reading philosophy and theosophy. But Shaykh Yusuf accepted the validity of Friday prayers in the Occultation and did not completely reject Usuli positions on other issues. His Bahrani neo-Akhbarism sought to be an intermediate path between extremist Usulism and extremist Akhbarism. Under al-Bahrani, Usuli scholarship was considered impure but Bahrani was not politically influential. It

230-455: A few more decades but eventually the Usuli triumph was complete and only a handful of Shī‘a ulamā' remained Akhbari to the present day. After the theological coup brought about by al-Wahid Bihbahani by military methods, the Usuli school became instrumental to the Iranian regime. During the first Russo-Persian War (1804–1813) , Fath Ali Shah 's son and heir, Abbas Mirza , who was conducting

276-527: A tiny minority within Shia Islam, with Usulis making up the mainstream majority. Akhbarism started as a movement with the writings of Muhammad Amin al-Astarabadi (d. 1627) and achieved its greatest influence in the late Safavid (1501-1736) and early post-Safavid era. However, shortly thereafter Muhammad Baqir Behbahani (d. 1792), along with other Usuli mujtahids , crushed the Akhbari movement. Today it

322-462: A traditionalist approach. The second wave of the Usuli was shaped in the Mongol period when al-Hilli introduced the term mujtahid , meaning an individual qualified to deduce ordinances on the basis of authentic religious arguments. By developing the theory of the usul , al-Hilli introduced more legal and logical norms which extended the meaning of the usul beyond the four principal sources. Amili

368-573: Is either right or wrong; further they believe that Hadiths compiled in The Four Books of Shias are reliable. It is reported that Imam Muhammad al-Mahdi acknowledged the Kitab al-Kafi (which is one of The Four Books of Shias ) and said "al-Kafi is sufficient for our Shia (followers)". (In contrast, Usulis doubt the credibility of this saying as it is not found in the Kitab al-Kafi .) Akhbaris also differ from Usulis in their rejection of

414-471: Is found primarily in the Basra area of southern Iraq (where they form the majority in many districts) although no longer in the city. They are also found in the island nation of Bahrain , Hyderabad, India , Tanzania and different cities of Pakistan ( Karachi , Sehwan , Hyderabad , Lahore , Faisalabad , Chakwaal , and Gojar Khan ) with reportedly "only a handful of Shi'i ulama " remaining Akhbari "to

460-659: Is used mostly by Twelver Shias . Shi'a Muslims use different books of hadith from those used by Sunni Muslims, who prize the six major hadith collections . In particular, Twelver Shi'a consider many Sunni transmitters of hadith to be unreliable because many of them took the side of Abu Bakr , Umar , Uthman and Ali instead of only Ali (and the rest of Muhammad 's family) and the majority of them were narrated through certain personalities that waged war against Ahlul Bayt or sided with their enemies such as Aisha that fought Ali at Jamal, or Muawiya who did so at Siffin. Hussain (grandson of Muhammad and son of Ali ibn Abi Talib)

506-566: The Guardianship of the Islamic Jurists , arguing that preachers of religion have no role in politics, clerics should advise political leaders but not govern themselves. Akhbaris believe in the separation of religion and state in absence of Twelfth Imam, they say that only an infallible ruling Imam has a right to combine religion and state; and which will be accomplished only after the arrival of awaited Shia Imam. Usūlism evolved on

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552-666: The Quran and his progeny, the Ahl al-Bayt , (which Twelvers consider to be the Twelve Imams). Therefore, even for new events occurring during the Major Occultation , Akhbaris continue to follow the traditions of Ahlul Bayt, as per the saying of Imam Muhammad al-Mahdi where he said "As for the new events, which will occur (during my occultation) turn to the narrators of our traditions, because they are my proof to you, while I am

598-592: The Quran , hadith , ijma' and 'aql . Ijma' refers to a unanimous consensus. Aql, in Shia jurisprudence, is applied to four practical principles which are applied when other religious proofs are not applicable: bara'at (immunity), ihtiyat (recommended precautions), takhyir (selection), and istishab (the presumption of continuity in the previous state). The term Usuli is also sometimes used to refer more generally to students of usul especially among early Muslims, without regard to Shia Islam. Students/scholars of

644-568: The principles of fiqh are distinguished from scholars of fiqh itself, whose scholars are known as faqīh (plural fuqahā' ). The Usuli believe that the Hadith collections contained traditions of varying degrees of reliability, and that critical analysis was necessary to assess their authority. In contrast, the Akhbari believe that the sole sources of law are the Qur'an and the Hadith, in particular

