Shaykh al-Mufid
 Tomb of Al-Shaykh al-Mufid in the Shrine of al-Kazimayn (a) | |
| Personal Information | |
|---|---|
| Full Name | Muḥammad b. Muḥammad b. Nuʿmān al-ʿUkbarī al-Baghdādī |
| Nickname | Al-Shaykh al-Mufid |
| Birth | Dhu l-Qaʿda 11, 336 or 338 AH / 948-950 CE |
| Demise | Friday, Ramaḍān 3, 413 AH / 6 Desember 1022 |
| Burial Place | Shrine of al-Kazimayn |
| Academic Information | |
| Teachers | Al-Shaykh al-Ṣadūq • Ibn Junayd al-Iskāfī • Ibn Qūlawayh al-Qummī |
| Students | Al-Shaykh al-Ṭūsī • Al-Sayyid al-Murtaḍā • Al-Sayyid al-Raḍī • Aḥmad b. ʿAlī al-Najāshī |
| Works | Al-Muqniʿa • Awāʾil al-maqālāt • Al-Irshād fī maʿrifat ḥujaj Allāh ʿalā l-ʿibād |
| cultural information | |
| Field of Activity | Fiqh • Kalām |
| Reason for Notability | Ability in theological debates |
Al-Shaykh al-Mufid (336 or 338–413 AH / 948 or 950–1022 CE) is regarded as one of the most prominent Shi'a faqīhs (Islamic jurists) and theologians of the fourth and fifth centuries AH / tenth and eleventh centuries CE.
Various sources have described al-Shaykh al-Mufīd as the foremost theologian of his time. He has been praised for his scholarly leadership and mastery of multiple disciplines, his expertise in kalām (Islamic theology), his skill in debating opponents, and his ascetic way of life.
Al-Shaykh al-Mufīd has been counted among the well-known authors who, over the fourteen centuries following Ghadir, wrote two or more books on the subject. Two treatises on Ghadir, Risāla fī Maʿnā al-Mawlā and Aqsām al-Mawlā fī al-Lisān, are listed among his numerous works, which comprise more than two hundred treatises of varying lengths. Another aspect of his work on Ghadir is said to have been debating its opponents and defeating them in debate
Scholarly Standing
Al-Shaykh al-Mufīd is regarded as one of the most prominent Shi'a faqīhs and theologians of the fourth and fifth centuries AH / tenth and eleventh centuries CE.[1] Ibn al-Nadīm, the renowned fourth-century AH / tenth-century CE bibliographer and cataloger who was his contemporary, described him as follows: “He currently leads the Shi'a theologians and surpasses them all in kalām. He possesses keen insight and sound judgment. I have met him and found him to be highly learned.”[2]
Al-Shaykh al-Ṭūsī, a student of al-Shaykh al-Mufīd and a leading Shi'a faqīh of the fourth and fifth centuries AH / tenth and eleventh centuries CE, described his teacher as follows: “He was an Imami (Twelver Shi'a) theologian who led this community in his time. He was foremost in the religious sciences of his day, including kalām and fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence). He had a strong memory, a sharp intellect, and a ready response.”[3]
Some Sunni sources have also praised al-Shaykh al-Mufīd for his scholarly leadership and mastery of multiple disciplines, his expertise in kalām, his skill in debating opponents, and his ascetic way of life.[4]
Biography
Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Nuʿmān al-ʿUkbarī al-Baghdādī, known as Ibn al-Muʿallim and al-Shaykh al-Mufīd, was born on 11 Dhū al-Qaʿda in 336 or 338 AH / 948 or 950 CE in ʿUkbarā, near Baghdad.[5]
