The Oversight of Imāmī Jurisprudence on Sunnī Jurisprudence and its Impact on Legal Inference (ʾIstinbāṭ)

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Alireza Ansari ¹

Ali Norouzi ²

¹ PhD student in Jurisprudence and Fundamentals of Law, College of Farabi, University of Tehran: Level 4 Research Scholar, Seminary of Qom, External Branch of the ʾAhl al-Bayt Fiqh Center, Qom, Iran

² Level 4 Research Scholar, Seminary of Qom, External Branch of the ʾAhl al-Bayt Fiqh Center, Qom, Iran

10.22067/jfiqh.2025.90806.1875

Abstract

The narrations of ʾAhl al-Bayt and their silent indications are considered essential sources for discovering Shari'a rulings. The conditions and the prevailing atmosphere of the era of issuance (ṣadr) have significant impact on understanding the intended meaning of these narrations. Therefore, a single address may be interpreted with two different meanings across two different eras, and the silence of ʾAhl al-Bayt may only signify consent within a specific context.
The Sunni jurisprudential atmosphere is one of the most important comparative points regarding the era of issuance. This focus has taken shape since the time of Ayatollah Burūjirdī and Muḥaqqiq Dāmād and has overshadowed the indications of the narrations and the silence of ʾAhl al-Bayt, leading to the emergence of new views in numerous jurisprudential branches. Following a correct explanation of the "Oversight Theory" (naẓariyi-yi niẓārat) and employing the descriptive-analytical method, the present article examines the role of the general community's jurisprudential atmosphere in correct understanding of narrations under headings such as assumption of exclusive connotation (ʾinṣirāf-i khiṭāb), abrogation of specificity (ʾilghāʾ-yi khuṣūṣiyyat), generalization of a generic term (ʾiṣṭiyād-i ʿunvan-i ʿāmm), understanding of obligatory ( taklīfī) or descriptive (vażʿī) rulings, and the subsequent command (ʾamr-i ʿaqīb) regarding the imagined prohibition (tavahhum-i ḥaẓr). Furthermore, the authority of the general religious practice of the community in matters of widespread and significant trial is assessed, and the premises for arguing its validity are elucidated.

Keywords

Oversight Theory (naẓariyi-yi niẓārat)

the era of issuance

comparative jurisprudence

the dependence (taʿlīqa) of Shīʿa traditions on the general community

the general religious practice of the community

Subjects

• Principles of jurisprudence

---

References

Ākhūnd Khurāsānī, Muḥammad Kāẓim ibn Ḥusayn. Kifāya al-Uṣūl. Qum: Āl al-Bayt (AS) Iḥyāʾ al-Tūrāth, Chāp-i Awwal,  1989/1409.

Bahbahānī, Muḥammad Bāqir ibn Muḥammad Akmal. al-Fawāʾid al-Ḥāʾirīyah. Qum: Majmaʻ al-Fikr al-Islāmī. Chāp-i Awwal, 1995/1415.

Baḥrānī, Yūsuf ibn Aḥmad. Ḥadāʾiq al-Nāḍira fī Aḥkām al-ʿItra Ṭāḥira. Qum: Mūʾassisah Nashr Islāmī, Chāp-i Awwal,  1985/1363.

Burūjirdī, Ḥusayn. al-Badr al-Zāhir fī  Ṣalāt al-Jumʿah wa al-Musāfir. Qum: Maktaba Āyat Allāh  Muntaẓirī. Chāp-i Sivum, 1996/1416.

Burūjirdī, Ḥusayn. Naḥāya  al-Taqrīr fī Mabāḥith al-Ṣalāt. Qum: Markaz Fiqh  al-Aʾimah al-Aṭhār. Chāp-i Sivum, 2000/1420.   

Burūjirdī, Ḥusayn. Taqrīr Baḥth Āyat Allāh al-ʿUẓmā al-Burūjirdī fī al-Qiblah, al-Sitr wa al-Sātir, Makān al-Muṣalā. Qum: Mūʾassisah Nashr Islāmī, 1996/1416.

Burūjirdī, Ḥusayn. Tibyān al-Ṣalāt. Qum: Ganj ʿIrfān. Chāp-i Awwal,  2005/1426.

Fakhr  al-Muḥaqiqīn, Muḥammad ibn Ḥasan. Īḍāḥ al-Fawāʾid fī Sharḥ Ishkālāt al-Qawāʿid. Qum: Ismāʻīlīyān. Chāp-i Awwal, 1967/1387.

