Why Do We Need Jurisprudence?

Contemporary readings of religious thought oscillate between excess and neglect; while one tendency inclines toward emptying religion of its unseen dimensions and turning it into a mere civil system or health guidance, another tendency withdraws toward an absolute abstraction that separates religion from the reality of material life.

Yet the authentic Islamic view, which the school of the Transcendent Philosophy and the philosophers and gnostics crystallized, stands as a witness to a unique depth that looks upon the Sharia as the existential link between the world of matter and the world of meaning. For the human being is not a solid body, and not an abstract angel; he is an isthmus-like reality combining clay and the divine breath, and from here jurisprudence was an existential necessity for regulating the movement of this composite being.

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1. The Philosophy of the Need for Jurisprudence and the Role of the Revealed Law

The need for jurisprudence springs from the human being’s need for guidance in his perfective movement. For the ultimate aim of positive laws is the regulation of social entanglement and the prevention of material mutual injustice, but Islamic jurisprudence looks upon the human act as extending to what is beyond nature.

We need jurisprudence because the human intellect, though it perceives the universals of justice and goodness, is incapable of knowing the unseen and existential effects that ensue from the particulars of acts.

The revealed law here does not come to impose abstract conventional restrictions; it lays down the behavioral engineering that guarantees that the material movement of the human being does not clash with his spiritual course, so that the ordinary and the daily are transformed into a means of connection with the Absolute.

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2. The Comprehensiveness of the Rulings and the Relationship of Matter to Spirit

Since the human being is composed of matter and spirit, any effect that falls upon one of them is necessarily reflected upon the other; there is a complete concomitance and correlation between the outer and the inner. The legal rulings did not come for the benefit of the body alone, nor for the benefit of the spirit alone; they came to manage this human mixture.

Compliance with the jurisprudential ruling in the world of matter has an immediate manifestation and a direct impact in the world of the spirit. For the righteous outer bequeaths a luminous inner, and the deficiency in complying with the outward rulings generates turbidity and disease in the self.

The Sharia, in its depth, is a reality with two faces: a face that confronts the world of nature and the senses, which is jurisprudence and action, and a face that confronts the world of the dominion and immateriality, which is purification and nearness.

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3. The Society of the Sharia as an Incubator for Spiritual Elevation

The jurisprudential system does not aim merely at building a materially stable or economically prosperous society as a final purpose; rather the ultimate aim of the revealed law is the founding of a righteous environment that qualifies the human being for the true coming life.

Society, in the monotheistic view, is an incubator of completion. Social relations, the economic system resting on justice, and the jurisprudential limits all represent a preparation of the general climate. When justice settles and grievances are lifted by virtue of applying the revealed law, the heart and mind of the human being are freed to turn to the pillars of spiritual elevation and the cultivation of the self, so that the world embraces the movement of the human being toward the Hereafter without rupture.

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4. The Dominion-Related Purpose of Jurisprudence: A System of Existence, Not Scholastic Grades

When ordinary religious thought raises the issue of good deeds and bad deeds, minds often turn to a simplistic reading resembling a scholastic grading system. Some imagine the matter as though the responsible person is a pupil in an examination hall, over whose head a teacher stands granting him positive points whenever he complies with the commands, and recording against him negative points whenever he errs, and in the end these points are gathered arithmetically to determine the result.

This view, though it may serve as a procedural motivational system to encourage the general public, does not express the reality of the purpose of jurisprudence. The system of reward and punishment is not a dry conventional system; it is an existential, formative system directly linked to the shaping of the spirit and its elevation or relapse.

The greatest error is the belief that the spirit of the human being remains fixed in its existential rank, while the balance of his good deeds and bad deeds rises or falls in parallel in an external register. The truth is that every ruling the human being complies with or opposes changes the essence of his spirit immediately:

• On the side of obediences: jurisprudential worship is not a bodily movement by which a point is bought; it is a process of refining and elevating the spirit. With every obedience, the spirit rises a degree on the ladder of existence, and is illuminated to understand unseen dominion-related truths it did not perceive before.
• On the side of disobediences: the bad deed is not a mere legal violation that subtracts from the points; it is a poison that the spirit gulps down, leading to its inner deformation and the clouding of its mirror, until it descends in its existential rank and loses its ability to perceive the truth and the beauty.

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5. The Collapse of the Narrow Material Reading of the Rulings

Among the common phenomena is the resort of some researchers, out of enthusiasm and an attempt to bring religion closer to the materialists, to reducing the legal rulings and interpreting them in a purely utilitarian, health-related, or biological way. This reading empties the legislation of its devotional core and makes it subordinate to shifting empirical sciences.