He is said to have become known as Ibn al-Muʿallim (the teacher’s son) because his father was a teacher. The title al-Mufīd is also said to have been bestowed on him by a Sunni scholar.[6]
According to Abū al-Qāsim Gurjī (d. 1389 SH / 2011 CE), a faqīh and professor at the University of Tehran, al-Shaykh al-Mufīd began studying in childhood, learning the Qur'an and introductory subjects from his father. He then moved to Baghdad to continue his education under leading Shi'a and Sunni scholars and attained considerable scholarly distinction. While al-Mufīd was still young, the Buyid ruler ʿAḍud al-Dawla al-Daylamī would visit him at his home in recognition of his scholarly standing.[7]
Al-Shaykh al-Mufīd lived in Baghdad’s Karkh district and taught at the renowned Burāthā Mosque.[8] He is said to have debated followers of different beliefs.[9] He gave generously in charity and was deeply devoted to humility before God, prayer, and fasting.[10]He passed away in Baghdad in 413 AH / 1022 CE. Following a funeral procession attended by large numbers of Shi'a and Sunni Muslims, his body was buried in his home. Two years later, his body was moved to Maqābir Quraysh, the site of the shrine of the two Imams, Mūsā al-Kāẓim and Muḥammad al-Jawād (peace be upon them), and reburied beside his teacher, Ibn Qūlawayh.[11]
Teachers
Sayyid Muḥsin al-Amīn al-ʿĀmilī (d. 1371 AH / 1952 CE), a biographer and the author of Aʿyān al-Shīʿa, identified fifty-six of al-Shaykh al-Mufīd’s teachers, including both Shi'a and Sunni scholars.[12] The best-known among them are listed below:
- Al-Shaykh al-Ṣadūq (d. 381 AH)
- Ibn Junayd al-Iskāfī (d. 381 AH)
- Ibn Qūlawayh (d. 369 AH);
- Abū Ghālib al-Zurārī (d. 368 AH)
- Muḥammad b. ʿImrān al-Marzubānī (d. 384 AH)
- Abū Bakr Muḥammad b. ʿUmar al-Jaʿābī (d. 355 AH)
- Abū ʿAbd Allāh Ḥusayn b. ʿAlī al-Jaʿal al-Baṣrī (d. 369 AH)
- ʿAlī b. ʿĪsā al-Rummānī (d. 384 AH)[13]
Students
According to Gurjī, al-Shaykh al-Mufīd was a leading Shi'a scholar whose classes were attended by prominent figures.[14] These included:
- Al-Sayyid al-Murtaḍā (d. 436 AH)
- Al-Sayyid al-Raḍī (d. 406 AH)
- Al-Shaykh al-Ṭūsī (d. 460 AH)
- Abū l-ʿAbbās al-Najāshī (d. 450 AH)
- Sallār al-Daylamī (d. 463 AH)
- Abū l-Fatḥ al-Karājikī (d. 449 AH)
- Abū Yaʿlā Muḥammad b. Ḥasan al-Jaʿfarī (d. 463 AH)[15]
Works
According to al-Shaykh al-Ṭūsī, al-Shaykh al-Mufīd authored more than two hundred works of varying lengths.[16] Many of these are said to have been lost.[17] His works include:
- Al-Muqniʿa
- Al-Irshād fī maʿrifat ḥujaj Allāh ʿalā l-ʿibād
- Al-Jamal wa l-nuṣra li-sayyid al-ʿitra fī ḥarb al-Baṣra
- Al-Amālī
- Al-ʿUyūn wa l-maḥāsin
- Awāʾil al-maqālāt fī l-madhāhib wa l-mukhtārāt
- Aḥkām al-nisāʾ
- Mukhtaṣar al-tadhkira bi-uṣūl al-fiqh
- Taṣḥīḥ al-iʿtiqādāt al-Imāmiyya
- Masār al-Shīʿa fī mukhtaṣar tawārīkh al-sharīʿa
- Naqḍ faḍīlat al-Muʿtazila
- Al-Ifṣāḥ fī l-Imāma
- Kitāb al-mazār
- Al-Masāʾil al-Sarwiyya
- Al-Masāʾil al-Ṣāghāniyya[18]
Al-Shaykh al-Mufid and Ghadir
Al-Shaykh al-Mufīd undertook various activities concerning Ghadir during his lifetime, some of which are recorded in the sources:
Writings on Ghadir
