Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA)
Islamic Legal Orthodoxy: Twelver Shiite Responses to the Sunni Legal System by DEVIN J.
STEWART
Review by: Saiyad Nizamuddin Ahmad
Middle East Studies Association Bulletin, Vol. 37, No. 1 (Summer 2003), pp. 138-139
Published by: Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA)
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MESA Bulletin 37/I (2003)
Islamic
Twelver
Shiite Responses
to the Sunni
Legal Orthodoxy:
DEVIN
J.
STEWART.
Salt
Lake
Utah:
Legal System, by
City,
University of
Utah Press, 1998. 280 pages, $40.00 (Cloth) ISBN 0-87480-551-1
Devin Stewart's study of the development and elaboration of the Shi'i
legal tradition will be welcomed by all serious students of Islamic thought.
The book sheds much needed light on the interaction of the Shi'i legal
scholars with the majority Sunni legal tradition. The first chapter of its
seven is an introduction which surveys earlier works on Shi'ism
in
Western languages and, at the same time, seeks to juxtapose Shiite and
Sunni jurisprudence.
Stewart argues that earlier studies have over
emphasized the importance of the doctrine of the Imamate with the result
that the study of Shi'ism from other angles was impeded. He sees the
development of Shi" i legal thought, i.e. its articulation as a madhhab, as a
response to the emergence of the Sunni madhhabs. The four chapters
following the introduction develop this theme at length. Stewart takes the
notion of "consensus,"
as the basis for a typology of the
(ijma')
madhhabs.
He develops this argument in the second chapter. Stewart
'
sees the articulation of ijma by the Sunni schools as a kind of touchstone
of Islamic orthodoxy and that since Shi'ism has been largely seen by the
Sunni majority as violating this consensus and thus being heretical, the
Shi' is were led to adopt various responses to the Sunni legal system.
Chapter three looks at the first response, i.e. conforming to Sunni
consensus and offers a fascinating look at how a number of Shi' i scholars,
from Fadl Ibn Shadhan al-Nisaburi (d. 260/873) to Baha al-Din al-mili (d.
1030/1621),
participated in the Shafi'i madhhab, to some degree or
another. Stewart proposes a few hypotheses as to why conformity to the
Sunni consensus by presenting oneself as a Shafi'i as opposed to one of
the other schools was adopted as a strategy of response by certain jurists.
The first is that schools such as that of the Hanafis were free in the
exercise of rational methods. Other explanations are that, very generally
speaking, the Shafi'i school is nearer to the Shi'i school than the others
and that al-Shafi'i (d. 204/820) himself had a profound love and respect
for the Prophet's Family (Ahl 'al-Bayt). Nevertheless, Stewart has found
evidence of Shi'i affiliation with other schools, namely the Hanbali school
and even the Hanafi school.
Chapter four examines the second response, i.e. adopting the
Sunni notion of consensus with a slight modification so as to, perchance,
gain recognition by the Sunni majority and thus be rehabilitated and
included in the overall consensus.
Stewart discusses the Shi'i theory of
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MESA Bulletin 37/1 (2003)
consensus
which differs from the Sunni theory in that here ijma'
purportedly includes the opinion of the Hidden Imam and thus it is not a
source of law in and of itself but a means of determining the opinion of
the Imam. Stewart sees this as essential to the articulation of Shi'ism as a
legal madhhab by early figures such as al-Shaykh al-Mufid (d.413/1022),
al-Sharif al-Murtada (d. 436/1044), Shaykh al-Taifa (460/1067)
and later
the
such
as
two
Shahids
and
d.
965/1559,
figures
(d. 786/1384
respectively).
Chapter five deals with the third response, i.e. all-out rejection of
Sunni consensus that is represented by the Akhbari school. Chapter six
offers a very useful comparison of the Sunni and Twelver Shiite madhhabs
and is followed by the final concluding chapter.
Overall, this is an excellent study. However, I feel that Stewart has
made too much of the notion of consensus. Shi" i usul al-fiqh becomes
totally meaningless without the notion of the occultation of the Twelfth
Imam. It is the latter that explains the reluctance and extreme caution of
the Shi" i jurists towards the notions of ijtihadand qiyas. Furthermore, the
elaboration of the theory of al-usul at- 'amaliyah by Shaykh al-Ansari (d.
1281/1864) and his successors is meaningful only in the context of the
occultation.
Saiyad Nizamuddin Ahmad
E-mail: saivad(a)pcl.iarinq.mv
in Safavid
without Allah? The Rise of Religious
Externalism
TURNER.
Curzon
2000.
272
COLIN
Richmond:
Iran, by
Press,
pages,
endnotes, bibliography, index. €45.00 (cloth). ISBN 0-7007-1447-2
Islam
Colin Turner's Islam without Allah? attempts to explore the tensions
between Sufis and Jurists in the context of Safavid Iran (1501-1722)
He
through the Quranic concepts of iman (belief) and islam (submission).
these two constructs with esoteric and exoteric
easily juxtaposes
tendencies, or in his words with "internalism" and "externalism," claiming
that Quranic renderings of iman and islam have been misinterpreted
throughout the ages both by the Shi'i and the Sunni ulama. Thus, the
author positions himself as a religious scholar ('alim) who knows how to
interpret Muslim sacred texts rather than as a writer who delineates and
analyses how Shi'is and Sunnis have given meaning to these concepts.
Turner's argument echoes that of the same externalists he refutes in his
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