Twelver Shi'ism


Twelver Shi'ism is the largest branch of Shia Islam. Twelver Shi'as believe that the Twelve Imams are divinely appointed as both spiritual and political successors to the Islamic prophet Muhammad, and that they possess special knowledge and authority to guide the Muslim community. According to Twelver theology, the Twelve Imams are exemplary human individuals who rule over the Muslim community with justice, and are able to preserve and interpret the Islamic law and the esoteric meaning of the Qur'an. The words and deeds of Muhammad and the Imams are a guide and model for the Muslim community to follow. As a result, Muhammad and the Imams must be free from error and sin, a doctrine known as Ismah or infallibility, and must be chosen by divine decree, or nass, through Muhammad.
Globally, there are about 170–255 million Twelvers. These include: most of the inhabitants of Iran, Iraq, and Azerbaijan, about half of the Muslim population of Bahrain and Lebanon, and sizeable minorities in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, the UAE, and Qatar. Iran is the only country where Twelver Shi'ism is the state religion.
Twelvers share many tenets with other Shi'ite sects, such as the belief in the Imamate. The Isma'ili and Nizari branches believe in a different number of Imams and, for the most part, a different path of succession regarding the Imamate. They also differ in the role and overall definition of an Imam. Twelvers are also distinguished from Isma'ilis by their belief in Muhammad's status as the "Seal of the Prophets", in rejecting the possibility of abrogation of Sharia laws, and in considering both esoteric and exoteric aspects of the Qur'an. Alevis in Turkey and Albania, and Alawites in Syria and Lebanon, share belief in the Twelve Imams with Twelvers, but their theological doctrines are markedly different.

Terminology

The term Twelver is based on the belief that twelve male descendants from the family of Muhammad, starting with Ali ibn Abi Talib and ending with Muhammad al-Mahdi, are Imams who have religious and political authority.
The Twelvers are also known by other names:
  • Shi'a refers to a group of Muslims who believe that the succession to Muhammad must remain in his family for specific members who are designated by a divine appointment. Tabatabai states that the word referred to the partisans of Ali at the time of Muhammad himself.
  • Ja'fari refers exclusively to the Juridical school which is followed by Twelvers and Nizaris. The term is derived from the name of Ja'far al-Sadiq who is considered by the Twelvers and Nizaris to be their sixth Imam who presented "a legal treatise". Ja'far al-Sadiq is also respected and referenced by the founders of the Sunni Hanafi and Maliki schools of jurisprudence.
  • Imami or Imamiyyah or Imamite is a reference to the Twelver belief in the infallibility of the Imāms. Although the Ismā'īlīs also share the concept of Imamate, this term is mostly used for the Twelvers who believe that the leadership of the community after Muhammad belongs to twelve subsequent successors including Ali that together comprise the Fourteen Infallibles.

    History

Imamate era

Twelver imams amongst Shia

Emergence

In 610, when Muhammad received the first revelation, Ali was 10 years old. At the time of Muhammad, some of the supporters of Ali, particularly Miqdad ibn al-Aswad, Salman the Persian, Abu Dharr al-Ghifari, and Ammar ibn Yasir were called the Shiites of Ali. The division of Islam into Shia and Sunni traces back to the crisis of the succession to Muhammad. The followers of Ali fought with some of the Quraysh and some of the companions of Muhammad like Talhah and Zubayr. As most of his supporters were in Iraq, Ali moved the capital of Islam to Kufa and there began to fight against Mu'awiyah, who rejected giving allegiance to Ali. The death of Husayn played an important role in the spread of Shi'ism in the regions of Iraq, Yemen and Persia. At the end of the first century, the influential leaders in the government established the city of Qom for the settlement of the Shia.

Formulation

was teacher of law for 20 years and a reporter of hadith. He also introduced the principle of Taqiyya. Al-Baqir narrated many a hadith about Jurisprudence and other religious sciences which based the foundations for the Shia instructions. With change in political situations and a suitable conditions for the development of religious activities and the time of elaborating the religious sciences, Ja'far al-Sadiq had an important role in forming the Shia Jurisprudence.
Ja'far al-Sadiq and al-Baqir are the founders of the Imami Shiite school of religious law. Al-Sadiq acquired a noteworthy group of scholars around himself, comprising some of the most eminent jurists, traditionists, and theologians of the time. During his time, Shia developed in the theological and legal issues.
Both Muhammad al-Baqir and Ja'far al-Sadiq improved the position of the Shia and elaborated the intellectual basis of the interpretation and practice of Shiite Islam. Their teachings were the basis for the development of Shiite spirituality and religious rituals.

Organizing

At the beginning of the ninth century, once again Shia Islam flourished due to the translation of scientific and philosophical books from other languages to Arabic, Al-Ma'mun giving freedom to the propagation of different religious views and his interest in intellectual debates. Under the rule of al-Ma'mun, Shia was free from the political pressures and was somehow at liberty. In the fourth/tenth century, the weaknesses in the Abbasid government and coming up the Buyid rulers caused the spread, strength and open propagation of the Shi'ism. From the fifth/eleventh to the ninth century many Shia kings appeared in the Islamic world who propagated the Shi'ism.

