The Making of Shia Ayatollahs

Sayed Hassan Akhlaq

doi:10.5771/9781793655165

Summary

The Making of Shia Ayatollahs offers both insider and outsider views of how a scholar becomes an Ayatollah in Shia Islam, how ayatollahs suggest diverse perspectives on faith, and how the grand ayatollahs are recognized by a balance of many factors including piety, scholarship, popularity and networking. This book consists of two parts. The first begins with the core value of knowledge in Islam and the Ulama’s interpretation of jurisprudence and the subjects, values, and methodology they have developed and are applying to challenges found in the faithful practices in modern life. The author reveals the mechanisms of madrasa, hawza, their curricula, and the recognition of a scholar as an ayatollah. The second part elaborates the rich and sometimes bitter pluralism and debate within the community of ayatollahs regarding topics including denominational identity and intra-faith work, Sufism and mysticism, Philosophy (falsafa and wisdom), modernization and the West, political power and government, and women in public life. After providing a historical background on each subject, the author takes the reader into the heart of current debates among ayatollahs in Qum, Mashhad, Najaf, and Beirut without sacrificing accuracy and originality to educate a wide range of readers.

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Bibliographic data

Copyright year: 2023
ISBN-Print: 978-1-7936-5515-8
ISBN-Online: 978-1-7936-5516-5
Publisher: Lexington, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 290
Product type: Book Titles

1. Dedication No access
2. Contents No access
1. Notes No access
1. 1. Fayz Kashani Debating Ghazzali No access
  2. Reduction or Adaptation? No access
  3. Notes No access
2. 1. From Madrasa to Hawza No access
  2. 1. 1. Preliminaries No access
    2. 2. The Critical Texts of Jurisprudence No access
    3. 3. The Beyond-Text Courses No access
  3. Hierarchy and Titles No access
  4. Major Hawzas No access
  5. Najaf and Qum No access
  6. Notes No access
3. 1. Terminology and History No access
  2. Reestablishment of Usulism versus Akhbarism No access
  3. Certification and Qualifications No access
  4. Verities and Dynamism No access
  5. Notes No access
4. 1. Significance and Growth No access
  2. The Principles of Jurisprudence No access
  3. 1. A. Acts of Worship (‘Ibadat) No access
    2. B. Contracts (uqud) No access
    3. C. Unilateral Obligations (Iqa’at) No access
    4. D. Rules (ahkam) No access
  4. The Historical Evolution No access
  5. Notes No access
5. 1. From Mujtahid to Marja No access
  2. Practice and Reception No access
  3. Maslaha, Diversity, and the Future No access
  4. Notes No access
1. 1. The Inner Tension of Specificity and Unity No access
  2. Sect-Centrism No access
  3. Ecumenicism No access
  4. Conclusion No access
  5. Notes No access
2. 1. Fiqh, Sufism, or Both? No access
  2. Anti-Sufism No access
  3. Sufism as True Nature of Shia No access
  4. Inner Harmony between Shari'a and Sufism No access
  5. Notes No access
3. 1. Hukama Mujtahids No access
  2. Anti-Hukama Mujtahids No access
  3. The School of Separation (Tafkik) No access
  4. Notes No access
4. 1. Four Phases of Meeting No access
  2. Transforming Fiqh No access
  3. Notes No access
5. 1. Seclusion and Quietism No access
  2. Cooperation with Shia Kings/Sultans No access
  3. Supporting Constitutionalism and Anti-Absolutism No access
  4. Introducing the Jurist Guardianship (Wilayat-e Faqih) No access
  5. Search for New Ideas No access
  6. Notes No access
6. 1. Premodern Scholarship No access
  2. Reformist Scholarship No access
  3. Notes No access
Appendix 1 No access Pages 259 - 260
Appendix 2 No access Pages 261 - 264
Bibliography No access Pages 265 - 276
Index No access Pages 277 - 288
About the Author No access Pages 289 - 290