Fiqh 0906

Install the Ṣafar Nūr software. Since we will be reading from the book, it is better for you to have access to it. If you are in the class, I can send you the relevant subscription link and group information.

• term: The ASR repeatedly renders «صافر نور»; this has been normalized as Ṣafar Nūr, the name of the software platform.

It is also available through the School of Jurisprudence. If you do not have access right now, I will send you this file. Of course, it does not include Ṣafar Nūr’s various options; in Ṣafar Nūr, you can access all the commentaries immediately and perform a specific search.

In that search, you can specify: “Show me only these commentaries”—for example, Mr. Vojdani’s commentary, Zubdat, Shaykh Sulṭān’s work, and these four or five other titles. Then, as you proceed through the text, each word appears with a footnote that you can view at the bottom of the page.

• warning: Several book titles are unclear in the ASR and have been retained only where the reading is reasonably identifiable.

These are among Ṣafar Nūr’s options. It is useful if you want to work with this software, because your research is not limited to Ṣafar Nūr itself. For example, in the Ṣafar Nūr dictionary, it gives you the meaning of a word and provides a link to the dictionary from the same page. Thus, in Ṣafar Nūr Fiqh, you can immediately consult Arabic and Persian dictionaries. They have brought these resources together in one software collection; the hadith section, such as Jāmiʿ al-Aḥādīth, is separate, as is the fiqh section.

Jāmiʿ Fiqh has many more options, but to use all of them you need to be an advanced user. Otherwise, the abundance of options can be confusing. I will send you a link explaining two or three ways of using the books; you can open it on your own page.

• warning: The numerical example in the ASR is too corrupted to reconstruct confidently and has been omitted.

The School of Jurisprudence also contains commentaries—for example, this commentary by the late Vojdani Fakhr. In fact, these are simply digital copies of the same printed books.

• warning: The latter half of the ASR is an extended repetition and is not intelligible enough to repair.

I can send this to you as well so that you can become familiar with it. Now that you have the text, I would like us to read it together: the first paragraph, then the second, and proceed in that way. The first page is the introduction and contains nothing especially difficult. Then we will continue until we reach the beginning of the discussion of waqf, read that, and proceed to the beginning of the Book of Commerce.

• term: «وقص» is uncertain in the ASR; it may refer to a technical section title.

God willing, if we reach that point, we will also read some of the beginning of the Book of Commerce. This is one of our first substantial sessions. Since this is an introduction, it has some exceptions, and perhaps we can read about fifty pages in one session. There is nothing particularly difficult here: it is the publisher’s own introduction, written in contemporary Arabic, and it is not hard.

In the name of God, the Most Merciful, the Compassionate. There is an introduction on page seven beginning, “In the name of God, the Most Merciful, the Compassionate; praise be to God …” In the fourth paragraph it says: “In recent years, the field of fiqh research and writing has witnessed a rapid renaissance.” The author says that he wrote this introduction about twenty or thirty years ago; therefore, it dates from roughly thirty years ago, in relation to the period of al-Shahīd al-Awwal.

• term: «نهضة» has been translated as “renaissance” in the scholarly sense of a rapid revival or development.

This development actually took place during the two decades after the Islamic Revolution. The author then turns to al-Shahīd al-Awwal and says that the book we are about to begin is connected with both al-Shahīd al-Awwal and al-Shahīd al-Thānī. In the introduction he wants to explain who these two figures were: Who was al-Shahīd al-Awwal, and who was al-Shahīd al-Thānī?

He refers to him briefly. The first paragraph gives the name “Abū ʿAbd Allāh Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Makkī al-ʿĀmilī.” Such expressions are not common in Western academic culture. If someone in the West wanted to introduce such a person, they might say “the most knowledgeable philosopher,” whereas the Arabic text uses the expression “the foremost of the world’s scholars and the most virtuous of humankind.”

He was born in Jizzīn. Read the phrase “wulida fī Jizzīn” with its vowel marks. We should pronounce the name correctly, since it may also occur in other readings.

• warning: The exact vocalization of the place name is uncertain in the ASR; it has been rendered as Jizzīn.

Jizzīn is in Jabal ʿĀmil; we had shown a map of it in our discussions for seminarians. I may ask you about it at that moment.

He was born in the region of Jabal ʿĀmil, and al-ʿĀmilī is a nisbah referring to that region. It is simply the name of a region and has no other particular meaning here. He was born in 734 AH in a scholarly and pious household, and his father was a scholar. This places his birth in the eighth century. He then began his scholarly education and traveled to various regions.

