SHARIAsource

This is a reference to ʿAlī's description of the Sunna of the Prophet. Hossein Modarressi argues that in the legal legacy of the Family of the Prophet, the Prophet's Sunna was next to the Qurʾān in importance.

This source is part of the Online Companion to Hossein Modarressi, Text and Interpretation: Imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq and His Legacy in Islamic Law (Harvard University Press, 2022).

This is a reference to Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq's position on the consequences of ignorance of the law, especially among new converts. Hossein Modarressi cites this reference as an example of one of the legal presumptions of al-Ṣādiq's legal school: the effect of ignorance.

This source is part of the Online Companion to Hossein Modarressi, Text and Interpretation: Imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq and His Legacy in Islamic Law (Harvard University Press, 2022).

This is a reference to an example of belief in the legality of wiping over one's boots in ritual ablution as part of Sunnī creed. Hossein Modarressi cites this reference to show how belief in the legality of wiping over one's boots had become a sectarian issue.

This source is part of the Online Companion to Hossein Modarressi, Text and Interpretation: Imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq and His Legacy in Islamic Law (Harvard University Press, 2022).

This is a reference to a report from Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq where he advises his followers to suspend judgment and refer the case to the Imam when they are unable to discern a legal ruling based on the sources.

This source is part of the Online Companion to Hossein Modarressi, Text and Interpretation: Imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq and His Legacy in Islamic Law (Harvard University Press, 2022). 

This is a reference to a Sunnī source on the unlawfulness of assassination. Hossein Modarressi draws on this source to show various Muslim legal views (including that of Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq and the legal legacy of the House of the Prophet) on the impermissibility of assassination.

This source is part of the Online Companion to Hossein Modarressi, Text and Interpretation: Imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq and His Legacy in Islamic Law (Harvard University Press, 2022).

The deceased was survived by two wives, five sons and three daughters. In his will he left behind land and a house, proceeds from the sale of which were to be distributed to all 10 beneficiaries. The appellants sought to challenge the Bireuen Shari'a Court's interpretation and subsequent distribution of the will.

The Court found that the decision of the lower court was correct, however, it chose to restate the distribution per beneficiary in a clearer fashion.

This fatwa reinforces a 1980 fatwa issued by the Indonesian Council of Ulama (Majelis Ulama Indonesia) that stipulates that Ahmadiyya is outside Islam, misled and misleading, while its adherents are apostates (murtad). It also implores adherents of Ahmadiyya to return to the correct teachings of Islam, in line with the Qur'an and Hadith. The fatwa also obliges the government to prohibit the dissemination of the Ahmadiyya interpretation throughout Indonesia, as well as to freeze the organisation and close all sites of Ahmadiyya-related activities.

This gubernatorial regulation prohibits adherents, members and/or coordinating members of the Ahmadiyya community (Jemaat Ahmadiyah) from conducting activities in any form that relate to the dissemination of their own interpretation of Islam, as well as activities that deviate from the tenets of Islam (art 3(1)). The regulation also prohibits members of society from carrying out anarchic or illegal conduct in connection with the activities of adherents, members and/or coordinating members of the Ahmadiyya community that deviate from the tenets of Islam (art 4(1)).

Fatwā concerning the legality, based on their interpretation of Islamic law, of a) the responsibility of mosque officials to prevent unwell congregants from entering a mosque’s premises and b) the temporary suspension of congregational and Friday prayers, and subsequent mosque closures. The answer provided by the Fatwa Committee, who met on 18 February 2020, is that a) mosques’ management has the religious duty to request or prohibit any unwell congregants from entering the mosque area, whether for performing prayers or other matters and the closing of a mosque and b) the suspension of congregational prayers and Friday prayers during this situation, is required.

In these excerpts, the exegete Ṭabarī provides interpretations of several Qurʾānic verses related to the heavenly court on the Day of Resurrection. Commenting on Q. 2:210 (“God will come to them in canopies of clouds”), Ṭabarī cites an opinion from Ibn ʿAbbās comparing clouds to arches (ṭāqāt) and noting that God is in them while being surrounded by angels. He also adduces a report from al-Ḍaḥḥāk, who comments on Q. 69:19 (“The angels will be on its borders and above them eight will carry the throne of your lord”) by detailing how God, the angels, and the hell-monster Jahannam will descend to earth on the Day of Judgment. Further elaborating on what exactly is meant by the expression “God comes to them” in Q. 2:210, Ṭabarī provides four interpretations. The first states that this expression should be understood exactly as God uttered it. The second holds that the expression should not be understood as God moving from one place to another. The third indicates that the expression should be taken to mean that God’s command (amr) comes to the resurrected, just as, when people say, “We are afraid that the Umayyads will come to us,” they actually mean that the Umayyads’ command or judgment (ḥukm) will apply to them. The fourth interpretation explains that it is in fact God’s reward (thawāb), reckoning (ḥisāb), and punishment (ʿadhāb)that will come to the resurrected. In his chapter comparing earthly justice with heavenly justice in the early Islamic imagination in Justice and Leadership in Early Islamic Courts, Christian Lange uses Ṭabarī’s statements to highlight the fact that most commentators avoid interpreting verses such as Q. 2:210 in an anthropomorphic manner.

