Akhbari-Usuli Dispute

The teaching of Islam is based on the Holy Quran (God's words reveled to the Prophet) and the Sunnah (words and actions) of the Prophet Muhammad (may peace and the blessings be upon him and his family) found in hadiths/ahadith.

The Holy Quran (Islam’s holy book) is still in the same language (Arabic) as was originally reveled to Prophet Muhammad (saw) 1432 years ago. The text has never been changed except some minor variation in reading. The collection of hadiths varied and has gone through a number of stages/people (narrators).

Then, Gleave asked a series of thought-provoking questions, i.e.,

1. Should the words of companions or the scholars that came later be held in the same position/respect as the Holy Prophet?
2. Which interpretations (hadiths) are legitimate and which need to be rejected?

On the spread of Akhbari thought, the author stated
"The Akhbaris flourished between the Seventeenth and Nineteenth Centuries (CE) amongst Twelver Shii scholars of Iran, Iraq, Eastern Arabia and India. Some Akhbaris views on the above questions were innovative and had little or no precedent in either Twelver Shiaism or Muslim thought more generally. Many of their opinions, however, followed well-worn lines of argument".[1]

According to Gleave, Shia theological/legal works are influenced by hadiths of the Prophet (akhbar), Mu’tazili inspired doctrine (that are based heavily on rationality or reasoned speculation) or in between two views.

Reference
[1] Scripturalist Islam: The History and Doctrines of the Akhbārī Shiʿī School By Robert Gleave

Tracing the origin or the beginning of Akhbarism

Akhbaris were referred by a name, only in the time of Muhammad Amin al-Astarabadi and after him.

Gleave said “The Akhbaris themselves, of course, wished to trace their history back to the earliest Shii scholars in order to claim an historical pedigree.”

The problem is that the earliest scholars

1. were never referred to as Akhbaris
2. They never claimed they were Akhbaris
3. And neither did the later Akhbari scholars shared all the juristic methodology with earlier scholars

The Akhbari movement inspired by Mullah al-Astarabadi was either concerned with reforming or rejecting Allamah Hilli’s Usul al-Fiqh.

Gleave stated that the Akhbari movement is rarely mentioned in either Safavid or Qajar historical sources.

• Safavid court histories, are largely silent on the dispute between the Akhbaris, and their opponents, the Usulis (or mujtahids, who sought to maintain al- Allåma’s juristic system).
• Scholars (identified as Akhbaris) pleading their allegiance to the Akhbari School of jurisprudence is rare in these historical sources.

The founder of Akhbarism, al-Astrabadi rejected ijtihåd and the epistemological ilm/zann distinction implied by it. In its place, he proposed a legal methodology which attempted to ensure that legal rulings could be derived with certainty from the sources.

Al-Astrabadi (in his book al-Fawa'id al-Madaniyya) proposes

• Tradition/akhbar of the Imams are historically accurate
• Traditions are sufficient as guidance for a complete adherence to the law of God

Other possible sources of knowledge (for laws), i.e., reason, philosophy, experience, inspiration are rejected.

Opposition to the Shia Legal Theory

Gleave stated that the work by Allamah Hilli (d. 1325)

• Made mujtahid’s opinions more authoritative
• Inspired many new textbooks on legal theory (e.g Ma’alim al-Deen)
• Used to train Shii scholars
• Subjected to extensive commentaries

The earliest opposition to Allamah Hilli legal theory was not very significant. The most significant Akhbari’s resistant/response to Shia Usul al-Fiqh was done by Mullah Muhammad Amin al-Astarabadi (d.1627, Iranian theologian and founder/proponent of Shia Akhbarism).

A few doubts on the origin/beginning of Akhbarism was presented, i.e.,

• No standard usage of the term Akhbari or a set of doctrines attributed to Akhbarism before Mullah al-Astarabadi
• Classical Shia or even the Sunni literature do not mention a definable group called the Akhbariya

And then Gleave said
No scholars are ever named as being members of the early Akhbariyya until much later (and such references are clearly back projections), and no distinctive doctrines are explicitly assigned to the group. In short, I argue that the Akhbari are best seen as starting with Muhammad Amin al-Astarabadi.

Intro to the Akhbari book

Gleave stated that this book was the result of ten years of research, off and on. His other book is Inevitable doubt: two theories of Shīʻī jurisprudence. This book specifically focus on the ideas of Akhbarism.

The author hypothesize that the reason Shia were late in developing Usul al-Fiqh was because when an Imam was present, then there was no need for usul al-fiqh or book on jurisprudence.

The Zaydi allowed individual jurists to propose their own legal opinions using theoretical principle and not personal whims. Their writing began in the eleventh century. The earliest Zaydi’s work of Usul al-Fiqh is al-Mujzi fi usul al-Fiqh by Abu Talib Yahya b. al-Husayn al-Natiq bi’l-Haqq (d 1033).

The Ismaili Shia tradition (under the Fatimids and later) was not collected or written until the time of Qadi al-Numan, Da'a'im al-Islam. I've reviewed a paper about sources used for compiling his book (part 1, part 2 and part 3).

Then the author said "The Imami Shia developed an interest in legal theory following the disappearance of their Twelfth Imam in the year 874 AD. ... Within a hundred years of the Twelfth Imam’s greater occultation” (941) (after it became clear his promised return was not imminent), works of usul al-Fiqh were being composed by Imami (or Twelver) Shii scholars and the basis for a tradition of juristic scholarship was being laid."

The author then quoted some academic work that highlighted influence of Sunni (Shafii) legal theory in the earliest works of Shia Usul al-Fiqh.

Some interesting terminology/facts/info was presented in the introduction, i.e.,

1. Matters known with certainty
2. Matters that are disputed
3. The four famous (Shii) hadith books
4. Akhbar: Test for accuracy
5. Contradictory hadiths and ways to resolve them
6. Imams forbidding qiyas/analogical reasoning
7. Very little opposition to Shia Usul al-Fiqh developed by Allamah Hilli
8. He mistranslated khabar al-wahid. Real meaning.
Please continue reading part 3.

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