Fundamental Elements of Shi'ism
Although in Islam no political or social movement has been separated from religion, which from the point of view of Islam necessarily embraces all things, Shi'ism was not brought into existence only by the question of the political succession to the Prophet of Islam—upon whom be blessings and peace—as so many Western works claim (although this question was of course of great importance). The problem of political succession may be said to be the element that crystalised the Shi'ite, into a distinct group, and political suppression in later periods, especially the martyrdom of Imam Husayn—upon whom be peace—only accentuated this tendency of the Shi ite, to see themselves as a separate community within the Islamic
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world. The principal cause of the coming into being of Shi' ism, however, lies in the fact that this possibility existed within the Islamic revelation itself and so had to be realized. Inasmuch as there were exoteric and esoteric interpretations from the verry beginning, from which developed the schools (madhhab) of the Shari' ah and Sufism in the Cunni world, there also had to be an interpretation of Islam which would combine these elements in a single whole. This was realized in Shi'ism, for which the Imam is the person in whom these two aspects of traditional authority are united and in whom the religious life is makred by a sense of tragedy and martyrdom. There had to be the possibility, we might say, of an esotericism—at least in its aspect of love rather than of pure gnosis—which would flow into the exoteric domain and penetrate into even the theological dimension of the religion rather than remain confined to its purely inward aspect. Such a possibility was Shi'ism. Hence, the question which arose was not so much who should be the successor of the Holy Prophet as what the function and qualifications of such a person would be.
The distinctive institution of Shi'ism is the Imamate and the question of the Imamate is inseparable from that of wil?yah, or the esoteric function of interpreting the inner mysteries of the Holy Qur'an and the Shari'ah.
1 According to the Shi'ite view, the successor of the Prophet of Islam must be one who not only rules ever the community in justice but also is able to interpret the Divine Law and its esoteric meaning. Hence, he must be free from error and sin (ma'sum) and he must be chosen from on high by divine decree (nass) through the Prophet. The whole ethos of Shi'ism revolves around the basic notion of which is intimately connected with the notion of sancitity (wil?yah) in Sufism. At the same time, wilayah contains certain implications on the level of the Shari' ah inasmuch as the Imam, or he who administers the function of wilayah, is also
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1 On wil?yah, see S. H. Nasr, -Ideals, pp. 161-162, and the many writings of H. Corbin on Shi'ism, which nearly always turn to this major theme.
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the interpreter of religion for the religious community and its guide and legitimate ruler.
It can be argued quite convincingly that the very demand of 'Ali for allegiance (bay from the whole Islamic community at the moment that he became caliph implies that he accepted the method of selecting the caliph by the voice of the majority which had been followed in the case of the three Khulafa Rashidun or "the rightly guided caliphs" before him and that thereby he accepted the previous caliphs insofar as they were rulers and administrators of the Islamic community. What is also certain from the Shi ite point of view, however, is that he did not accept their function as Imams in the Shi'ite sense of possessing the power and function of giving the esoteric interpretations of the inner mysteries of the Holy Qur'an and the Shari' ah as is seen by his insistence from the beginning that he was the heir and inheritor (was)) of the Prophet and the Prophet's legitimate successor in the Chi ite sense of succession. The Sunni-Shi ite dispute over the successors to the Holy Prophet could be resolved if it were recognized that in one case there is the question of administering a Divine Law and in the other of also revealing and interpreting its inner mysteries. The very life of 'All and his actions show that he accepted the previous caliphs as understood in the Sunni sense of khalifah (the ruler and the administrator of the Shari' ah), but confined the function of wilayah, after the Prophet, to himself. That is why it is perfectly possible to respect him as a caliph in the Sunni sense and as an Imam in the Shi ite sense, each in its own perspective.
The five principles of religion (usul al-Din) as stated by Shi' ism include: tawhid or belief in Divine Unity; nubuwwah or prophecy; Ma 'ad or ressurrection; Imamah or the Imamate, belief in the Imams as successors of the Prophet; and 'Adl or Divine Justice. In the three basic principles—Unity, prophecy and resurrection—Sunism and Shi'ism agree. It is only in the other two that they differ. In the question of the Imamate, it is the insistence on the esoteric function of the Imam that distinguishes the Shi' ite perspective from the Sunni; in the
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question of justice it is the emphasis placed upon this attribute as an intrinsic quality of the Divine Nature that is particular to Shi'ism. We might say that in the esoteric formulation of Cunni theology, especially as contained in Ash arism, there is an emphasis upon the will of God. Whatever God wills is just, precisely because it is willed by God; and intelligence ('Aql) is in a sense subordinated to this will and to the "voluntarism" which characterizes this form of theology.