This source is part of the Online Companion to the book Justice and Leadership in Early Islamic Courts, ed. Intisar A. Rabb and Abigail Krasner Balbale(ILSP/HUP 2017)—a collection of primary sources and other material used in and related to the book.

This is a reference to an alleged meeting that took place between Abū Ḥanīfa (the eponym of the Ḥanafī school) and Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq in the presence of the Abbasid caliph Manṣūr (r. 136-58) where Abū Ḥanīfa acknowledges Jaʿfar as being the most knowledgable person in religious law. Hossein Modarressi employs this reference to show how other Muslim scholars recognized Jaʿfar's mastery of Islamic law.

This source is part of the Online Companion to Hossein Modarressi, Text and Interpretation: Imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq and His Legacy in Islamic Law (Harvard University Press, 2022).

This is a reference to an early definition of Shīʿism by the Kūfan scholar Abān b. Taghlib (d. 141): "The Shīʿa are those who follow the opinion of ʿAlī when reports from the Prophet are contradictory, and the opinion of Jaʿfar b. Muḥammad [al-Ṣādiq] when reports from ʿAlī are contradictory."

This source is part of the Online Companion to Hossein Modarressi, Text and Interpretation: Imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq and His Legacy in Islamic Law (Harvard University Press, 2022).

This is a reference to an alleged meeting that took place between Abū Ḥanīfa (the eponym of the Ḥanafī school) and Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq in the presence of the Abbasid caliph Manṣūr (r. 136-58) where Abū Ḥanīfa acknowledges Jaʿfar as being the most knowledgable person in religious law. Hossein Modarressi employs this reference to show how other Muslim scholars recognized Jaʿfar's mastery of Islamic law.

This source is part of the Online Companion to Hossein Modarressi, Text and Interpretation: Imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq and His Legacy in Islamic Law (Harvard University Press, 2022).

This is a reference to an alleged meeting that took place between Abū Ḥanīfa (the eponym of the Ḥanafī school) and Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq in the presence of the Abbasid caliph Manṣūr (r. 136-58) where Abū Ḥanīfa acknowledges Jaʿfar as being the most knowledgable person in religious law. Hossein Modarressi employs this reference to show how other Muslim scholars recognized Jaʿfar's mastery of Islamic law.

This source is part of the Online Companion to Hossein Modarressi, Text and Interpretation: Imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq and His Legacy in Islamic Law (Harvard University Press, 2022).

This is a reference to an alleged meeting that took place between Abū Ḥanīfa (the eponym of the Ḥanafī school) and Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq in the presence of the Abbasid caliph Manṣūr (r. 136-58) where Abū Ḥanīfa acknowledges Jaʿfar as being the most knowledgable person in religious law. Hossein Modarressi employs this reference to show how other Muslim scholars recognized Jaʿfar's mastery of Islamic law.

This source is part of the Online Companion to Hossein Modarressi, Text and Interpretation: Imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq and His Legacy in Islamic Law (Harvard University Press, 2022).

This is a reference to an alleged meeting that took place between Abū Ḥanīfa (the eponym of the Ḥanafī school) and Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq in the presence of the Abbasid caliph Manṣūr (r. 136-58) where Abū Ḥanīfa acknowledges Jaʿfar as being the most knowledgable person in religious law. Hossein Modarressi employs this reference to show how other Muslim scholars recognized Jaʿfar's mastery of Islamic law.

This source is part of the Online Companion to Hossein Modarressi, Text and Interpretation: Imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq and His Legacy in Islamic Law (Harvard University Press, 2022).

This is a reference to an alleged meeting that took place between Abū Ḥanīfa (the eponym of the Ḥanafī school) and Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq in the presence of the Abbasid caliph Manṣūr (r. 136-58) where Abū Ḥanīfa acknowledges Jaʿfar as being the most knowledgable person in religious law. Hossein Modarressi employs this reference to show how other Muslim scholars recognized Jaʿfar's mastery of Islamic law.

This source is part of the Online Companion to Hossein Modarressi, Text and Interpretation: Imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq and His Legacy in Islamic Law (Harvard University Press, 2022).

This is a reference to some individuals and groups who pretended to have affection for and claimed affiliation with the House of the Prophet. Hossein Modarressi uses this reference to argue that some "esoterics" attempted to attempted to acquire social distinction by setting themselves up as devoted supporters of the Shīʿī cause and would often forge materials and ideas and ascribe them to the Imams.

This source is part of the Online Companion to Hossein Modarressi, Text and Interpretation: Imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq and His Legacy in Islamic Law (Harvard University Press, 2022).

This is a reference to some well-known formulas used in various religious sources of the early period of Islam (e.g., "I said, he said"). Hossein Modarressi employs this reference as an example of the use of reports that contain external evidence such as widespread language and style of legal discourse. 

This source is part of the Online Companion to Hossein Modarressi, Text and Interpretation: Imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq and His Legacy in Islamic Law (Harvard University Press, 2022).

This is a reference to a plague outbreak in Iraq in 131 AH. Hossein Modarressi cites this reference as an example of the importance of employing external evidence (such as corroborating dates for historical events that appear in various sources) with respect to the use of materials attributed to or about Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq.

This source is part of the Online Companion to Hossein Modarressi, Text and Interpretation: Imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq and His Legacy in Islamic Law (Harvard University Press, 2022).