690-460: The Akhbaris were infidels (Kuffar). However, the dispute remained purely intellectual. At first there was a large population of Akhbari activists at the shrine cities of Iraq but it was Bihbahani who, at the end of the 18th century, reversed this and completely routed the Akhbaris at Karbala and Najaf . South Iraq , Bahrain and a few cities in Iran such as Kirman remained Akhbari strongholds for

736-583: The Four Books accepted by the Shia: everything in these sources is in principle reliable, and outside them, there was no authority competent to enact or deduce further legal rules. In addition to assessing the reliability of the Hadith, Usuli believes the task of the legal scholar is to establish intellectual principles of general application ( Usul al-fiqh ), from which particular rules may be derived by way of deduction. Accordingly, Usuli legal scholarship has

782-597: The Hidden Imām was extremely impractical and left the Twelver Shī‘a community at a great disadvantage, with no leadership, no organization and no financial structure. Contrary to Usulis, Akhbaris believe in the perpetuity of Sharia from only the infalibles, so the right to interpret the Quran is only to 14 infallibles who have complete in-depth gnostic knowledge ( al-rāsikhūn fi al-ʿilm Arabic : الراسخون فی العلم ). Whereas

828-453: The Imām or his special representative. The prominent Shī‘a scholars who rejected this thesis were: By the 13th century, Muhaqqiq al-Hilli was able to advance these concepts further, by extending the judicial role of the ulama to iqamat al-hudud -- the imposition of penalties by ulama themselves. In his writings it is possible to see the evolution in his thinking whereby the fuqahā' develop from

874-475: The Imām's judicial authority to those who had studied fiqh . Although he implies in his writings that this function should only be undertaken by the ulama if there is no one else to do it. Shaykhu t-Taifa considered the ulamā' the best agents of the donor to distribute religious taxes since they knew to whom it should be distributed. Nevertheless, individuals were free to do this themselves if they wished. He allowed fuqahā' to organize Friday prayers in absence of

920-658: The Imāms may be described as āyat Allah s ( Ayatollahs , "signs of God") based on the Hadith-e-Tariq , and that no one else has the right to ascribe this divinely appointed title to themselves. For example, the Hadith-i Tariq says: O Tariq, Imam (as) is the Kalama-t-Allāh [Word of God], Waj'ha-t-Allah [Face of God], Hijaba-t-Allah [Veil of God], Nūru-Allah [Light of God], Āya-t-Allah [Sign of God] Historically it

966-596: The Qur'an and the oral reports from the Imams. He did not, however, go so far as to say that no verse in the Qur'an could be understood without the interpretation of the Imams, a position held by the Safavid-era Akhbari Astarabadi which Shaykh Yusuf denounced as extremist. He rejected the Usuli principles of consensus (ijma`) and independent reasoning (`aql, ijtihad). Indeed, he questioned rationalist approaches to religion in general, quoting with approval

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1012-689: The Quran and Sunna but to make "new rulings to respond to new challenges and push the boundaries of Shia law in new directions." By their debates and books, Al-Mufid , Sayyid-al Murtada , and Shaykh al-Tusi in Iraq were the first to introduce the Uṣūl al-fiqh (principles of Islamic jurisprudence) under the influence of the Shafe'i and Mu'tazili doctrines. Al-Kulayni , in Rey , and al-Sadduq , in Qom , were concerned with

1058-701: The Quran)". Akhbari also do not follow/imitate ( taqleed ) the teaching of a mujtahid , specifically a marja‘ (model for imitation) who practice a modern form of ijtihad (independent legal reasoning). Instead, Akhbaris imitate the Imam Muhammad al-Mahdi , (the Twelfth Akhbari of Shia, who is believed by Shia to be in the Occultation ), on the grounds that the Imam is infallible and the marja‘ -- however learned in jurisprudence -- are not. Knowledge of

1104-572: The Shī‘a developed law directly from the traditions of the Imāms. Initially during the Buyid period, the Twelver ulamā' considered that since the Imām had gone into Occultation and his Nā'ib al-Khass was no longer present, all the functions invested in the Imām had lapsed. The principal functions of the Imām had been: However, it soon became apparent that the situation caused by the lapse of functions of