1 In Shi ism, however, the quality of justice is considered as innate to the Divine Nature. God cannot act in an unjust manner because it is His Nature to be just. Fa, Him to be unjust would violate His own Nature, which is impossible. Intelligence can judge the justness or unjustness of an act and this judgment is not completely suspended in favor of a pure voluntarism on the part of God. Hence, there is a greater emphasis upon intelligence ('aql) in Shi'ite theology and a greater emphasis upon will (iradah) in Scorn kalam, or theology, at least in the predominant Ash'arite school. The secret of the greater affinity of Shi' ite theology for the "intellectual sciences" (a1-ulum al-'aqliyah) lies in part in this manner of viewing Divine Justice.
2
Shi'ism also differs from Sunnism in its consideration of the means whereby the original message of the Qur'anic revelation reached the Islamic community, and thereby in certain aspects of the sacred history of Islam. There is no disagreement on the Qur'an and the Prophet, that is, on what constitutes the origin of the Islamic religion. The difference in view begins with the period immediately following the death of the Prophet. One might say that the personality of the Prophet contained two dimensions which were later to become crystallized into
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1 For a profound analysis and criticism of Ash'arite theology, see F. Schuon. "Dilemmas of Theological Speculation." Studies in Comparative Religion. Spring 1969, pp. 66-93.
2 See S. H. Nasr, An Introduction to Isl?mic Cosmological Doctrines, Cambridge (U.S.A.), 1964, Introduction; also S. H. Nasr, Sciences and Civilization in Islam Cambridge (U.S.A.), 1968, Chapter II.
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Sunnism and Shi ism. Each of these two schools was later to reflect back upon the life and personality of the Prophet solely from its own point of view, thus leaving aside and forgetting or misconstruing the other dimension excluded from its own perspective. For Shi'ism, the "dry" (in the alchemical sense) and "austere" aspect of the Prophet's personality as reflected in his successors in the Sunni world was equated with worldliness, while his "warm" and "compassionate" dimension was emphasized as his whole personality and as the essence of the nature of the Imams, who were considered to be a continuation of him.
1
For the vast majority of the Islamic community, which supported the original caliphate, the companions (sahabah) of the Prophet represent the Prophet's heritage and the channel through which his message was transmitted to later generations. Within the early community, the companions occupied a favored position and among them the first four caliphs stood out as a distinct groupp. It is through the companions that the sayings (hadith) and manner of living (sunnah) of the Prophet were transmitted to the second generation of Muslims. Shi'ism, however, concentrating on the question of wilayah and insisting on the esoteric content of the prophetic message, saw in 'Ali and the Household of the Prophet (ahl al-bayt), in its Shiite sense, the sole channel through which the original message of Islam was transmitted, although, paradoxically enough the majority of the descendants of the Prophet belonged to Sunnism and continue to do so until today. Hence, although most of the hadith literature in Shi'ism and Sunnism is alike, the chain of transmission in many instances is not the same. Also, inasmuch as the Imams constitute for Shi'ism a continuation of the spiritual authority
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1 This idea was first formulated in an as yet unpublished article of F. Schuon entitled Images d'Islam, some elements of which can he found in the same author's Das Ewige im Vorganglichkeit, translated by T. Burckhardt, Weitheim Oberbayern, 1970, in the Chapter entitled "Blick auf den Islam," pp. 111-129.
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of the Prophet—although not of course his law bringing function—their sayings and actions represent a supplement to the prophetic hadith and sunnah. From a purely religious and spiritual point of view, the Imams may be said to be for Shi ism an extension of the personality of the Prophet during the succeeding centuries. Such collections of the sayings of the Imams as the Nalij al-Balaghah of 'All and the Usul al-K?fi containing sayings of all the Imams, are for the Shi'ites a continuation of the hadith collections concerned with the sayings of the Prophet himself. In many Shi'ite collection of hadith, the sayings of the Prophet and of the Imams are combined. The grace (barakah)
1 of the Qur'an, as conveyed to the world by the Prophet, reached the Sunni community through the companions (foremost among them were Abu-Bakr, Umar, 'Uthman, 'Ali and a few others, such as Anas and Salman), and during succeeding generations through the ulama and the Sufis, each in his own world. This barakah, however, reached the Shi'ite community especially through 'Ali and the Household of the Prophet—in its particular Shiite sense as referred to above and not simply in the sense of any 'Alid.
It is the intense love to, 'Ali and his progeny through Fatimah that compensates for the lack of attention towards, and even neglect of, the other companions in Shi ism. It might be said that the light of 'Ali and the Imams was so intense that it blinded the Shi ite to the presence of the other companions, many of whom were saintly men and also had remarkable human qualities. Were it not for that intense love of 'Ali, the Shi'ite attitude towards the companions would hardly be conceivable and would appear unbalanced, as it surely must when seen from the outside and without consideration for the intensity of devotion to the Household of the Prophet.