Crisis and consolidation

Baghdad school

During the tenth century and the Buyid era, Baghdad was the center of Mu'tazila theologians. Their ideas about attribute and justice of God and human free will affected Shia theologians. Bani Nawbakht, particularly Abu Sahl Al-Nawbakhti, fuzed Mu'tazili theology with Imami system of thought. On the other hand, Imami traditionists of Qom, particularly Ibn Babawayh, react to their theological ideas based on Twelve Imams' Hadiths. He tried to defend Imami ideas against Mu'tazili criticism regarding Anthropomorphism.
The three prominent figures of Baghdad school were Al-Shaykh Al-Mufid, Sharif al-Murtaza and Shaykh al-Tusi.
Al-Mufid was a Twelver theologian, Muhaddith and Fiqih who used Bani Nawbakht as well as Baghdadi Mu'tazila ideas to form his theology while trying to adapt theological ideas with Twelve Imams' Hadith. While the Mu'tazila was dominant in Baghdad, he tries to distinguish Shia and Mu'tazila ideas and assert reason needs
revelation.
Shaykh Tusi, founder of Shia Ijtihad, was the first to establish the bases of reasoning in Shia Jurisprudence. His book al-Mabsut is the first book of Ijtihad which derives the subordinates from the principles. Tusi brought the Shia religious law to a new period. The main point is that he recognized the needs of the community and preserved the principles.
By his debates and books, Al-Mufid, Sayyid-al Murtada and Shaykh al-Tusi in Iraq were the first to introduce the Usul of the Jurisprudence under the influence of the Shafe'i and Mu'tazili doctrines. Al- Kulayni and al-Sadduq, in Qom and Ray, were concerned with traditionalist approach.
Twelver Imams amongst other Shia imam with their early Imams are shown in the chart below. This also indicate twelvers amongst various other sects in the present world.

Jurisprudencial and theological development

School of Hillah

The beginner of this school, Ibn Idris al-Hilli, with his rationalistic tendency, detailed Shi'ite jurisprudence in his al-Sara'ir. Ibn Idris, with rejecting the validity of the isolate hadith, states rational faculty as the fourth source of law in deducing legal norms before Quran and hadith. The real Usuli doctrinal movement was begun by al-Muhaqqiq al-Hilli who brought up ijtihad and qiyas to jurisprudence. Ijtihad brought dynamism into Shia law. Muhaqqiq Hilli and al-Hilli gave a definite shape to Shia jurisprudence and they separated the weak hadith from the sound. According to John Cooper, after al-Hilli, Imami theology and legal methodology became thoroughly infused with the terminology and style of philosophy.
In 1256, the Abbasid dynasty collapsed with the invasion of Mongols to Baghdad. Under the ruling of Mongols, Shi'a were more free to develop and al-Hilla became the new learning center for Shia. Continuing the rationalistic tradition of the Baghdad School, defining reason as an important principle of Jurisprudence, al-Hillah school laid the theoretical foundation upon which the authority of Jurisprudents is based today.
The second wave of the Usulies was shaped in the Mongol period when al-Hilli used the term Mujtahid, the one who deduces the ordinance on the basis of the authentic arguments of the religion. By Ijtihad, al-Hilli meant the disciplined reasoning on the basis of the shari'ah. By developing the principles of the Usul, he introduced more legal and logical norms which extended the meaning of the Usul beyond the four principal sources of Shari'ah.

School of Jabal 'Amil

Amili was the first who fully formulated the principles of the Ijtihad.

Rising to power

School of Isfahan

In 1501, Isma'il I took the power in Iran and set up the Safavid dynasty. While most of the larger cities of Iran were Sunni, he declared Twelverism as the official religion of his empire. Many Shia scholars were brought to set up the Shia seminaries in Iran. One of those was Karaki who stated that, for the interest of Umma, it is necessary for a Shia scholar to be a legitimate leader to carry out the tasks of the Imam who is hidden. Under Safavids, religious authorities were appointed for all major cities.
Karaki established a great seminary in Qazvin and Isfahan, consequently, Iran once again became center of Imami jurisprudence.
Suhrawardi tried to harmonize rational philosophy and intellectual intuition, but Mir Damad is the founder of it. Mir Damad combined the teachings of Ibn Arabi, Suhrawardi, Ibn Sina and Nair al-Din and founded a new intellectual dimension in the texture of Shi'ism.
The scholars of the School of Isfahan integrated the philosophical, theological, and mystical traditions of Shi'ism into a metaphysical synthesis known as Divine Wisdom or theosophy. The most important representative of the School of Isfahan was Mulla Sadra. Mulla Sadra produced his own synthesis of Muslim thought, including theology, peripatetic philosophy, philosophical mysticism, and Sufi studies,
particularly the Sufism of Ibn al-'Arabi. Mulla Sadra trained eminent students, such as Mulla Muhsin Kashani and 'Abd al-Razzaq Lahiji who passed down the traditions of the School of Isfahan in later centuries in both Iran and India.