The Formative Period of Twelver Shi'ism by Andrew J Newman

Author:Andrew J Newman [Newman, Andrew J]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Ethnic Studies, General, Regional Studies
ISBN: 9781136837050
Google: vZeMAQAAQBAJ
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Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2010-12-22T00:00:00+00:00

The Centrality of al-Ê¿Aql and al-Ê¿Ilm: the Repudiation of Rationalism

That the presence, and yet precarious situation of rationalist discourse was foremost in al-Kulaynī’s mind is further attested to by his commencement, following his preface, of al-Kāfī with traditions on al-ʿaql and al-ʿilm, in which the former is put firmly in its place.8 Of the thirty-four traditions in Kitāb al-ʿAql waʾl-Jahl, the collection’s first book, ʿAlī b. Ibrāhīm b. Hāshim al-Qummī (died after 307/919) – the author of one of the first Imāmī tafsīr works as well as Qurb al-Isnād, who narrated traditions from Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. ʿĪsā and his own father, the latter deemed thiqa by al-Najāshī and one of the first to narrate Kufan traditions in the city – transmitted five traditions as did Muḥammad b. Yaḥyā al-Ashʿarī al-Aṭṭār, also deemed thiqa by al-Najāshī.9 Al-Ḥusayn b. Muḥammad al-Ashʿarī, also thiqa10, transmitted four, and both ʿAlī b. Muḥammad b. ʿAbdallāh al-Barqī al-Qummī, the son of Aḥmad b. Muḥammad al-Barqī’s daughter, and Aḥmad b. Idrīs al-Ashʿarī, who also narrated from Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. ʿĪsā al-Ashʿarī and was deemed thiqa by al-Najāshī, transmitted two.11 Al-Ṣaffār al-Qummī narrated but one. Qummīs accounted directly for a total of nineteen texts, or 55 per cent of the total of thirty-four. The Ashʿarī directly transmitted eleven of the total of thirty-four, or 32 per cent. If one adds to the Qummīs’ transmissions the five texts transmitted by ʿAlī b. Muḥammad b. Ibrāhīm al-Rāzī, who narrated traditions to Saʿd b. ʿAbdallāh al-Ashʿarī and was deemed trustworthy by al-Najāshī,12 twenty-four texts, 75 per cent of the total, were narrated by local traditionists.13

Of these traditions, al-Kulaynī narrated several via ʿa number of our companions (ʿidda min aṣḥābina)’ from Sahl b. Ziyād (28/34),14 and that cited from al-Ṣaffār was from Sahl as well (26/26) as were two other traditions (25/22, 23/16), the first of which was cited via the more reputable ʿAbdallāh b. Sinān. Al-Haytham al-Nahadī’s name appeared in another (26/27) and Muḥammad b. Yaḥyā narrated a tradition from Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. ʿĪsā al-Ashʿarī (11/4). Mufaḍḍal b. ʿUmar (26/29), al-Ḥusayn al-Nawfalī (12/9)15 and Muḥammad b. Sinān (11/7), all later declared to have been ‘problematic’ narrators, also featured in the isnād of these traditions, the latter in a tradition narrated from an ʿidda associated with Aḥmad b. Muḥammad al-Barqī.16

In these traditions al-ʿaql appears as the first of Allah’s creations which cannot be acquired by human effort but is only given as a gift and which, only through al-ʿilm – the knowledge taught by the Imams – leads man to true knowledge, knowledge of Allah. Thus al-ʿaql and al-ʿilm are constantly, and necessarily, paired for the believer; al-ʿaql alone is not sufficient without the Imams’ ʿilm, while without ʿaql ʿilm cannot be recognised.17 Thus, in a tradition cited from Aḥmad b. Muḥammad al-Barqī from his father, Imam Jaʿfar stated that

between faith and unbelief there is only a paucity of Ê¿aql (28/33).

Al-Kulaynī cited, via al-Barqī’s ʿidda via the same isnād, al-Maḥāsin’s tradition in which Imam Jaʿfar described Allah as creating

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