Some researchers have included al-Shaykh al-Mufīd among the well-known authors who, over the fourteen centuries following Ghadir, wrote two or more books on the subject[19] Research into the text and chain of transmission of Hadith al-Ghadir is said to have begun in the fourth century AH / tenth century CE. The central declaration of al-Ghadir Sermon (the Prophet Muhammad’s sermon at Ghadir Khumm)—“مَنْ كُنْتُ مَوْلَاهُ فَهَذَا عَلِىٌّ مَوْلَاهُ” (“For whomever I am the mawlā, Ali is his mawlā”) —was raised in debates and examined through the evaluation of its transmitters and chains of transmission. Mawlā is a term whose meanings include master, patron, ally, and guardian.[20] The works of Al-Shaykh al-Saduq, al-Shaykh al-Mufīd, and Sayyid al-Murtaḍā have been cited as evidence for this account.[21]
Among the works on the wording of the Hadith al-Ghadir are Aqsām al-Mawlā fī al-Lisān and Risāla fī Maʿnā al-Mawlā, both attributed to al-Shaykh al-Mufīd:
- Risala fi Ma'na al-Mawla: This work records al-Shaykh al-Mufīd’s debate with a Muʿtazili theologian (a member of the Muʿtazila school of Islamic theology) belonging to the Bahshamiyya branch. The theologian denied theImamate(the divinely appointed leadership of the Muslim community after the Prophet Muhammad), raising three objections to interpreting the word mawlā as denoting it and arguing that this was not a literal meaning of the word. Al-Shaykh al-Mufīd answered these objections and established the Imamate by demonstrating that this was indeed a literal meaning of mawlā.[22]
- Aqsam al-Mawla fi l-Lisan: In his introduction to this work, Sayyid Muḥammad Riḍā Jalālī (d. 1403 SH / 2025 CE), a Shi'a researcher, explains the foundations of al-Shaykh al-Mufīd’s interpretation of mawlā. The treatise itself is seventeen pages long and establishes that the intended meaning of mawlā is awlā bi-al-nafs (having greater authority over a person than that person has over themselves). Its topics include ten lexical meanings of mawlā; an analysis of the event of Ghadir showing why, among these ten meanings, awlā bi-al-nafs applies to the Prophet’s words (peace and blessings be upon him and his family); and evidence from the poetry of eloquent Arab poets supporting the correct meaning of mawlā and establishing the Imamate of Imam Ali, the Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him).[23]
Debates in Defense of Ghadir
One of al-Shaykh al-Mufīd’s debates is recounted by the author of Ḥadīqat al-Shīʿa as follows:
One day, al-Shaykh al-Mufīd attended a gathering hosted by ʿAlī ibn Mūsā al-Rummānī. Someone happened to ask al-Rummānī, “What is your view of the Hadith al-Ghadir and the account of the cave?” He replied, “The account of the cave is dirāya (certain knowledge), whereas the account of Ghadir is riwāya (a transmitted report).” By this, he meant that the former was certain and the latter conjectural.
After the attendees had left, al-Shaykh al-Mufīd asked al-Rummānī, “What is your judgment concerning someone who rebels against the Imam of his time and fights him?”
“He is a disbeliever,” al-Rummānī replied, before correcting himself: “No, he is a fāsiq (a person guilty of sinful conduct).”
Al-Shaykh al-Mufīd asked, “What is your view of Ali ibn Abī Ṭālib (peace be upon him)?”
“He is a just Imam,” he replied.
“What, then, is your view of Talha and Zubayr and the conflict at the Battle of the Camel?”
“They repented,” al-Rummānī answered.