He traveled to cities such as Ḥilla, Baghdad, Damascus, Mecca al-Mukarrama, Medina al-Munawwara, Jerusalem, Hebron, and Egypt, and met the scholars there. He traveled extensively. Even if you came from the other side of America and made only one journey, it would still not compare with the extent of his travels.

He did not travel with modern conveniences, visas, and security. Among the Shiʿa, almost everyone honored him, although in some places he might have encountered disrespect. Even in Hebron, Sunni scholars welcomed him and came to meet him. Apparently, he stayed longest in Ḥilla. As we said, the seventh and eighth centuries were the golden age of Ḥilla; thus, he traveled for study to important scholarly centers such as Karbala, Najaf, and other cities.

The next paragraph says: “He benefited from a group of al-ʿAllāma al-Ḥillī’s students.” “The best of them” was Fakhr al-Dīn, Fakhr al-Muḥaqqiqīn. These are all honorific descriptions of al-ʿAllāma al-Ḥillī’s son, and the text says that he was trained by them.

“They took great delight in educating him,” meaning that they gave him an intellectual, spiritual, and moral formation. A teacher was not like today, merely arriving, exchanging greetings, and leaving; students went to their teacher and learned everything from him, both knowledge and ethics. The lecturer says: “I want al-Shahīd al-Awwal’s position in your minds to be very high.”

Even Fakhr al-Muḥaqqiqīn writes in his ijāza: “Our master, the imam and learned authority, the most knowledgeable of the world’s scholars and the foremost of the virtuous among humankind, our master Shams al-Ḥaqq wa’l-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Makkī.” This shows that al-Shahīd al-Awwal’s status was not based merely on his spiritual character or martyrdom; Fakhr al-Muḥaqqiqīn praises him with a series of outstanding scholarly and human qualities.

• term: Ijāza is a scholarly authorization or certificate of transmission.

This is the prayer of the late Fakhr al-Muḥaqqiqīn: “May God prolong his life.” Al-Shahīd al-Awwal’s worldly life was not long, but through his knowledge and stature, his name and influence endured. The text says that al-Shahīd al-Awwal benefited more than most from those from whom he learned. This statement was made about him by Fakhr al-Muḥaqqiqīn, the author of the book.

• warning: The precise Arabic quotation and its attribution are partially corrupted in the ASR.

Fakhr al-Muḥaqqiqīn speaks of his scholarly rank, excellence, and piety, saying that he “does not speak foolishly”—that is, he does not utter baseless or nonsensical words. You will encounter this expression often. He regards him as among the foremost scholars and the most virtuous of humankind. This passage concerns al-Shahīd al-Awwal, not al-Shahīd al-Thānī.

The next paragraph says that al-Shahīd al-Awwal was highly distinguished in various respects; in other words, he was truly outstanding in many areas.

One of his achievements was compiling the book al-Qawāʿid wa’l-Fawāʾid. It is said that he organized and codified legal maxims in this form. This was innovative, because he gathered the material into a coherent collection. Many scholars also completed their training in fiqh and uṣūl under him and continued on the basis of these principles and books. The text then says: “wa-lam yaqtaṣir …”

• term: Qawāʿid fiqhiyyah means legal maxims; uṣūl refers here to uṣūl al-fiqh.

“Lam yaqtaṣir” means “it was not limited” or “it was not confined to this matter.” His superiority was not limited to knowledge of fiqh; it extended to various sciences as well. This point appears in reports cited from Muḥaqqiq al-Karakī. Where was Muḥaqqiq al-Karakī from?

Do you know where Karak Nūḥ is? Is it called Karak Nūḥ? Apparently, Karak Nūḥ is a town in Lebanon. There are two places called Karak: one in Jordan and one in Lebanon. We also discussed for an hour the distinction between teacher and student in today’s seminaries.

• warning: The place-name discussion is uncertain in the ASR; the distinction between Karak locations is preserved cautiously.

Unfortunately, do not be like this. Muḥaqqiq al-Karakī was one of the great scholars. He says: “The king of scholars, the scholar of jurists before the investigators and meticulous scholars, among both the earlier and later authorities.” In other words, he was a foremost authority among jurists and one of the great figures of fiqh.

