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http://www.islamicinsights.com/religion/religion/religious-extremism-and-the-need-for-religious-authority.html
In the Swat valley of Pakistan, an innocent 17-year-old
girl is beaten and humiliated in public for false charges of
"immorality". In Somalia, a mentally disabled girl is stoned
to death for "adultery". In Afghanistan, acid is thrown on
the faces of girls trying to attend elementary school. The
Muslim world today is seeing an alarming rise of
self-proclaimed lovers and enforcers of the Shariah,
who are willing to swiftly and mercilessly amputate, shoot,
and burn down anything and anyone that fails to lie within
their declared bounds of Islamic law.
Who are these people? Usually clad in dirty clothes,
sporting long, messy beards, and hardly ever able to read at
beyond a 6th grade level, they give themselves grandiose
titles like "Shaikh", "Mufti", and – the most popular one –
"Amirul Momineen". When asked to prove the validity of their
rulings, they are quick to quote a few out-of-context verses
of the Qur'an and easily dismiss 1400 years of Islamic
jurisprudence as heresy. Across the Sunni world, and
especially among scholarly circles, there is a growing sense
of urgency and outright panic on how to tackle this rise in
"vigilante jurisprudence" and the popularity that these
self-styled revivers of the Shariah seem to enjoy
among the ignorant masses.
The Imams of the Ahlul Bayt (peace be upon them) were
Divinely-guided beings who possessed great foresight. They
knew that when the Twelfth of them goes into occultation,
the Shia world will be without a direct leader. To account
for the void that would have otherwise have existed and the
opportunists that would have otherwise risen, the Imams
created the system of Niyabat (representation).
They would train scholars and dispatch them to various parts
of the Muslim world. When their followers had religious
questions or needed to pay religious dues, they would turn
to these scholars. Over time, this system evolved into
Marjaiyyat (Religious Authority), upon which the final
seal of approval was placed by the Twelfth Imam in his
famous saying as recorded in Ehtijaj of Shaikh
Tabarsi: "In regards to future incidents, turn for guidance
to the narrators of our traditions, for they are my proof
upon you just as I am the proof of Allah."
But not only did the Imams set up a system of religious
authority, they set up one that is unparalleled in its scope
and is grounded solely in knowledge and piety. When a
student enters the Islamic seminary in Qom or Najaf today,
he will spend 20-25 years studying and researching Qur'an,
Hadith, jurisprudence, logic, and various other Islamic
sciences under the supervision of a qualified mentor. Only
when his mentor is fully satisfied by the student's moral
fiber, intellectual caliber, and ability to deduce Islamic
law from its resources does he grant him/her the degree of
Ijtihad. (By rough estimates, an Ijtihad
degree is equivalent to having 19 PhDs in the Western
academic system.)
But this is just the beginning. Upon receiving his
Ijtihad degree, a scholar will spend another 15-20
years debating and arguing the validity of his
jurisprudential rulings with students and fellow scholars.
Needless to say, this takes place in a very open and
academic atmosphere. (The late Ayatollah Abul Qasim al-Khoei,
for example, would conduct these lessons with over 500
students present in front of him, any of whom could
challenge him at any point and force him to defend the
validity of his ruling on that particular issue.) Only after
40-50 years of research and scholarship, during which his
piety and character are also closely scrutinized, a scholar
is declared a Marja Taqleed (Religious Authority)
by the academic community, his intellectual views are
considered credible, and he is permitted to publish his
rulings for others to follow.
It is therefore truly saddening to see the widespread
suspicion and outright condemnation aimed at the
Marjaiyyat by the majority of the Shia world today.
Especially in our age, when a wide variety of charlatans and
ignoramuses seem to have hijacked the Shariah for
their own nefarious political purposes, leaving the majority
of Muslim academia scrambling to counter this mess, the Shia
world has been immune from this problem precisely because of
our adherence to a centralized and academic system of
religious leadership for the past 1200 years that has left
no room for fanatical imposters or unqualified extremists to
even come near the reins of religious authority.
Indeed, we Shia Muslims should be immensely thankful for
being blessed with such an impeccable and flawless system of
religious leadership and constantly strive to defend it. Our
Religious Authorities are recognized not through closed-door
conclaves or political charisma, but rather solely by their
unparalleled knowledge and unmatched piety. They are
respected not for dogmatism or unflinching fundamentalism
but rather for an unbending adherence to knowledge, logic,
and pure intellectual thought. As such, Imam Sadiq (peace be
upon him) is narrated to have said in Furu al-Kafi,
"They must seek out one of you who narrates our traditions,
who is versed in what is permissible and what is forbidden,
and who is well-acquainted with our laws and ordinances, and
accept him as judge and arbiter, for I appoint him as judge
over you. If the ruling which he based on our laws is
rejected, this rejection will be tantamount to ignoring the
order of Allah and rejecting us is the same as rejecting
Allah, and this is the same as polytheism." |
