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Chapter 5 - ‘Is Every Mujtahid Correct?’ and the Implications of Holding Incorrect Theological Beliefs for one’s Fate in the Hereafter, from the Qawānīn al-Uṣūl of Mīrzā al-Qummī (d. 1231/1816)

from Part I - Islamic Legal Theory (Uṣūl al-Fiqh) and Related Genres

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 November 2024

Omar Anchassi
Affiliation:
Universität Bern, Switzerland
Robert Gleave
Affiliation:
University of Exeter
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Summary

This chapter presents the discussion of whether every mujtahid is correct (hal kull mujtahid muṣīb?) as found in al-Qawānīn al-Muḥkama fī l-Uṣūl of Abū al-Qāsim b. Muḥammad al-Ḥasan al-Shaftī al-Qummī (d. 1231/1816). In particular, it explores the implications of this largely legal question for theology and otherworldly salvation (i.e. soteriology). Taṣwīb theories of ijtihād (sometimes called ‘infallibilist’ theories) commonly held that in the absence of definitive evidence all suitably determined opinions are correct. Takhṭiʾa (‘fallibilist’ theories) held that the correct position was only ever one, and ijtihād was a fallible attempt to discover this one correct position. Ultimately both positions allowed for some legitimate diversity in scholarly opinion on matters of law. The implications of this legal epistemology informed Muslim ideas about the implications of holding incorrect theological beliefs.

Type
Chapter
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Islamic Law in Context
A Primary Source Reader
, pp. 58 - 69
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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References

Primary Sources

Ibn Bābawayh, Muḥammad b. ͑Alī b. al-Ḥusayn. Man Lā Yaḥḍuruhu al-Faqīh (Beirut: Dār al-Ta͑āruf li-l-Maṭbū͑āt, 1994).Google Scholar
al-Muntaẓirī, Ḥusayn. Nihāyat al-Uṣūl: Taqrīrāt al-Burūjirdī (Qum: Nashr Tafakkur, n.d.).Google Scholar
al-Qummī, al-Mīrzā Abū al-Qāsim. al-Qawānīn al-Muḥkama fī l-Uṣūl (Qum: Dār al-Iḥyāʾ, 2008) (also known as Qawānīn al-Uṣūl).Google Scholar
al-Qummī, ʿAlī b. Ibrāhīm. Tafsīr al-Qummī (Najaf: Maṭba͑at al-Najaf, 1967).Google Scholar

Secondary Sources

Damad, Seyyed Mostafa Mohaghegh. ‘The Reception of Factuality (Taṣwīb) Theories of Ijtihād in Modern Uṣulī Shīʿī Thought’, in Visions of Sharīʿa: Contemporary Discussions in Shīʿī Legal Theory, ed. Bhojani, Ali-reza et al. (Leiden: Brill, 2020), 1025.Google Scholar
Eissa, Mohamed Ahmed Abdelrahman. The Jurist and the Theologian: Speculative Theology in Shāfiʿī Legal Theory (Piscataway: Gorgias Press, 2017).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fadel, Mohammad. ‘“No Salvation Outside Islam”: Modernists, Democratic Politics, and Islamic Theological Exclusivism’, in Between Heaven and Hell: Islam, Salvation, and the Fate of Others: The Salvation Question, ed. Khalil, Mohammad Hassan (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013), 3561.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Khalil, Mohammad Hassan (ed.). Islam and the Fate of Others: The Salvation Question (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Newman, Andrew. ‘The Nature of the Akhbārī/Uṣūlī Dispute in Late Ṣafawid Iran. Part 1: ‘Abdallāh al-Samāhijī’s “Munyat al-Mumārisīn”’, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 55 (1992), 2251.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zysow, Aron. The Economy of Certainty: An Introduction to the Typology of Islamic Legal Theory (Atlanta: Lockwood Press, 2013).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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