• warning: The extended quotation after the attribution is heavily corrupted and has been translated only to the extent that its meaning is recoverable.

He held a high scholarly position. At the end of this section, the text says that this very scholarly standing aroused envy toward al-Shahīd al-Awwal. They plotted against him, went to the authorities, and claimed that he was advancing views contrary to the doctrine. Eventually they killed al-Shahīd al-Awwal and burned his body. Thus neither of these two great martyrs, al-Shahīd al-Awwal and al-Shahīd al-Thānī, has a clearly identified grave. The text then introduces his teachers on page eleven; his first and greatest teacher was Fakhr al-Muḥaqqiqīn, Muḥammad ibn Ḥasan ibn Yūsuf al-Ḥillī, the son of al-ʿAllāma al-Ḥillī.

He taught in Ḥilla. Al-Shahīd al-Awwal himself also taught in Ḥilla and in Jizzīn in Lebanon, but he spent more time in Ḥilla. Where is Ḥilla? In Iraq, in the region between Karbala and Najaf; if Karbala is placed above and Najaf below, Ḥilla lies between them.

Yes, Ḥilla still exists. The place of al-Shahīd al-Awwal’s martyrdom is also in that region; however, they burned his body and scattered his ashes. That concludes the discussion of his students. Do not ask me about ṣarf; ask about it in your own discussions. On page thirteen, we will read the heading “His Students,” followed by “His Works.”

On page thirteen the heading is “His works,” meaning his writings and compositions. Just look at it and be amazed: they had neither artificial intelligence nor computers, yet they produced about twenty-eight works. We have had scholars whose books, if stacked one on top of another, would be too high to jump over—let alone the scholars themselves.

Al-Shahīd al-Awwal discusses many matters in al-Lumʿa al-Dimashqiyya. He also refers frequently to al-Bayān. Apparently, al-Bayān belongs to the later part of his life, and it is said that he wrote it in prison in seven days. In his other books as well, he repeatedly says, “As we stated in al-Bayān.” Al-Bayān is one of his fiqh works.

On page fourteen you see Dhikrā al-Shīʿa. Dhikrā means “reminder.” Did he write the book himself, or did he correct and revise it? These are among the works listed on pages twelve and fourteen. For example, when the text says that al-Shahīd referred to Dhikrā twelve times, it is indicating the book’s authority and standing. I mention this because we will later discuss the reliability of al-Shahīd’s works.

• warning: The ASR is uncertain about whether the lecturer says the work was authored, corrected, or revised by the same person.

Let us open a page and see how the material can be located. This is also useful for an oral examination. Suppose we open a section and read it; suddenly, we encounter a statement by al-Shahīd himself. Look at page 2399; this is one of the good features of the book.

• warning: The page number is unclear in the ASR and may not be 2399.

We open it this way and move back and forth. Do you see these marginal notes and lines? At the end of the line there is a phrase: “wa-bihi qaṭʿ ʿurf Durūs wa’l-Bayān.” What does it mean?

• warning: The Arabic phrase at the end is too uncertain for a confident reconstruction.

Are Durūs and al-Bayān the names of books? Yes, they are two book titles. Notice that this is not merely a quotation I have taken from another work; the book itself refers to these works. Thus, Durūs and al-Bayān are the names of two books.

There are texts here that indicate this point. Among his works is al-Masāʾil al-Nafliyya. On page twenty-four, you see the same matter again. What is written between the hyphens? “And among the words of the author, remember it …”

These are al-Shahīd al-Awwal’s books: Durūs, al-Bayān, Dhikrā, al-Alfiyya, al-Nafliyya, and a book on a thousand obligations and a thousand recommended acts in prayer. All these works have survived. Do we want to read them all? No; we will focus only on the works that are cited more frequently, such as Ghāyat al-Murād and al-Mazār.

One of his works is al-Lumʿa al-Dimashqiyya, the book with which we are working. It is a fiqh work that covers all the chapters of jurisprudence. This is an advantage, because some books discuss only commerce, others only purification or pilgrimage, whereas this book presents all the chapters. It is said that al-Shahīd al-Awwal wrote it in seven days. Of course, he also used other books, including al-Mukhtaṣar al-Nāfiʿ by al-Muḥaqqiq al-Ḥillī.

We have already mentioned al-Muḥaqqiq al-Ḥillī; he was al-ʿAllāma al-Ḥillī’s maternal uncle. It is said that al-Shahīd al-Awwal had only al-Mukhtaṣar al-Nāfiʿ available and used it. At times, for reference, we compare this book with another work. This too forms part of his method of collecting and compiling material.