Al-Shaykh al-Mufīd replied, “The account of the battle is dirāya, whereas the report of their repentance is riwāya.”
“Were you present when that earlier question was asked?” al-Rummānī asked.
“Yes,” he replied.
“Your argument is valid and accepted,” al-Rummānī said, and bestowed on him the title al-Mufīd.[24]
Qazi Nurullah Shushtari (d. 1019 AH / 1610 CE), a Shi'a faqīh and theologian, recounts a different version of this story:
One day, al-Shaykh al-Mufīd attended a gathering hosted by the Muʿtazili judge ʿAbd al-Jabbār, where scholars from the four Sunni schools were also present. The judge had heard of al-Shaykh al-Mufīd but had never met him. After sitting for a short time at the lower end of the gathering, al-Shaykh al-Mufīd said, “Honorable judge, may I ask a question?”
“Ask,” the judge replied.
“Is the report ‘مَنْ كُنْتُ مَوْلَاهُ فَعَلِىٌّ مَوْلَاهُ’—‘For whomever I am the mawlā, Ali is his mawlā’[notes 1] authentic, or have Shi'a scholars fabricated it?”
“It is certainly authentic,” the judge answered.
“What does mawlā mean?” al-Shaykh al-Mufīd asked.
“Mawlā means awlā,” the judge replied, meaning someone entitled to exercise authority and leadership over people.
“Then why is there so much disagreement and hostility?” al-Shaykh al-Mufīd asked.
“Brother, that report is riwāya, whereas Abū Bakr’s caliphate is dirāya. Rational people do not abandon dirāya for riwāya.”
Al-Shaykh al-Mufīd set that question aside and asked, “What do you say about the report in which the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) said, ‘O Ali, war against you is war against me, and peace with you is peace with me’?”
“That is certainly a hadith," the judge replied.
“Then, according to your own argument, those who fought against Ali at the Battle of the Camel must have been disbelievers."
“Brother, have you not heard that they repented?” the judge asked.
“Judge, the account of the battle is dirāya, whereas the report of their repentance is riwāya. You said earlier that rational people do not abandon dirāya for riwāya.”
The judge lowered his head for a while, then looked up and asked, “Who are you, and under whom do you study?”
“I am Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Nuʿmān al-Ḥārithī,” he replied.
The judge stood up, took al-Shaykh al-Mufīd by the hand, seated him in his own place, and apologized, saying, “أنت المفيد حقاً”—“You truly are al-Mufīd, the one who imparts knowledge.”[notes 2].
The scholars present began to murmur, and all were displeased with the judge. He said, “Scholars of religion, this man has presented an argument I cannot refute, and I have been unable to answer him. If any of you has an answer, offer it, so that he may rise and return to his place.”[25]
Footnotes
- ↑ Tārīkh fiqh wa fuqahāʾ, p. 143.
- ↑ Al-Fihrist, p. 332.
- ↑ Al-Fihrist, p. 238.
- ↑ Siyar aʿlām al-nubalāʾ, vol. thirteen, p. 96.
- ↑ Tārīkh fiqh wa fuqahāʾ, p. 143.
- ↑ Gudharī bar ḥayāt Shaykh Mufīd, pp. 7-9.
- ↑ Tārīkh fiqh wa fuqahāʾ, p. 143.
- ↑ Mafākhir-i Islām, vol. three, p. 241.
- ↑ Shadharāt al-dhahab, vol. five, p. 72.
- ↑ Shadharāt al-dhahab, vol. five, p. 72.
- ↑ Al-Fihrist, p. 239; Rijāl al-Najāshī, pp. 403-404; Aʿyān al-Shīʿa, vol. nine, p. 420.
- ↑ Aʿyān al-Shīʿa, vol. nine, p. 421.
- ↑ Tārīkh fiqh wa fuqahāʾ, p. 143.
- ↑ Tārīkh fiqh wa fuqahāʾ, p. 143.
- ↑ Tārīkh fiqh wa fuqahāʾ, p. 143.
