Well before the Occultation of the Twelfth imam in 330/942 and before the time of the great Shi 'i theologians such as al-Shaykh al-Mufi d (d. 413/1022), the Shi 'ah had constructed their own integral and elaborate system of thought. This thought is expressed in the sayings of the Shi 'i imams, recorded in hadi th collections gathered in the traditionist centres of Kufah and Qum. It is apparent when these narratives are pieced together that the Shi 'i system as presented by the Shi 'ah themselves bears little resemblance to the descriptions of the heresiographers. At the centre of the Shi 'i worldview is the relation between the imams and the community. The imams' constitution is altogether supernatural, and they succeed to the whole of the prophetic knowledge, while the Shi 'ah, who were created of the same substance as the imams, are the bearers and beneficiaries of that knowledge. The imams continue to receive intelligence from God so that they know every thing and are able to address themselves to every circumstance, while the Shi 'ah must resort to no one else to guide them. God is known only through the imams and they conduct their followers to Paradise while others are left for the Fire. There is, however, evidence of revision of belief already in the time of the first traditionists. The definition of faith is emended so as to allow the non-Shi 'ah a place in Paradise and enable the Shi 'ah to integrate into the larger community. The confinement of the imams by the Abbasids and the lesser Occultation lead to reconsideration of the question of authority: human reason is given a greater role as the Shi 'ah set about thinking how to evaluate the words of the imams already recorded. Kalam, a field of enquiry formerly forbidden to the faithful Shi 'ah due to the necessity of absolute submission to the statements of the imams, is sanctioned so that dicta concerning theology are issued under their names. Tradition now moves away from predestinarianism, and other
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.28712 |
| Date | January 1994 |
| Creators | Clarke, Lynda, 1956- |
| Contributors | Landolt, H. (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Institute of Islamic Studies.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001449722, proquestno: NN05688, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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