The theology of
Twelver Shi'ism
Twelver Shīʿīsm ( ar, ٱثْنَا عَشَرِيَّة; '), also known as Imāmīyyah ( ar, إِمَامِيَّة), is the largest branch of Shīʿa Islam, comprising about 85 percent of all Shīʿa Muslims. The term ''Twelver'' refers t ...
contains the five principles of Shia Islam known as ''Uṣūl ad-Dīn'' ( ar, أصول الدين عند الشيعة). Usul al-dín is an Arabic Islamic term which literally translates as 'principles of the faith', roughly interpretable as 'theology'.
Definition
The
Shia
Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest Islamic schools and branches, branch of Islam. It holds that the Prophets and messengers in Islam, Islamic prophet Muhammad in Islam, Muhammad designated Ali, ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his S ...
roots of religion are a set of theological beliefs, in contrast to the ten practices prescribed in the Shia
ancillaries of the faith
In Twelver Shia Islam, the ten Ancillaries of the Faith ( ar, فروع الدين ''furūʿ ad-dīn'', also Ten Obligatory Acts of Shi’a Islam) are the ten practices that Shia Muslims have to carry out.
According to Twelver doctrine, what is ...
.
Resalah
All books of
Resalah start with an explicit disclaimer stating that no proof shall be given for any of the points in the Usul al-dín.
The
Marja'
Marji ( ar, مرجع, transliteration: ''marjiʿ''; plural: ''marājiʿ''), literally meaning "source to follow" or "religious reference", is a title given to the highest level of Twelver Shia authority, a Grand Ayatollah with the authority giv ...
argue that it is permissible to imitate in matters of practical Islam, for example, how one is supposed to do
Salat
(, plural , romanized: or Old Arabic ͡sˤaˈloːh, ( or Old Arabic ͡sˤaˈloːtʰin construct state) ), also known as ( fa, نماز) and also spelled , are prayers performed by Muslims. Facing the , the direction of the Kaaba wit ...
, without being familiar with evidence and arguments for the conclusions.
However, they argue that the matters in the roots of religion are much too important to be merely imitated, and it is the responsibility of each individual to make themselves personally familiar with the arguments and evidence for each article of faith.
Articles of faith
There are five articles of faith in the Shia roots of religion.
Tawhid (oneness)
Tawhid
Tawhid ( ar, , ', meaning "unification of God in Islam ( Allāh)"; also romanized as ''Tawheed'', ''Tawhid'', ''Tauheed'' or ''Tevhid'') is the indivisible oneness concept of monotheism in Islam. Tawhid is the religion's central and single ...
( ar, توحيد, Tawḥīd, also spelled ''Tauhid'' or ''Tawheed'') is the
Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
ic concept of
monotheism
Monotheism is the belief that there is only one deity, an all-supreme being that is universally referred to as God. Cross, F.L.; Livingstone, E.A., eds. (1974). "Monotheism". The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (2 ed.). Oxford: Oxford ...
. In Arabic, Tawḥīd means "unification, i.e. to unify or to keep something unified as one." In Islam, Tawḥīd means to assert the unity of God, it is not just unity of God Almighty but also Uniqueness, as defined in Quran surah 112, He is not born of anyone nor gave birth to any one, nor is any one like Him. The opposite of Tawḥīd is ''
shirk'', which means "Association" in Arabic. Muslims view
polytheism
Polytheism is the belief in multiple deities, which are usually assembled into a pantheon of gods and goddesses, along with their own religious sects and rituals. Polytheism is a type of theism. Within theism, it contrasts with monotheism, the ...
and
idolatry
Idolatry is the worship of a cult image or "idol" as though it were God. In Abrahamic religions (namely Judaism, Samaritanism, Christianity, the Baháʼí Faith, and Islam) idolatry connotes the worship of something or someone other than the A ...
as ''shirk''.
[
]
According to
Seyyed Hossein Nasr
Seyyed Hossein Nasr (; fa, سید حسین نصر, born April 7, 1933) is an Iranian philosopher and University Professor of Islamic studies at George Washington University.
Born in Tehran, Nasr completed his education in Iran and the United St ...
, Ali, the first Shia Imam, is credited with having established
Islamic theology
Schools of Islamic theology are various Islamic schools and branches in different schools of thought regarding ''ʿaqīdah'' (creed). The main schools of Islamic Theology include the Qadariyah, Falasifa, Jahmiyya, Murji'ah, Muʿtazila, Bati ...
and his quotations contain the first rational proofs among Muslims of the
Unity of God.