1150-424: The Usuli over the Akhbari came when Behbahani led the Usuli to dominance and "completely routed the Akhbaris at Karbala and Najaf ", so that "only a handful of Shi'i ulama have remained Akhbari to the present day." The Four Books The Four Books ( Arabic : ٱلْكُتُب ٱلْأَرْبَعَة , romanized :  al-Kutub al-ʾArbaʿa ) are the four canonical hadith collections of Shia Islam . The term

1196-492: The aforementioned scholars were not mujtahids in their full capacity, they introduced innovative concepts into Shī‘a theology which later formed the basis of the exegetical school. Their innovations were not accepted by prominent Shī‘a scholars of their time and thus, remained mostly theoretical. The traditional Shī‘a doctrine was, by its nature, fatal to the leadership of any regime except that of Imām al-Mahdi since they believed that an Islamic state can be established only under

1242-744: The authority of the Supreme Leader . Akhbaris reject mujtahids. They practice this based on the last letter Imām Mahdi wrote to ‘Alī ibn Muhammad, fourth trusted follower of the Lesser Occultation. In the letter, Imām Zaman said: If someone claims himself as deputy of Imam during occultation he is a liar, ousted from Allah’s religion, calumniating Allah; he himself has gone astray and is leading others into error too. He will always be in loss. Be Curse unto him of mine, of Allah, of Allah’s Rasool (SW) and of his Progeny (AS) for every moment, and in all circumstances. Akhbaris claim that only

1288-509: The basis of Usul al-fiqh (the hypothetical concepts and perceptions of some scholars) centuries after the major occultation. Among the earliest Shī‘a ulamā' such as Muhammad ibn Ya'qub al-Kulayni and Ibn Babawaiyya, the most important activity was transmission of a ḥadīth. At this time, the Shī‘a distinguished themselves from the Sunni in the category of law, which employed such methods as qiyas "analogical reasoning" and exegesis". However,

1334-513: The campaign, turned to the new ulama and obtained from Shaykh Ja'far Kashif al-Ghita' and other eminent clerics in Najaf and Isfahan a declaration of jihad against the Russians, thus implicitly recognizing their authority to issue such a declaration – one of the functions of the Hidden Imām. Kashif al-Ghita used the opportunity to extract from the state acknowledgment of the ulama's right to collect

1380-470: The course of the history of Twelver Shi'ism since the Occultation, Usuli ulama have progressively usurped more and more of the functions of the Hidden Imam. They believe there have been five transgressions or stages of usurpation. As early as the 5th century AH / 11th century CE, more than 150 years after the Occultation of the 12th Imām, Shaykhu t-Ta'ifa reinterpreted the doctrine to allow delegation of

1426-413: The deputies of the donor for the distribution of religious taxes in his early writings to being the deputies of the Hidden Imām for collection and distribution of the taxes in his later works. In effect, transgressing the limits set by Shaykhu t-Taifa (two centuries earlier) in his first transgression. Muhaqqiq al-Karkhi (About 300 years after the second transgression) was the first to suggest, arguing from

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1472-481: The former belief in the development of jurisprudence with time 'Uṣūl al-fiqh', Akhbaris seek religious rulings or Islamic jurisprudence from a dead or living Muhaddith , who has narrated or narrated the rulings hadith of The Fourteen Infallibles without interpreting them. Furthermore, Akhbaris say that The Fourteen Infallibles (which include the Shia Imāms ) never permitted Ijtehad . Akhbaris contend that, over

1518-445: The hadith of ‘Umar ibn Hanzala, that the ulama were the Nā'ib al-'Amm (general representative) of the Hidden Imām. But he restricted his application of this argument to the assumption of the duty of leading Friday prayers. It was Shahīd ath-Thānī ( Zayn al-Din al-Juba'i al'Amili ) who took the concept of Nā'ib al-'Amm to its logical conclusion in the religious sphere and applied it to all of

1564-527: The leadership of an infallible Imām. Thus, the Shī‘a had little role to play in supporting the decisions of the state, in contrast with the Sunni tendency of offering their full support to the Ottoman Empire . This caused a great deal of paranoia to the states where the Shī‘a were in majority. By the end of Safavid era the situation had become intense due to the rise of imperialism on a global scale. It

1610-553: The mid-18th century. An Akhbari critique of Usulism had emerged in Bahrain at the beginning of the 18th century, partly spurred by the weaknesses of the Usuli sponsoring the Safavid empire. By succeeding to the role of dean of Karbala as one of the pre-eminent scholars of the age, al-Bahrani's extended this Bahrain-based debate to the rest of the Shī‘a world. Al-Bahrani's neo-Akhbarism accepted only two sources for Imami jurisprudence,