Ḥāʾirī, Murtaḍā. Madanī al-Aḥkām fī Uṣūl Sharāyʿ al-Islām. Qum: Mūʾassisah Nashr Islāmī, Chāp-i Awwal, 2003/1424.

Ḥakīm, Muḥsin. Mustamsak al-ʿUrwa al-Wuthqā. Qum: Dār al-Tafsīr. Chāp-i Awwal,  1996/1374.

Hamadānī, Riżā ibn Muḥammad Hādī. Miṣbāḥ al-Faqīh. Qum: Mūʾassisa Jaʻfarīya li-Iḥyāʾ al-Tūrāth. Chāp-i Awwal, 1998/1376.

Ḥurr ʻĀmilī, Muḥammad ibn Ḥasan. Wasāʾil al-Shīʻa. Qum: Āl al-Bayt (AS) li-Iḥyāʾ al-Tūrāth, Chāp-i Sivum, 1996/1416.

Ibn Bābawayh, Muḥammad ibn ʻAlī. al-Muqniʿ. Qum: Payām Imām Hādī. Chāp-i Awwal, 1995/1415.

Ibn Manẓūr, Muḥammad ibn Mukarram. Lisān al-ʿArab. Beirut: Dār al-Fikr. Chāp-i Awwal,,  s.d.

Ibn Shahīd Thānī, Ḥasan ibn Zayn al-Dīn. Muntaqī al-Jamān fī Aḥādīth al-Ṣiḥāḥ wa al-Ḥisān. Qum: Mūʾassisa al-Nashr al-Islāmī, Chāp-i Awwal, 1984/1362.

Ishtihārdī, ʿAlī Panāh. Madārik al-ʿUrwa. Tehran:  Dār al-Uswah. Chāp-i Awwal,  1993/1413.

Kalbāsī, Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad Ibrāḥīm. Risālah fī Ḥujīya al-Ẓan. s.l. s.n.1899/1317.

Khūʾī, Abū al-Qāsim. Muḥāḍarāt fī Uṣūl al-Fiqh. Qum: Anṣārīyān. Chāp-i Sivum, 1990/1410.

Khumaynī, Rūḥ Allāḥ. Tanqīḥ al-Uṣūl. Tehran: Mūʾassisah-yi Tanẓīm va Nashr-i Āsār-i  Imām Khumaynī. Chāp-i Awwal, 1998/1376.

Kulīnī, Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb. al-Kāfī. Tehran: Dār al-Kutub al-Islāmīyya, Chāp-i Chāhārum, 1987/1407.

Majlisī, Muḥammad Bāqir ibn Muḥammad Taqī. Biḥār al-Anwār. Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Tūrāth al-ʻArabī. Chāp-i Duvvum, 1983/1403.

Majlisī, Muḥammad Bāqir ibn Muḥammad Taqī. Malādh al-Akhyār fī Fahm Tahdhīb  al-Akhbār. Qum: Kitābkhānah-yi ʿUmumī Ḥażrat Āyat Allāh Marʻashī Najafī, Chāp-i Awwal, 1986/1406.

Mufīd, Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad. al-Muqniʿa. Qum: Mūʾassisa al-Nashr al-Islāmī. Chāp-i Duwwum, 1990/1410.

Muḥaqqiq Dāmād, Muḥammad. Kitāb al-Ḥajj. Qum: Asrā. Chāp-i Awwal, 2003/ 1381.

Muḥaqqiq Dāmād, Muḥammad. Kitāb al-Ṣalāt. Qum: Mūʾassisa al-Nashr al-Islāmī. Chāp-i Duwwum, s.d.

Muḥaqqiq Ḥillī. Jaʻfar ibn Ḥasan. al-Muʿtabar fī Sharḥ al-Mukhtaṣar. Qum: Sayyid al-Shuhadā(AS). Chāp-i Awwal, 1986/1364.

Muʾminī, ʻĀbidīn, Majīd Qurbān ʻAlī Dūlābī, Miytham Bihdādfar. " Tārīkhnigarī dar Farāyand  Ijtihād bā Taʾkīd bar  Ravish Ijtihādī va Shīvih-yi Muqārin-hā-yi Āyat Allāh Burūjirdī", Fiqh-i Muqārin, Durih-yi 8, no.16, Isfand 2021/1399, 55-79.