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1 This term is nearly impossible to translate into English, the closest to an equivalent being the word "grace," if we do not oppose grace to the natural order as is done in most Christian theological texts. See S. H. Nasr, Three Muslim Sages, Cambridge (U.S.A), 1964, pp. 105-106.
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Certainly, the rapid spread of Islam, which is one of the most evident extrinsic arguments for the divine origin of the religion, would have been inconceivable without the companions and foremost among them the caliphs. This fact itself demonstrates how the Shi'ite views concerning the companions and the whole of early Sunnism were held within the a religious family (that of the whole of Islam) whose existence was taken for granted. If Islam had not spread through the Sunni caliphs and leaders many of the Shi'ite arguments would have had no meaning. Sunnism and its very success in the world must therefore be assumed as a necessary background for an understanding of Shi'ism, whose minority role, sense of martyrdom and esoteric qualities could only have been realized in the presence of the order which had previously been established by the Sunni majority and especially by the early companions and their entourage. This fact itself points to the inner bond relating Sunnism and Shi ism to their common Qur'anic basis despite the outward polemics.
The barakah present in both Sunnism and Shi' ism has the same origin and quality, especially if we take into consideration Sufism which exists in both segments of the Islamic community. The barakah is everywhere that which has issued from the Qur'an and the Prophet, and it is often referred to as the "Muhammadan barakah" (al-barakah al-muhammadiyyah).
Shi'ism and the general esoteric teachings of Islam which are usually identified with the essential teachings of Sufism have a very complex and intricate relationship.
1 Shi'ism must not be equated simply with Islamic esotericism as such. In the Sunni world, Islamic esotericism manifests itself almost exclusively as Sufism whereas in the Shi'ite world, in addition to a Sufism similar to that found in the Sunni world, there is an esoteric element based upon love (mahabbah) which colors the whole
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1 See our study "Shi'ism and Sufism; Their Relationship in Essence and in History" Religions Studies October, 1970, pp. 229-242; also in cut Sufi Essays, Albany, 1972.
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structure of the religion. It is based on love (or in the language of Hinduism, bhakta) rather than a pure gnosis or ma'rifah, which by definition is always limited to a small number. There are, of course, some who would equate original Shi 'ism purely and simply with esotericism.
1 Within the Shi'ite tradition itself the proponents of "Shi'ite gnosis" r irf?n shi'i such as Sayyid Haydar Amuli speak of the equivalence of Shi'ism and Sufism. In fact, in his major work, the J?mi' al-Asrar (Compendium of Divine Mysteries), Amuli's main intention is to show that real Sufism and Shi'ism are the same.
2 But if we consider the whole of Shi'ism, then there is of course in addition to the esoteric element the exoteric side, the law which governs a human community. 'Ali ruled over a human society and the sixth Imam Ja far al-Sadiq founded the Twelve-Imam Shi'ite school of law. Yet, as mentioned above, esotericism, especially in the form of love, has always occupied what might be called a privileged position within Shi'ism, so that even the Shi'ite theology and creed contain formulations that are properly speaking more mystical than strictly theological.
In addition to its law and the esoteric aspect contained in Sufism and gnosis, Shi'ism contained from the beginning a type of Divine Wisdom, inherited from the Prophet and the Imams, which became the basis for the hikmah or sophia that later developed extensively in the Muslim world and incorporated into its structure suitable elements of the Graeco-Alexandrian, the Indian and the Persian intellectual heritages. It is often said that Islamic philosophy came into being as a result of the translation of Greek texts and that after a few centuries Greek philosophy died out in the Muslim world and found a new home in the Latin West. This partially true account leaves out other basic aspects of the story, such as the central role of the Qur'an as the source of knowledge and truth
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1 This position is especially defended by H. Corbin, who has devoted so many penetrating studies to Shi'ism.
2 See H. Corbin's introduction to Sayyid Haydar Amuli La Philosophie Shi'ite, Tehran-Paris, 1969.
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for the Muslims; the fundamental role of the spiritual hermeneutics (ta'wil) practised by Sufis and Shi 'ites alike, through which all knowledge became related to the inner levels of meaning of the Sacred Book; and the more than one thousand years of traditional Islamic philosophy and theosophy which has continued to our day in Shi'ite Persia and in adjacent areas.
1 When we think of Shi'ism, we must remember that, in addition to the law and the strictly esoteric teachings, Shi'ism possesses a "theosophy"or hikmah which made possible the vast development of later Islamic philosophy and the intellectual sciences from the beginning, enabling it to have a role in the intellectual life of Islam far outweighing its numerical size.