1656-567: The present day." The gist of Akhbari ideology is that nothing but the aḥadīth of the Infallible can serve as authoritative evidence in Islam. Akhbaris consider themselves to be bounded by the " Hadith of the two weighty things " ( Hadith ath-Thaqalayn ), i.e. reported instructions by the Islamic prophet Muhammad to his followers to follow only two sources of divine guidance after his death —

1702-470: The proof of Allah to them" Akhbari reject fatāwa based on ijtihad , they also reject the permissibility of writing exegesis of the Qur'an without quoting the narrations of the infallible Ahlu l-Bayt . Akhbari quote the Hadith ath-Thaqalayn and several authentic traditions of the Twelve Imāms to prohibit the practice of exegesis. Akhbaris do not believe in generalization of Hadith , they say Hadith

1748-403: The range of those eligible to receive money from zakāt to include religious students and the ulamā' themselves, who thus became the recipients of the money as trustees of students. Even in the field of defensive jihād , Shahīd ath-Thānī identified a role for the ulamā', (but not in offensive jihād where he agreed with Akhbari that the role of Hidden Imām had lapsed pending his return). Although

1794-480: The religious functions and prerogatives of the Hidden Imām. Thus the judicial authority of the ulamā' now became a direct reflection of the authority of the Imām himself. It was now obligatory to pay the religious taxes directly to the ulamā' as the trustees of the Imām for distribution and the donor who distributed these himself was considered to obtain no reward. This is in direct contradiction to limits set by prior transgressions. Furthermore, Shahīd ath-Thānī extended

1840-431: The religious rulings or Islamic jurisprudence used by Akhbaris is passed down by dead or living Muhaddith who have narrated the rulings hadith of The Fourteen Infallibles without interpreting them. Interpretation of the Quran, and complete in-depth gnostic knowledge ( al-rāsikhūn fi al-ʿilm Arabic : الراسخون فی العلم ) of revelation from the Imams is also passed down. As of the twenty-first century, Akhbari form

1886-472: The religious taxes of Khums ." This followed the pattern of other transgressions by overthrowing the limits of its prior (fourth) transgression. Following the Iranian Revolution , the Usuli school has gained popularity among previously Akhbari communities. Usuli clerical power reached its natural conclusion with control and domination of the state as promulgated through Vilayat al-Faqih under

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1932-444: The tools in principle for resolving new situations that are not already addressed in Quran or Hadith (see ijtihad ). An important tenet of Usuli doctrine is Taqlid or "imitation", i.e. the acceptance of a religious ruling in matters of worship and personal affairs from someone regarded as a higher religious authority (e.g. an 'ālim) without necessarily asking for the technical proof. These higher religious authorities can be known as

1978-524: Was Muhammad Baqir ibn Muhammad Akmal al-Wahid Behbahani who challenged and defeated the Akhbaris and eventually became the most politically influential cleric in Karbala in 1772. Bihbahani's theology was not welcomed by the Akhbaris. Although this controversy had begun as a minor disagreement on a few points, it eventually grew into a bitter, vituperative dispute culminating in Behbahani's declaration that

2024-442: Was necessary to develop an alternate ideology for the survival of Iranian state. This is when a group of ulamā' were encouraged to squeeze out the possibility of extending the state's control over the Shia majority; by whatever means necessary. The revival of Akhbārism, or "neo-Akhbārism" as it became known, was under the dean of Karbala scholarship, Yusuf Al Bahrani (1695–1772), who led an intellectual assault on Usuli thought in

2070-506: Was only in the early 19th century that ordinary mujtahids began to describe themselves as 'Ayatollahs.' Usuli Usulism ( Arabic : الأصولية , romanized :  al-ʾUṣūliyya ) is the majority school of Twelver Shia Islam in opposition to the minority Akhbarism . The Usulis favor the use of ijtihad (reasoning) in the creation of new rules of jurisprudence ; in assessing hadith to exclude traditions they believe unreliable; and in considering it obligatory to obey

2116-419: Was the first scholar to fully formulate the principles of ijtihad . These traditional principles of Shi'a jurisprudence were challenged by the 17th-century Akhbari school, led by Muhammad Amin al-Astarabadi . A reaction against Akhbari arguments was led in the last half of the 18th century by Muhammad Baqir Behbahani . He attacked the Akhbari and their method was abandoned by Shia. The dominance of

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