The Equation of Purity and Ablution

When ablution (wudu) is interpreted as a mere process of cleanliness and stimulation of the blood circulation, the dominion-related essence of the matter is overlooked. For material cleanliness is achieved by modern disinfectants; indeed, ablution falls away in cases of the absence of water and is replaced by dry ablution (tayammum) with dust, which establishes that the purpose is the spiritual and luminous purity that qualifies one to stand in the presence of the Real.

The Causes of Prohibition and the Existential Effect of Food

The repetition of the refrain that the prohibition of pork or blood came merely on account of the presence of germs and parasites is a deficient reduction; for were the cause confined to the material dimension, the prohibition would cease with the mere development of modern sterilization means.

The gnostics and the people of wayfaring hold that foods have a direct existential, positive effect; for the forbidden or doubtful morsel exudes an inner darkness that veils the self from divine success, bequeaths hardness of heart, and weighs down the limbs from worship. The prohibition revolves around inner corruptions and unseen effects that spoil the essence of the self and bequeath beastly traits that are reflected in the spiritual conduct of the human being.

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6. The Quranic Witnesses to the Existential Effect of the Deed

Inference by the noble Quran is the fundamental cornerstone from which the philosophers and gnostics set out to establish that the deed is transformed into a concrete reality that merges with the essence of the human spirit and shapes its quiddity.

The Embodiment of Deeds Themselves

The Exalted says:

“The Day every soul will find what it did of good present, and what it did of evil.” (Al Imran: 30)

For the deed itself will be present, in its very self and essence, whether good or evil.

And He, glorified is He, says:

“Indeed, those who devour the wealth of orphans unjustly are only devouring fire into their bellies.” (Al-Nisa: 10)

For the forbidden morsel, in its inner and dominion-related reality, is a fire that burns the spirit from the very first moment.

Inner Change and Deformation

The Exalted says:

“No! Rather, the stain has covered their hearts of what they used to earn.” (Al-Mutaffifin: 14)

The “stain” (ran) is the rust and existential change that comes upon the mirror of the self as a result of the bad deed.

And concerning inner deformation, the Exalted says:

“So We said to them: Be apes, despised.” (Al-Baqara: 65)

For persistence in beastly conduct deforms the essence of the self inwardly, and upon these faculties the human being is gathered.

Existential Ascent and the Understanding of Truths

The Exalted says:

“To Him ascends the good word, and the righteous deed raises it.” (Fatir: 10)

For the righteous deed is the existential mover that raises the spirit in the existential stations to transcend the world of matter.

And He, glorified is He, says:

“If you are mindful of Allah, He will grant you a criterion.” (Al-Anfal: 29)

For mindfulness (taqwa) and jurisprudential adherence bequeath insight and the power of spiritual perception.

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7. The View of the Transcendent Philosophy and the Shia Philosophers

The school of the Transcendent Philosophy, led by Sadr al-Muta’allihin al-Shirazi, Mulla Sadra (979–1050 AH / 1571–1640 CE), presented a solid demonstrative formulation that explains the role of the revealed law and the effect of deeds upon the purification of the self, based on innovative philosophical principles.

Substantial Motion and the Intensification of the Spirit

The human spirit is not a fixed essence; it is in a continuous intensifying motion that begins from matter and ascends toward complete spiritual immateriality. In this motion, the legal acts and jurisprudential compliance represent the preparatory material and the fuel by which the self is aided to ascend and intensify existentially.

The Union of the Self with the Forms of Its Acts

Acts do not perish; rather, by their repetition, they are transformed into faculties and inner forms that unite with the essence of the self and shape its reality. The human being is not recompensed by something external to him; he is recompensed by the reality of what he made and what his essence became.

The Sharia Is the Manifest Intellect

The Sharia and the intellect are twins springing from a single niche. From here, arriving at true purification or correct gnostic unveiling is impossible without passing through the gateway of jurisprudence and the manifest revealed law; for jurisprudential purity and adherence to the practical rulings are the existential foundation and the solid base for the purity of the intellect and the illumination of the spirit.

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8. The Engineering of the Practical System: The Chapters of Jurisprudence

For the Sharia to perform its preparatory role, the acts of the responsible persons are divided into principal chapters, each of which undertakes the shaping of an existential dimension:

• Acts of worship (ibadat), such as prayer, fasting, and pilgrimage: concerned with the servant’s direct connection with the Absolute Real, their aim being the refining of the spirit and the stripping of the self from the attachments of matter.
• Contracts (uqud), such as sale and marriage: regulate the interactive relations resting on mutual consent, their aim being the spreading of justice and the safeguarding of rights so that society may be freed for spiritual elevation.
• Unilateral dispositions (iqa’at), such as divorce and manumission: dispositions that occur by a single will, their aim being the regulation of individual obligation and responsibility.
• Rulings (ahkam), such as blood-monies, the judiciary, and the prescribed penalties: general legislations for protecting the public order, their aim being the deterrence of aggressors and the purification of society from the existential corruptions that crime bequeaths.

