Usul al-Din: Difference between revisions

'''Usul al-Din''' (اصول الدین) or "Principles of Religion" contrary to Furu' al-Din or "Minor Issues of Religion" are a set of essential beliefs in Islam, which every Muslim needs to believe in; otherwise, he would not be considered a Muslim, i.e. rejecting each of these principles implies blasphemy and results in punishment in the hereafter.

From Shia viewpoint, oneness [of God], prophethood, justice [of God], imamate and resurrection are the principles needed to be believed in to reach ultimate happiness. However, the two principles of justice and imamate can be considered separate from the other three, since if one rejects oneness, prophethood and resurrection is basically not a Muslim, but if he rejects justice and imamate, then he is a Muslim but not a Shia and distances from genuine Islam. Therefore, the two principle of justice and imamate are called Principles of School.

Most religious scholars believe that contrary to Furu' al-Din, Taqlid (emulation) is not permissible in Usul al-Din and everyone needs to think about these principles for himself and accepts them through certainty (not assumption).

Its other sense refers to the three or five theological principles of oneness [of God], prophethood, justice [of God], imamate and resurrection. However often, the three principles of oneness, prophethood and resurrection are called principles of religion and the two principles of justice and imamate are called principles of School (School of Twelver Shia); yet sometimes, all of them together have been called principles of religion.

Those who have made this title have called the above-mentioned beliefs as Usul al-Din [Principles of Religion] because they thought all Islamic sciences such as hadith studies, fiqh and tafsir depending on these principles; in other words, Islamic sciences depend on accepting the Prophet (s) and accepting him depends on knowing these principles.

Moreover, it can be noted that these principles are defined so that the border between Islam and other religions and the border between Shia and other sects are preserved; e.g. with imamate, Shia are separated from Sunnis and with justice, Shia are separated from Asharites.

Sometimes, Usul al-Din has been used to address a more general sense; for example, it has been used to refer to the science of Kalam [Islamic theology].

This title has been used by theologians and neither exists in the Qur'an, nor in hadiths, is any classification of religious sciences as principles and other issues.

However, there are hadiths in which it is mentioned that Islam has principles; for example, in a hadith, Imam Sadiq (a) was asked "what are principles? And what are the issues everyone needs to have knowledge about, should not be ignorant about, otherwise whose beliefs would be spoiled and God would not accept his deeds and if anyone knows them and acts upon them, his religion would be corrected and his deeds would be accepted? Imam answered, ‘declaring belief in oneness of God, prophethood of the Prophet (s), acknowledging what is revealed from God, paying Zakat and acknowledging Wilayah of the Progeny of Muhammad (s), among whom Wilayah is of special importance."

In another hadith, Imam al-Baqir (a) says, "Islam has five pillars of daily prayers, Zakat, Fasting, Hajj and Wilayah which is most important of all." Such hadiths show that some Islamic beliefs are such that rejecting them results in rejecting Islam, while the rest of beliefs are not as such.

They justify their theory using verse of the Qur'an and hadiths which criticize following conjecture such as "indeed conjecture is no substitute for the truth." (10:36); "They follow nothing but conjectures and they do nothing but surmise." (6:116); "and they only make conjectures." (45:24).

One of the reasons of the reasons for impermissibility of the emulation in Usul al-din is that the emulator either knows the truthfulness of the authority he is following or not: if he does not know about that, then he can estimate the error in the authority and thus his emulation is not wise, since he is following what is not immune from error; but if he knows that the authority he is following hold the truth, then it is either of two conditions: he has made this conclusion in three conditions: either out of transparency which is null and void, out of emulation for which the number of people emulating whom is necessary is countless or though studying which is the only rational assumption in which the person may have concluded the truthfulness of the authority and this is actually not emulation and thus emulation in Usul al-din is invalid.

== Usul al-din from the Viewpoint of Twelver Shia (Imamiya) ==

The famous opinion is that Usul al-din include three issues: oneness [of God], prophethood, and resurrection, to which justice and imamate are added as the Principles of the School. In other words, if one rejects one of the three Usul al-din is a Kafir [unbeliever] but if he accepts the three but rejects either justice [of God] or imamate, then he is not an unbeliever but he would not be a Shia.

According to the common opinion of Twelver Shia scholars, the five mentioned principles are defined as following:

# Prophethood: acknowledging the prophethood of the Prophet Muhammad (s) and what has been revealed to him. However, there is a disagreement on whether generally acknowledging the issues the Prophet (s) has said as revelation or one needs to acknowledge the revelation in details. It is to note that some Twelver Shia scholars have also deemed it necessary for one to believe that the Prophet (s) was infallible and that he (s) was the last prophet.

# Imamate: Acknowledging imamate of the twelve imams (a). All Twelver Shia theologians agree on this as it has been considered one of the two required principles of Shia. All imams are infallible and guardians of religion and guide humans towards the truth and everyone needs to obey them. The Twelfth Imam (a) is alive, who disappeared but one day he (a) will reappear by the permission of God.