Ali
ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib ( ar, عَلِيّ بْن أَبِي طَالِب; 600 – 661 CE) was the last of four Rightly Guided Caliphs to rule Islam (r. 656 – 661) immediately after the death of Muhammad, and he was the first Shia Imam. ...
expresses that "God is One" means that he is away from likeness and numeration and he is not divisible even in imagination. He says:
"The first step of religion is to accept, understand and realize him as the Lord... The correct form of belief in his unity is to realize that he is so absolutely pure and above nature that nothing can be added to or subtracted from his being. That is, one should realize that there is no difference between his person and his attributes, and his attributes should not be differentiated or distinguished from his person. "
Therefore, Twelvers believe God is alone in being, along with his names, his attributes, his actions, his theophanies. The totality of being therefore is he, through him, comes from him, and returns to him. God is not a being next to or above other beings, his creatures; he is being, the absolute act of being (wujud mutlaq). For, if there were being other than he (i.e., creatural being), God would no longer be the Unique, i.e., the only one to be. As this Divine Essence is infinite, his qualities are the same as his essence, Essentially there is one Reality which is one and indivisible. The border between theoretical Tawhid and Shirk is to know that every reality and being in its essence, attributes and action are from him(from Him-ness), it is Tawhid. Every supernatural action of the prophets is by God's permission as Quran points to it. The border between the Tawhid and Shirk in practice is to assume something as an end in itself, independent from God, not as a road to God(to Him-ness).
Tawhid of the essence
Twelvers believe that the first level of Tawhid (Monotheism) pertain to the Unity of the Divine Essence, that is the essence of God is one and peerless. His nature has not any plurality.
Ali
ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib ( ar, عَلِيّ بْن أَبِي طَالِب; 600 – 661 CE) was the last of four Rightly Guided Caliphs to rule Islam (r. 656 – 661) immediately after the death of Muhammad, and he was the first Shia Imam. ...
states that "nothing is similar to Him and He is One in meaning." Shia believe that God's names and attributes have no other reality than His essence. Regarding this, Qura
112states: Say, "He is Allah,
ho is
Ho (or the transliterations He or Heo) may refer to:
People Language and ethnicity
* Ho people, an ethnic group of India
** Ho language, a tribal language in India
* Hani people, or Ho people, an ethnic group in China, Laos and Vietnam
* Hiri Mo ...
One, Allah, the Eternal Refuge. He neither begets nor is born, Nor is there to Him any equivalent." Contrary to the Tawhid, is Shirk. It is a belief that the world has more than one basis or pole, Motahari states.
Unity of the Divine Essence has two meanings:
* The Essence of God is one and peerless; nothing analogous or similar to Him is conceivable. According to the philosophical terminology, He is the First cause, the Essence of God is not in need of any cause
or Itself to exist
* The Essence of God is not constituted by parts, and there is no sort of multiplicity and plurality in the Divine Essence. God’s nature is simple, non-compound, without any plurality.
Tawhid of the attributes
According to the Twelver, second level of Tawhid pertains to the oneness of divine attributes, that is His attributes are not separate from His essence. Ali argues that "Every attributes testifies to its being other than the object to which it is attributed, and every such object in turn testifies to its being other than the attribute." Tawhid of the attributes means to deny the existence of any sort of multiplicity and combination in the Essence itself. A differentiation between the essence and the attributes or between the attributes implies a limitation in being.
His attributes are of two kinds: attributes of perfection and attributes of imperfection. Attributes of perfection have positive nature and give a higher ontological value to the subject. Attributes of imperfection are negative and shows the lack of perfection which Quran states that God never possesses such attributes and all the positive and perfect attributes are directly related to God. As God is an absolute reality without any limitation, so his perfect attributes are limitless and infinite, too. While possessing all the positive attributes, he is beyond all the attributes.
Tawhid of creatorship
The third level of Tawhid pertains to the oneness of the source of creatorship, that is there is no creator but God, that is the causes and effects of the universe are not independent from God just as the beings which are not independent in essence. There is no power except by God, according to Motahari. He adds, to account some created things as partners of God in creation is the Shirk of Creatorship or to believe that some creatures are the agent of some actions. Just as the creatures are dependent in essence, they are dependent of influence, too. But to believe in a supernatural being who is dependent on God and is the transmitter of God's mercy to human is not Shirk.