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9. The Scholarly Movement and the System of Specialization: Reasoning and Following

When the non-specialist human being is incapable of extracting these existential rulings from their original sources, the rational system of specialization emerges, upon which the rest of the affairs of life are built.

Reasoning and Derivation (Ijtihad and Istinbat)

Reasoning (qualified legal reasoning) is the exertion of specialized scholarly effort to extract the legal rulings from their approved evidences: the Book, the Sunnah, reason, and consensus.

The Reference Authority and Following (Marja and Taqlid)

The reference authority (senior Shia legal authority) is the jurist who fulfills the conditions and possesses the faculty of derivation, and following (taqlid) is the recourse of the non-specialist to the one learned in the specialty — like the recourse of the sick to the trusted physician — to guarantee the correct existential effect of the deed.

The Scholarly Path in the Seminary

Reaching the rank of the ability to derive rulings passes through a rigorous course of study within the scholarly seminary (hawza), divided into three basic levels:

• The introductory studies (al-muqaddimat): the study of the instrumental sciences, such as syntax, morphology, rhetoric, and logic, to understand the religious text precisely.
• The intermediate levels (al-sutuh): the study of high evidentiary books in jurisprudence and the principles of jurisprudence, such as Kifayat al-Usul and al-Makasib, to learn how to apply the rules and evidences.
• The advanced lesson (dars al-kharij): the highest of the levels, in which the teacher poses the jurisprudential issue and its evidences without adhering to a specific book, and discusses the views of the great scholars to train the students in scholarly criticism and assessment, until the student reaches the stage of reasoning (qualified legal reasoning).

So if the jurist attains the rank of reasoning, the people of expertise testify to his superior knowledge, and he possesses complete justice and scrupulousness, he becomes a reference authority to whom people return.

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10. Obligation in the Age of Occultation and Epistemic Consistency

Some may question the extent of the accord between the doctrinal principle of the necessity of the existence of an infallible leadership designated by a text from Allah, and the practical reality represented by the recourse to non-infallible jurists in the age of occultation.

Historical and methodical scrutiny reveals a complete harmony and a tight firmness, which manifests in two points.

The Historical Completion of the Legislative Structure

The occultation of Imam al-Mahdi (aj) did not begin at an early or sensitive stage of the history of Islam before the features of the religion had become clear; it came after more than two and a half centuries — that is, about 260 years — of the direct presence and extension of the Prophet (PBUH) and the pure Imams (AS). During this long period, the universal and particular rules were clarified and detailed, the intents of the Quran were expounded, and the narrated and legislative heritage was completely integrated.

Based on this, the role of the jurist today did not come to fill a deficiency or to invent rulings of his own; it came while the Sharia is complete in its pillars, clear in its features, and preserved in the heritage of the infallibles (AS).

Derivation Governed by the Text, Not Legislation by Opinion

The reference authority does not possess an independent legislative authority; he does not deem lawful or forbidden of his own accord, nor does he interpret the Quran by his personal opinion; rather he interprets it and derives the practical rulings from it by relying on the principles, the rules, and the narrations of the hadiths of the the Prophet's household (AS). His intellectual effort is confined to derivation; that is, using the rigorous scholarly rules that the Imams (AS) themselves laid down to understand the significations of the text. So he does not reason in the face of the text; he moves entirely within the epistemic and legal field that the pure progeny (AS) traced.

The reference authority is not a substitute for the infallible Imam (aj); it is the systematic and institutional extension that discloses his rulings and heritage, and his occultation (aj) is the occultation of the title, not the occultation of the existence; for he is like the shining sun behind the clouds, managing the affair of the nation existentially and spiritually, and he himself commanded us to refer to the jurists in the events that occur, as the guards of his Sharia.

Based on that, our epistemic and practical duty in the age of occultation is individual investigation and recourse to the most knowledgeable jurist who fulfills the approved conditions.

A Note for the Kind Reader

We will place on this site the links to the official websites of the great reference authorities, and the kind reader must investigate for himself, and inquire of the people of expertise, so as to follow the most knowledgeable reference authority who fulfills the legal and scholarly conditions that clear his liability and guarantee the soundness of his existential and spiritual course before Allah, exalted is He.