Al-Shafi fi l-imama (book): Difference between revisions

| name = Al-Shafi fi l-Imama

Al-Shafi fi l-Imama is a theological book concerning Imamate in Arabic, written by al-Sayyid al-Murtada ʿAlam al-Huda (355-436 AH). The book was written in reply to objections by Qadi ʿAbd al-Jabbar al-Muʿtazili concerning Imamate.

The book, al-Shafi, was a focus of the attention of Muslim scholars, as they wrote critiques and summaries for it. A well-known example is al-Shaykh al-Tusi’s Talkhis al-shafi. Al-Sayyid al-Murtada cited al-Shafi in other works of his, such as Tanzih al-anbiyaʾ and al-Dhakhira fi ʿilm al-kalam.

Al-Shafi was lithographically printed in Iran in 1301 AH. Moreover, it was published in 1410 AH by al-Sadiq Publishing Insittute in four volumes as edited by ʿAbd al-Zahraʾ Khatib Husayni.

The author of al-Shafi is al-Sayyid al-Murtada (355-436 AH), the well-known Imami jurist and theologian. He became the Shiite authority after al-Shaykh al-Mufid’s demise. His teachers included al-Shaykh al-Mufid, Husayn b. ʿAli b. Babawayh the brother of al-Shaykh al-Saduq, Ibn Nubata al-Saʿdi, and ʿAli al-Marzbani. His students included al-Shaykh al-Tusi, Sallar al-Daylami, Ibn al-Barraj, and Muhammad b. ʿAli al-Karajaki.

==The Title of the Book==

Al-Sayyid al-Murtada himself refers to the book as al-Shafi fi l-Imama. The same title is mentioned by Ahmad b. ʿAli al-Najashi and al-Shaykh al-Tusi. Aqa Buzurg Tihrani, however, refers to the book as al-Shafi fi l-Imama wa-ibtal hujaj al-ʿamma.

According to Aqa Buzurg Tihrani in his al-Dhariʿa, al-Sayyid al-Murtada’s motivation for writing al-Shafi was to reply to the objections raised by Qadi ʿAbd al-Jabbar al-Muʿtazili about the Imami denomination, particularly about Imamate. Al-Sayyid al-Murtada himself says in al-Shafi that he sought to write an elaborate book in critique of Qadi ʿAbd al-Jabbar, but he did not find an occasion to do so. For this reason, he rested content with writing al-Shafi.

The book al-Shafi dates back to the fifth century AH. Shiite and Sunni scholars in that century and the centuries that followed wrote summaries or critiques of the book, including al-Shaykh al-Tusi’s Talkhis al-shafi. Moreover, some people cited the book in their own theological books, as al-Sayyid al-Murtada himself cited it in other works of his, including Tanzih al-anbiyaʾ, al-Muqniʿ fi l-ghayba, and al-Dhakhira, which were written after al-Shafi.

According to Sayyid Ahmad Husayni, the editor of al-Dhakhira fi ʿilm al-kalam, al-Shafi indicates al-Sayyid al-Murtada’s mastery of kalam (theology) and debates on all Islamic denominations. Sayyid Bahaʾ al-Din al-Mukhtari al-Sabzawari, a scholar of the eleventh and twelfth centuries AH, wrote a poem in Arabic about al-Shafi (literally: healing) to the following effect:

Ignorance, illness of the mind / Cured by thought, physician kind.

A book can heal with a soothing balm / No medicine matches al-Shafi's calm.

The book al-Shafi is structured into 22 sections as follows:

·        Qadi ʿAbd al-Jabbar’s view of the necessity of Imamate

·        Textual evidence for the necessity of Imamate

·        Qadi’s rejection of the Shiite arguments for Imamate and infallibility

·        Qadi’s rational (philosophical) arguments against the necessity of there being an explicit text about the Imam

 

 

 

 

·        Repudiation of Qadi’s view of whether it is permissible to turn away from the Quraysh with respect to Imamate

 

·        Repudiation of Qadi’s view of Abu Bakr’s Imamate

·        Repudiation of Qadi’s view of those who believe that the election of Imams is invalid

·        Repudiation of Qadi’s view that Abu Bakr was qualified for Imamate

·        Qadi’s reply to the objections against Abu Bakr

·        Appraisal of Qadi’s view of ʿUmar b. al-Khattab’s Imamate

·        Qadi’s reply to objections against ʿUmar

·        Repudiation of Qadi’s view of ʿUthman’s Imamate

·        Repudiation of Qadi’s view of the critics of ʿUthman

·        Appraisal of Qadi’s view: proof for Imam ʿAli’s Imamate

·        Consideration of Qadi’s skepticism about the repentance of Talha, Zubayr, and ʿAʾisha.

Al-Sayyid al-Murtada replied to Qadi ʿAbd al-Jabbar’s objections and repudiations in a selective way, as he notes in the introduction of the book. When he quotes Qadi ʿAbd al-Jabbar’s book, al-Mughni, he only mentions the beginning part of each objection or a particular part of his words. These are cited as follows: “the author of the book said,” “he said,” “as for his statement,” and “as for your statement.” Sometimes, hypothetical objections are made on behalf of Qadi, which are then answered.

-         Irtishaf al-safi min silaf al-shafi by Sayyid Bahaʾ al-Din al-Mukhtari (1080-1131 AH).

-         Safwat al-safi min raghwat al-shafi by Sayyid Bahaʾ al-Din al-Mukhtari.

Moreover, Abu l-Hasan al-Basri, a Sunni scholar, wrote Nqd al-shafi in repudiation of al-Shafi. Abu Yaʿla Sallar b. ʿAbd al-ʿAziz, al-Sayyid al-Murtada’s student, wrote the book al-Radd ʿala Abi l-Hasan al-Basri in reply to the repudiation.

Al-Shafi was lithographically printed in 1301 AH along with al-Shaykh al-Tusi’s summary. This version is mentioned by Aqa Buzurg Tihrani in al-Dhariʿa. Moreover, in 1410 AH, al-Sadiq Publishing Institute published the book in four volumes. This was edited by Sayyid ʿAbd al-Zahraʾ Khatib Husayni. The institute reprinted the book in 1384 Sh (2005) in two volumes.

In his critical edition of al-Shafi, Sayyid ʿAbd al-Zahraʾ Khatib Husayni consulted all the available manuscripts of the book in the Library of Ayatollah Marʿashi Najafi and the Library of Astan Quds Razavi, showing their differences with abbreviations. Some features of this critical edition include: citation of the sources of the passages quoted from al-Mughni (with volume and page numbers), giving the meanings of certain abstruse words, specification of the references of pronouns, and citation of the hadiths mentioned in the book from Shiite and Sunni sources. Moreover, he specified the passages quoted by al-Sayyid al-Murtada from Qadi ʿAbd al-Jabbar, but could not be found in al-Mughni.

Sayyid ʿAbd al-Zahraʾ Khatib Husayni, the editor of al-Shafi, lists the following as the available manuscripts of the book:

-         The manuscript in the Library of Ayatollah Marʿashi Najafi in 476 pages, each page containing 26 lines

-         The manuscript in the Library of Astan Quds Razavi, no. 171, 270 pages, each page containing 22 lines, transcribed by Muhammad Ibrahim b. Muhammad Yaʿqub

-         The manuscript in the Library of Astan Quds Razavi, no. 10020, in 323 sheets, each containing more than 21 lines. The transcription of the manuscript was finished by Muhammad b. ʿAbd al-Latif al-ʿAmili for his friend Muhammad ʿAli Bunka in Muharram 1141 AH.

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