They would say, “We ask you to come to us; we need you.” Al-Shahīd would reply, “I cannot come. Since I cannot come, I will send you a book.” It is like a teacher who is asked to go to an Islamic center and answers that he cannot come, but writes a book for them instead.

• warning: The institutional example in the ASR is partly conversational and has been normalized without adding details.

Apparently that is how it was. We now come to al-Shahīd al-Thānī: Zayn al-Dīn ibn ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad al-ʿĀmilī, known as al-Shahīd al-Thānī. Where was he from? He lived about two hundred years after al-Shahīd al-Awwal. Al-Shahīd al-Awwal was from Jabal ʿĀmil; do we have one Jabal or several places called Jabal?

Jubāʿ, that is correct. There is Jubāʿ and there is Jabal ʿĀmil. Jubāʿ is the name of a region and village in Lebanon; in Lebanon it is pronounced Jubāʿ. This was his homeland and birthplace.

• warning: The place-name pronunciation and geographic distinctions are uncertain in the ASR.

This is the scholarly journey to which al-Shahīd al-Thānī refers in his biography. Consider the subjects he studied. At the end of the paragraph it says: “He mastered much of the learning and culture of Isfahan, including Arabic literature, fiqh, uṣūl, philosophy, Qurʾanic exegesis, mathematics, and other subjects.”

Al-Shahīd al-Thānī also had a comprehensive understanding of the other Islamic schools; indeed, he taught them. After returning, he passed through Constantinople—that is, present-day Turkey—and became acquainted with other intellectual and legal schools.

• warning: The long repetitive portion of the ASR does not permit a more detailed reconstruction.

The late Ḥurr al-ʿĀmilī, the author of Wasāʾil al-Shīʿa, uses a lofty description of him. Since he was from Jubāʿ, he is also identified by the nisbah al-ʿĀmilī. Ḥurr al-ʿĀmilī says that al-Shahīd al-Thānī possessed dirāyat al-ḥadīth; that is, he was accomplished in the science of hadith criticism and understanding.

• term: Dirāyat al-ḥadīth concerns critical understanding of hadith through knowledge of its context, indicators, and transmission.

His innovation in this area was his emphasis on dirāyat al-ḥadīth: understanding hadith on the basis of contextual indicators. Dirāya resembles understanding an issue through evidence and surrounding clues. Today, the science of dirāyat al-ḥadīth is an independent discipline with its own methods and discussions.

Yes, understanding is not possible without contextual indicators. Like al-Shahīd al-Awwal, he was martyred before the age of sixty. While he was being taken to the Ottoman caliph, he was killed, and his body was thrown into the water. We then come to the teachers, students, and works of al-Shahīd al-Thānī.

• warning: The details of the route, destination, and disposal of the body are unclear in the ASR and have been translated cautiously.

Al-Shahīd al-Thānī wrote many books, including Masālik al-Afhām, Sharḥ al-Lumʿa, and Munyat al-Murīd. Masālik al-Afhām is among the works that should be read carefully and appreciatively. If you look at the Lebanese edition, you will usually find a carefully edited and attractively laid-out printing. At book fairs, finely produced and beautiful editions are sometimes also available.

• warning: The latter part of the ASR contains an unclear anecdote about a book edition and has been summarized only at the level that is recoverable.

Sometimes the editing and textual correction are more important than the book’s appearance itself, because the editor must collate the manuscripts and establish the correct text. This is not a simple task and cannot be reduced to merely changing the outward form of words.

• warning: The ASR is highly corrupted; this passage preserves only the clearly recoverable point about textual correction.

This is also a commentary on al-Alfiyya. Tanqīḥ means clarification and refinement of a text; this work is therefore not merely a marginal note or a verbal commentary, but also contains scholarly and ijtihādī discussion. Another of his works is Munyat al-Murīd. Will we read it here or not?

• term: Ijtihādī means involving independent juridical reasoning.

This section concerns the ethics and etiquette of seminary students, and it is very useful, especially for those who are unfamiliar with these forms of conduct. The point is not disrespect. When we first taught a class with this group of seminarians, some of their behavior seemed unusual to us, and we did not know how to describe it.