The respect accorded to the intellect as the ladder to Divine Unity, an element that is characteristic of all of Islam and especially emphasized by Shi'ism, helped create a traditional educational system in which rigorous training in logic went hand in hand with the religious and also the esoteric sciences. The traditional curriculum of the Shi'ite universities (madrasahs) includes to this day courses ranging from logic and mathematics to metaphysics and Sufism. The hierarchy of knowledge has made of logic itself a ladder to reach the suprarational logical demon stration, especially burh?n—or demonstration in its technical sense, which has played a role in Islamic logic that differs from its use in Western logic—came to be regarded as a reflection of the Divine Intellect itself, and with the help of its certainties the Shi'ite metaphysicians and theologians have sought to demonstrate with rigor the most metaphysical teachings of the religion. We see many examples of this method in the present book, which is itself the result of such a traditional madrasah education. It may present certain difficulties to the Western reader who is accustomed to the total divorce of mysticism and logic and for whom the certainty of
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1 The only history of philosophy in Western language, which takes these elements into account is H. Corbin (with the collaboration of S. K Nasr and 0. Yahaya), Historic de la philosophic islamique vol.1, Paris, 1964.
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logic has been used, or rather misused, for so long as a tool to destroy all other certainties, both religions and metaphysical. But the method itself has its root in a fundamental aspect of Islam—in which the arguments of religion are based not primarily on the miraculous but on the intellectually evident
1 — an aspect which has been strongly emphasized in Shi ism and is reflected in both the content and the form of its traditional expositions.
Present State of Shi'ite Studies
Historical factors, such as the fact that the West never had the same direct political contact with Shi'ite Islam that it did with Sunni Islam, have caused the Occident to be less aware until now of Shi'ite Islam than of Sunnism. And Sunni Islam, also, has not always been understood properly or interpreted sympathetically by all Western scholars. The West came into direct contact with Islam in Spain, Sicily and Palestine in the Middle Ages and in the Balkans during the Ottoman period. These encounters were all with Sunni Islam with the exception of limited contacts with Isma'ilism daring the Crusades. In the colonial period, India was the only large area in which a direct knowledge of Shi'ism was necessary for day-to-day dealings with Muslims. For this reason the few works in English dealing with Twelve-Imam Shi'ism are mostly connected with the Indian subcontinent.
2 As a result of this lack of familiarity, many of the early Western orientalists brought the most fantastic charges against Shi'ism, such as that its views were
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1 This question has been treated with great lucidity in F. Schuon, Understanding Islam, translated by D. M. Matheson, London, 1963.
2 See, for example, J. N. Holloster, The Shi'ah of India. London, 1953; A. A. A. Fyzee, Outlines of Muhammadan Law. London, 1887; and N. B. Baillie, A Digest of Muhammadan Law, London, 1887. Of course in Iraq also the British were faced with a mixed Sunni-Shiite population but -perhaps because of the relatively small size of the country, this contact never gave rise to serious scholarly concern with Shi'ite sources as it did in India.
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forged by Jews disguised as Muslims. One of the reasons for this kind of attack, which can also be seen in the case of Sufism, is that this type of orientalist did not want to see in Islam any metaphysical or eschatological doctrines of an intellectual content, which would ranks of it something more than the famous "simple religion of the desert." Such writers therefore had to reject as spurious any metaphysical and spiritual doctrines found within the teachings of Shi'ism or Sufism. One or two works written during this period and dealing with Shi'ism were camposed by missionaries who were particularly famous for their hatred of Islam.
1
It is only during the last generation that a very limited number of Western scholars have sought to make a more serious study of Shi'ism. Chief among them are L. Massignon, who devoted a few major studies to early Arab Shi'ism, and H. Corbin, who has devoted a lifetime to the study of the whole of Shi'ism and its later intellectual development especially as centered in Persia, and who has made known to the Western world for the first time some of the metaphysical and theosophical richness of this as yet relatively unknown aspect of Islam.
2 Yet, despite the efforts of these and a few other scholars, much of Shi'ism remains to this day a closed back, and there has not appeared as yet an introductory work in English to present the whole of Shi'ism to one who is just beginning to delve into the subject.
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1 We specially have in mind D. M. Donaldson's The Shi'ite Religion, London, 1933, which is still the standard work on Shi'ism in Western universities. Many of the works written on the Shi'ites in India are also by missionaries who were severely opposed to Islam.
2 Some of the works of Carbon dealing more directly with Twelve-Imam Shi'ism itself include: "Pour une Morphologic de la Spiritualite' Shi'ite,- Eranos-Jahrbuch, XXIX, 1960; "Le Combat Spirituel du Shi'isme," Eranos-Jahrbuch, XXX, 1961; and "Au 'pays' de L'Im?m cashe, "EranosJahrbuch, XXXII, 1963. Many of Corbin's writings on Shi'ism have been brought together in his forthcoming En Isl?m.
