Ithna Ashariyah: Difference between revisions

==Historical Development==

The Ithna ʿAshariyah trace their history to the investiture, in Ghadir Khumm (modern-day Juhfah), of [[ʿAli ibn Abi Talib]], the first imam, with [[wilaya]] (discretionary authority) by [[Muhammad]] after the Prophet 's Farewell Pilgrimage. Following Muhammad 's death in 632, the leadership of the nascent community was assumed by the Prophet 's leading companion, [[Abu Bakr]], but a group of Muslims refused to accept him as caliph. This group constituted the nucleus of the early [[Shiʿa]] (“partisans”). They believed that ʿAli was Muhammad 's rightful successor and that those who usurped his right were sinners. This belief marked the genesis of the Shiʿi concept of [[imamate]]. Although ʿAli did not assume political authority until after the third caliph, ʿUthman, was murdered in 656, he was regarded by the Shiʿi as the imam, that is, a person qualified to assume temporal and spiritual authority. Following ʿAli 's murder in 660, the imamate continued with [[Hasan]] (d. 669) and Husayn (d. 680), the sons of ʿAli and his wife [[Fatima]], Muhammad 's daughter.  

The second most significant event during the formative period of the Ithna ʿAshariyah was the murder of the third imam, [[Husayn]], on the plains [[Karbala]], Iraq, in 680. The Karbala episode provided the Shiʿa with the ethos that led to the distinct Shiʿi belief system, which is constructed around the notion of divinely designated ideal leadership, and the pathos that set the tone of the Ithna ʿAshari religious praxis for posterity. From the Ithna ʿAshari perspective, Karbala became the paradigm for defiance against the unjust authority that culminated in martyrdom ([[shahadah]] in the sense of sacrificial death in the path of God). It also marked a shift in the subsequent role of the Shiʿi imam from politically activist upholder of just authority to politically quietist successor of Husayn. The imamate was identified more in terms of the imam 's religious-legal knowledge of Islamic revelation than his activist posture as the redresser of the wrongs committed against the [[ahl al-bayt]] (the Prophet 's family).  

==Theological and Juridical Formation==

[[ʿAli Zayn al-ʿAbidin]] (d. 714), [[Muhammad al-Baqir]] (d. 733), and [[Jaʿfar al-Sadiq]] (d. 765), the fourth, fifth, and sixth imams, inaugurated the era of devotional, theological, and juridical formulations of the Ithna ʿAshariyah. Whereas for the Muslim community in general the second half of the eighth century was a period of political and social unrest, for the Shiʿa it was the critical phase of self-definition in the face of competing and politically supported religious expression. The replacement of the [[Umayyad]]s by the [[ʿAbbasid]]s in 748 and the political turmoil that ruled in the central lands of the caliphate afforded these imams necessary time to shape the future direction of the Ithna ʿAshariyah. Through the spiritual and intellectual leadership of al-Baqir and al-Sadiq, the Shiʿi developed distinctly Shiʿi Quranic exegesis, through well-documented Prophetic [[hadith]]s (reports), including ones related by the imams, and a highly sophisticated juridical tradition, which subsequently earned them a distinct recognition in the larger community as the followers of the Jaʿfari madhhab (rite).