- ↑ Al-Fihrist, p. 238.
- ↑ Tārīkh fiqh wa fuqahāʾ, p. 143.
- ↑ Aʿyān al-Shīʿa, vol. nine, pp. 423-424.
- ↑ Chahardah Qarn ba Ghadir, pp. 135–152; Asrar-e Ghadir, p. 98.
- ↑ Chahardah Qarn ba Ghadir, pp. 135–152; Asrar-e Ghadir, p. 98.
- ↑ Chahardah Qarn ba Ghadir, pp. 135–152; Asrar-e Ghadir, p. 98.
- ↑ Ghadir dar Ayeneh-ye Ketab, p. 333.
- ↑ Ghadir dar Ayeneh-ye Ketab, p. 105.
- ↑ Ḥadīqat al-Shīʿa, vol. 1, p. 489.
- ↑ Majālis al-Muʾminīn, vol. 1, pp. 464–465.
References
- Asrar-e Ghadir; Muḥammad Baqir Anṣārī, Tehran: Nashr-e Tak, 1384 Sh./2005.
- Aʿyān al-Shīʿa; Sayyid Muḥsin Amīn al-ʿĀmilī, Beirut: Dār al-Taʿāruf li-l-Maṭbūʿāt, 1403 Q./1983.
- Tārīkh-e Fiqh wa Fuqahā; Abu l-Qāsim Gurjī, Tehran: Samt, 1379 Sh./2000.
- Ḥadīqat al-Shīʿa; Aḥmad b. Muḥammad Muqaddas Ardabīlī, edited by Ṣādiq Ḥasan-zāda and ʿAlī Akbar Zamānī-nijād, Qom: Intishārāt-e Anṣāriyān, 1425 Q./2004.
- Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ; Shams al-Dīn al-Dhahabī, Cairo: Manshūrāt Dār al-Ḥadīth, 1427 Q./2006.
- Shadharāt al-Dhahab fī Akhbār man Dhahab; ʿAbd al-Ḥayy b. Aḥmad (Ibn al-ʿImād al-Ḥanbalī), edited by Maḥmūd Arnāʾūṭ and ʿAbd al-Qādir Arnāʾūṭ, Beirut: Dār Ibn Kathīr, 1406 Q./1986.
- Ghadir dar Āyina-ye Kitāb; Muḥammad Anṣārī Zanjānī, Qom: Intishārāt-e Dalīl-e Mā, 1390 Sh./2011.
- al-Fihrist; Muḥammad b. Isḥāq (Ibn al-Nadīm), translated by Muḥammad Riḍā Tajaddud, Tehran: Chāpkhāna-ye Bānk-e Bāzargānī-ye Īrān, 1346 Sh./1967.
- al-Fihrist; Muḥammad b. Ḥasan Ṭūsī (al-Shaykh al-Ṭūsī); edited by Jawād Qayyūmī, Qom: Muʾassasa-ye Nashr-e Faqāhat, 1417 Q./1996.
- Gudharī bar Ḥayāt-e Shaykh Mufīd; Sayyid Muḥammad Jawād Shubayrī Zanjānī, in Majmūʿa-ye Maqālāt-e Fārsī-ye Kungira-ye Jahānī-ye Hazāra-ye Shaykh Mufīd (vol. 55: Chahār Maqāla), Kungira-ye Jahānī-ye Hazāra-ye Shaykh Mufīd, 1372 Sh./1993.
- Majālis al-Muʾminīn; Sayyid Nūr Allāh b. Sharīf al-Dīn Ḥusaynī Shūshtarī, edited by Aḥmad ʿAbd Manāfī, Tehran: Intishārāt-e Kitābfurūshī-ye Islāmīya, 1377 Sh./1998.
- Mafākhir-e Islām; ʿAlī Davānī, Tehran: Intishārāt-e Amīr Kabīr, 1363 Sh./1984.