Tawhid of lordship
The fourth level of Tawhid pertains to the oneness of lordship and of the governance of the world and man. This oneness of lordship has two aspects: creative governance (tadbir takwini), and religious governance (tadbir tashrii). At last oneness in worship, that is God alone is to be worshipped. Tawhid or Monotheism is the belief in one God or in God's Essential Oneness. Motahari states that this level of Tawhid refers to the practice, being and becoming, i.e. bringing man into unity, the other levels of Tawhid are "seeing" but this level of Tawhid is "going". According to Islam, every choice of an orientation, ideal or a spiritual qibla is a kind of worship. He adds that Tawhid in practice is the individual's growing unified through worship of God alone by means of rejecting all kinds of counterfeit worship (such as worship of carnal desires, money or prestige) and in society's growing unified through worship of God alone by means of rejecting discrimination and injustice.
So attaining to happiness is through attaining unity and attaining unity is through worshiping the Truth. He further adds that to worship other than God is Shirk of Lordship, it is a kind of practice,too. Shirk in practice has levels, some of them are evident and some are very hidden which Muhammad points to it in a hadith
he progress ofshirk is more hidden than the passage of an ant over a stone on a dark night." The least of this kind of shirk is the love of injustice and the hate of justice, is religion anything other than loving and hating for God. According to the Quran, every act of obedience to an order is worshiping.
Adal (justice)
The Shias believe that there is intrinsic good or evil in things, and that God ( ar, الله, Allāh: see
God in Islam
God in Islam ( ar, ٱللَّٰه, Allāh, contraction of '' al- ’Ilāh'', lit. "the God") is seen as the eternal creator and sustainer of the universe, who will eventually resurrect all humans. In Islam, God is conceived as a perfect ...
) commands them to do the good things and forbade the evil. They believe that God acts according to a purpose or design, and human reason cannot comprehend this design or purpose in its entirety (though man must always strive to understand as much as he can).
Nubuwwah (prophethood)
Nubuwwah
Prophets in Islam ( ar, الأنبياء في الإسلام, translit=al-ʾAnbiyāʾ fī al-ʾIslām) are individuals in Islam who are believed to spread God's message on Earth and to serve as models of ideal human behaviour. Some prophets ar ...
, or "prophethood", denotes that God has appointed Prophets and Messengers to teach mankind God's message.
God has appointed prophets and messengers to teach mankind the religion (that is, a perfect system of how to live in "peace" or "submission to God"). Prophets are Messengers which are appointed by Allah to ''bring the message of God'' to people and spread that message while the Imam (leader) is appointed by Allah to ''protect that message'' since ordinary people will fail to do so. Also, as
Muhammad
Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 Common Era, CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Muhammad in Islam, Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet Divine inspiration, di ...
was the last messenger of God which means the message he brought was the last and final message to the people from Allah, none is supposed to bring a message from Allah after Muhammad, therefore, if people were left with the message alone, the true message could not survive long and would have undergone changes. Imams were therefore appointed to take care of the message and prevent people from going astray after the last prophet.
Imamah (leadership)
Imamah
{{expand Arabic, date=April 2021
The term imamate or ''imamah'' ( ar, إمامة, ''imāmah'') means "leadership" and refers to the office of an '' imam'' or a state ruled by an ''imam''.
Theology
*Imamate, in Sunni doctrine the caliphate
:* Naqsh ...
("leadership"): God has appointed specific leaders to lead and guide mankind—a prophet appoints a custodian of the religion before his demise. According to the
Hadith of the Twelve Successors
The Hadith of the Twelve Successors ( ar-at, حَدِيْث ٱلْإِثْنَي عَشَر خَلِيْفَة, ḥadīth al-ithnā ʿashar khalīfah) is a widely-reported prophecy, attributed to the Islamic prophet Muhammad, predicting that ther ...
,
Muhammad
Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 Common Era, CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Muhammad in Islam, Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet Divine inspiration, di ...
said that the Islamic leadership is in
Quraysh
The Quraysh ( ar, قُرَيْشٌ) were a grouping of Arab clans that historically inhabited and controlled the city of Mecca and its Kaaba. The Islamic prophet Muhammad was born into the Hashim clan of the tribe. Despite this, many of the Qur ...
(i.e. his tribe) and that 12 "
imam
Imam (; ar, إمام '; plural: ') is an Islamic leadership position. For Sunni Muslims, Imam is most commonly used as the title of a worship leader of a mosque. In this context, imams may lead Islamic worship services, lead prayers, ser ...
s" (also called "princes" or "caliphs") shall succeed him.