Mūsawī ʻĀmilī, Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī. Madārik al-Aḥkām fī Sharḥ Sharāʾiʿ al-Islām. Qum: Āl al-Bayt(AS) li-Iḥyāʾ al-Tūrāth. Chāp-i Duwwum, 1991/1411.

Nāʾīnī, Muḥammad Ḥusayn. Ajwad al-Taqrīrāt. Qum: Kitābkhānah-yi Muṣṭafawī. Chāp-i Awwal, s.d.

Narāqī, Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad Mahdī. Mustanad al-Shīʻa fī al-Aḥkām al-Sharīʻa.  Qum: Mūʾassisa Āl al-Bayt Iḥyāʾ al-Tūrāth. Chāp-i Awwal, 1995/1415.

Sabziwārī, Muḥammad Bāqir ibn Muḥammad Muʾmin. Dhakhīra al-Maʿād fī Sharḥ al-Irshād. Qum: Āl al-Bayt(AS) li-Iḥyāʾ al-Tūrāth, , Chāp-i Awwal,  s.d.

Ṣadr, Muḥammad Bāqir. Buḥūth fī ʻIlm al-Uṣūl. bi Taqrīr Maḥmūd Hāshimī Shāhrūdī. Qum: Mūʾassisa Dāyrah al-Maʿārif-i Fiqh-i Islāmī, Chāp-i Sivum, 1996/1417.

Ṣafār, Muḥammad ibn Ḥasan. Baṣāiʾr al-Darajā fī Faḍāʾil Al Muḥammad(AS). Qum. Maktaba Āyat Allāh al-Marʻashī al-Najafī, Chāp-i Duwwum, 1984/1404.

Ṣāḥib Jawāhir. Muḥammad Ḥasan ibn Bāqir. Jawāhir al-Kalām. Qum: Mūʾassisa Dāyrah al-Maʿārif-i Fiqh-i Islāmī. Chāp-i Awwal, 1995/1416.

Shahābī, Maḥmūd. Qawāʾid Fiqh. Tehran: University of Tehran. Chāp-i Awwal, 1914/1332.

Shubayrī Zanjānī, Mūsā. Durūs Khārij Khums. Qum: Markaz-i Fiqhī  Imām Muḥammad  Bāqir(AS) Vābastih bi Daftar Āyat Allāh al-ʿUẓmā Shubayrī Zanjānī, Chāp-i Awwal, s.d.

Shubayrī Zanjānī, Mūsā. Durūs Khārij Nikāḥ. Qum: Markaz-i Fiqhī  Imām Muḥammad  Bāqir(AS) Vābastih bi Daftar Āyat Allāh al-ʿUẓmā Shubayrī Zanjānī, Chāp-i Awwal, s.d.

Shubayrī Zanjānī, Mūsā. Kitāb al-Ḥajj. Qum: Markaz-i Fiqhī  Imām Muḥammad  Bāqir(AS) Vābastih bi Daftar Āyat Allāh al-ʿUẓmā Shubayrī Zanjānī, Chāp-i Awwal, s.d.

Sīstānī, ʿAlī. al-Ribā. Qum: Ismāʻīlīyān. Chāp-i Awwal, 2018/1440.

Tabrīzī, Javād. Durūs fī Masāʾil ʻIlma al-Uṣūl. Qum: Dār al- Ṣidīqa al-Shahīda. Chāp-i Duvvum, 1967/1387.

Ṭūsī, Muḥammad ibn Ḥasan. al-Mabsūṭ fī Fiqh al-Imāmīyah. Tehran:  al-Murtażawīya. Chāp-i Sivum, 1968/1387.

Ṭūsī, Muḥammad ibn Ḥasan. al-Nihāya fī Mujarrad al-Fiqh wa al-Fatāwā. Beirut:  Dār al-Kitāb al-ʻArabī. Chāp-i Duvvum, 1980/1400.

Ṭūsī, Muḥammad ibn Ḥasan. al-ʿUda  fī Uṣūl al-Fiqh. Qum: s.n. Chāp-i Awwal, 1996/1417.

Ṭūsī, Muḥammad ibn Ḥasan. Tahdhīb  al-Aḥkām. researched by Kharsān. Tehran: Dār al-Kutub al-Islāmīya, Chāp-i Chāhārum, 1986/1365.