The Rise of Critical Islam by Youcef L. Soufi

Author:Youcef L. Soufi
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2023-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

Finding the Right Prayer Direction—Twice?: Debating a Matter of School Divergence

Al-Juwaynī and al-Shīrāzī took turns as sāʾil (questioner) and mujīb (respondent) in their debate gathering. Al-Shīrāzī had been the respondent in the two men’s disputation on forced marriage; now he had the less onerous task of questioning al-Juwaynī on a topic of al-Shīrāzī’s choice. He presumably chose the topic because of its relevance to the journey he had just undertaken: al-Shīrāzī’s party had travelled through the Persian countryside, during which they had often stopped for prayers. During these prayers, the travel party would have needed to determine the correct prayer direction (qibla), that is, the direction of the sacred temple called the Kaʿba in Mecca. Al-Shīrāzī thus asked al-Juwaynī about a scenario in which a worshipper tried his utmost to find the right prayer direction; after completing his prayer, the worshipper came upon epistemically certain proof that he had prayed in the wrong direction. Should the worshipper rest content that God had mercifully accepted his devotion despite his mistake, or should he repeat the prayer? The question had divided the Shāfiʿīs for generations.

The Shāfiʿīs agreed that the worshipper who merely doubted himself after striving to find the correct direction should categorically not redo his prayer. Their argument was simple: they drew on the practice of juristic ijtihād to show the validity of the worshipper’s search for the prayer direction.17 Just as a jurist’s ijtihād on the law is valid regardless of plausible alternative legal interpretations, they explained, the worshipper’s ijtihād on the prayer direction remains valid despite his later doubts. In other words, a second performance of ijtihād would not overturn the validity of the first—whether in the case of God’s law or the prayer direction. This is the case because both ijtihāds are fallible and there is thus no reason to privilege the conclusions of one over the other. But al-Shīrāzī’s question did not ask al-Juwaynī about a situation of doubt. Rather, he asked al-Juwaynī what a worshipper is to do if he has certainty about his mistake. Certainty typically trumped ijtihād on the law. For instance, if a jurist found irrefutable evidence, like a perspicuous scriptural source, all dissenting views were to be considered mistaken. In the case of the prayer direction, something like seeing the Kaʿba itself could produce such certainty.18 The question then presented itself to the Shāfiʿīs: Should such certainty force a worshipper to repeat his prayer? On this question, they presented conflicting arguments.19

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