This is part of ordinary classroom conduct. Sometimes a student does not know how to sit before a teacher, or even lies down in front of the teacher. No one has taught him these behaviors; he should be instructed that such conduct is inappropriate. If he has not been trained from the beginning, correcting it becomes very difficult. Likewise, if you want to ask a teacher a question, you should know the proper way to ask.

In Munyat al-Murīd, al-Shahīd al-Thānī discusses the etiquette of seminary study. You do not need to memorize the title; simply know that such a work exists. He addresses how to show respect and how to question a teacher. We will pursue these topics later in their proper place.

• warning: The joking and repeated phrases in the ASR are not semantically recoverable and have been omitted.

He wrote a book for someone who has lost a child or a father and collected the relevant narrations. I do not remember the exact title of the book or the story associated with it.

• warning: The title and anecdote are too uncertain in the ASR to reconstruct confidently.

This is how they worked. Here he makes use of an amāra, an indicator or evidentiary sign. Several marginal commentaries and similar works have also been mentioned. Did someone organize this book?

• warning: The surrounding discussion is too corrupted to establish the precise referent of amāra or the final question.

Among al-Shahīd al-Thānī’s other works is Rawḍ al-Jinān fī Sharḥ Irshād al-Adhhān. This is a mixed commentary on al-Lumʿa al-Dimashqiyya, distinguished by its comprehensive treatment of the material, breadth, preservation of concision, fluency of expression, and avoidance of needless complexity. This work is also particularly important.

• term: Sharḥ mazjī, or mixed commentary, interweaves the base text with the commentator’s explanation.

This is a mixed commentary. Such commentaries existed earlier as well, but they were not very common. In the introduction, they say that they had various manuscripts and compared them in order to establish this text. Now, on page twenty-nine, the book itself begins: “In the name of God, the Most Merciful, the Compassionate; praise be to God who opened our hearts through the rays of …”

• warning: The final Arabic phrase is only partially recoverable from the ASR.

Scholars customarily began their books with praise and glorification of God. When you examine a book, notice the structure these openings usually have.

• warning: The ASR fragment is too incomplete to recover the lecturer’s exact example.

At the bottom of the page you can see nineteen titles. In al-Shahīd al-Thānī’s wording, the names of nineteen books appear. If you read the text carefully, you can extract these references from the wording itself.

• warning: The ASR after the reference to nineteen books is largely unintelligible.

These phrases must be read carefully, because they contain further information. We should pay attention to what each expression reveals to us.

• warning: The segment consists largely of repeated, unintelligible ASR and has been repaired only minimally.

“He opened our hearts with the rays of the laws of Islam”; that is, he illuminated our hearts with the flashes of Islamic law. The phrase continues with wording such as “and illumined our hearts with the rays of …”

Lawāmiʿ is the title of another book. Lawāmiʿ means “rays” or “flashes” and is semantically related to Lumaʿ. Thus, the phrase says that he illuminated our hearts with light. We have now entered the works of al-Shahīd al-Thānī; the material we discussed earlier concerning al-Shahīd al-Awwal belonged to the preceding section.

• warning: The English explanation in the ASR is itself fragmented; the distinction between the two authors is the recoverable point.

Here he refers to Tadhkira and also mentions Muntahā al-Irshād and Nihāyat al-Irshād. Taḥrīr Qawāʿid al-Dīn and similar works are also mentioned. These are all book titles and textual references.

• warning: The exact list of titles is partially corrupted in the ASR.

In this section, titles such as Taḥrīr Qawāʿid al-Dīn and Tahdhīb Madārik al-Thawāb appear. The point is that these books and sources have been classified and cited in the author’s wording.

• warning: The repeated and corrupted ASR prevents a fuller reconstruction.

This expression is the title of the book. It is followed by blessings and a prayer for the Prophet’s family and companions. This is a title paragraph in which the names of nineteen books are mentioned.

• warning: The Arabic title and blessing formula are too corrupted for a confident full quotation.

On page thirty-one it says: “The author said—may God sanctify his subtle spirit and perfume his noble memory.” From this point onward, “the author said” refers to al-Shahīd al-Awwal. Al-Shahīd al-Awwal’s words appear in parentheses, interwoven with al-Shahīd al-Thānī’s commentary; therefore, you must distinguish the two parts from one another.

That concludes this part. Apparently, the internet connection has been interrupted, so the software is no longer working.

• warning: The final phrase is unclear in the ASR; the interruption of the connection is the recoverable meaning.