Twelver Shias believe in twelve imams. They believe eleven of the imams were killed but that the
twelfth imam
Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan al-Mahdī ( ar, محمد بن الحسن المهدي) is believed by the Twelver Shia to be the last of the Twelve Imams and the eschatological Mahdi, who will emerge in the end of time to establish peace and justic ...
is still alive. It is stated that he disappeared after performing funeral rites of the eleventh imam (his father), that he is still in ''
ghaybah Ghayba or al-Ghayba ( ar, الغيبة, link=no, 'Occultation', 'Concealment') may refer to:
*Occultation (Islam), Shi'ite eschatological belief in the concealment and subsequent reemergence of an Imam or Mahdi, who will establish justice and peac ...
'' (occultation) and that he will return (
raj'a
(), also known as (), is a doctrine in Shia Islam positing that some of the dead will return to life before the Resurrection to avenge their oppression.
In Twelver Shia doctrine, the concept of is closely intertwined with the eschatological c ...
) of the occultation one day to bring an end to tyranny and oppression.
Yawm al-Qiyamah (The Day of Resurrection)
Yawm al-Qiyamah
In Islam, "the promise and threat" () of Judgment Day ( ar, یوم القيامة, Yawm al-qiyāmah, Day of Resurrection or ar, یوم الدین, italic=no, Yawm ad-din, Day of Judgement),
when "all bodies will be resurrected" from the dead, an ...
( ar, يوم القيامة, Yawm al-Qiyāmah, lit=Day of Resurrection (
Qur'an
The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , sing. ...
71:18), also known as "the Hour" (Qur'an 31:34), "Day of the Account" (Qur'an 38:16), "Day of the Gathering", "Day of the Reckoning", "Day of Distress" (Qur'an 74:9), and the "Great Announcement") is the Arabic name for the
Last Judgement
The Last Judgment, Final Judgment, Day of Reckoning, Day of Judgment, Judgment Day, Doomsday, Day of Resurrection or The Day of the Lord (; ar, یوم القيامة, translit=Yawm al-Qiyāmah or ar, یوم الدین, translit=Yawm ad-Dīn, ...
. Belief in Qiyamah is part of
Aqidah
''Aqidah'' ( (), plural ''ʿaqāʾid'', also rendered ''ʿaqīda'', ''aqeeda'', etc.) is an Islamic term of Arabic origin that literally means " creed". It is also called Islamic creed and Islamic theology.
''Aqidah'' go beyond concise state ...
and is a fundamental tenet of faith in
Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
. After the annihilation of this world, God will raise mankind for Judgement. The trials and
tribulation
In Christian eschatology, the Great Tribulation ( grc, θλῖψις μεγάλη, thlîpsis megálē) is a period mentioned by Jesus in the Olivet Discourse as a sign that would occur in the time of the end.
At Revelation 7:14, "the Great Tri ...
s of Qiyamah are detailed in both the Qur'an and the
Hadith
Ḥadīth ( or ; ar, حديث, , , , , , , literally "talk" or "discourse") or Athar ( ar, أثر, , literally "remnant"/"effect") refers to what the majority of Muslims believe to be a record of the words, actions, and the silent approval ...
, as well as in the commentaries of the
Islamic expositors and scholarly authorities. Every human, Muslim and non-Muslim alike, is held accountable for his or her deeds and are judged by
God
In monotheism, monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator deity, creator, and principal object of Faith#Religious views, faith.Richard Swinburne, Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Ted Honderich, Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Ox ...
accordingly (Qur'an 74:38).
[
]
Other articles
Mala'ika—Belief in the Angels.
Kutub—Belief in the Books sent by God (including the Qur'an).
See also
*
Imamah (Twelver Shi`i Doctrine)
Imāmah ( ar, إِمَامَة) means "leadership" and is a concept in Twelver theology. The Twelve Imams are the spiritual and political successors to Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam, in the Twelver branch of Shia Islam. According to Twelver ...
*
Shi'a Islamic beliefs and practices
*
Islamic theology
Schools of Islamic theology are various Islamic schools and branches in different schools of thought regarding ''ʿaqīdah'' (creed). The main schools of Islamic Theology include the Qadariyah, Falasifa, Jahmiyya, Murji'ah, Muʿtazila, Bati ...
*
Branches of Religion
*
Five Pillars of Islam
The Five Pillars of Islam (' ; also ' "pillars of the religion") are fundamental practices in Islam, considered to be obligatory acts of worship for all Muslims. They are summarized in the famous hadith of Gabriel. The Sunni and Shia agree on ...
References
{{Reflist, 30em
External links
* http://shiatvonline.com/usool-e-deen-roots-of-religion/ Lectures on Usool e Deen