Al-Zari’ahilaUsul al-Shari’ah
Al-Zari’ahilaUsul al-Shari’ah is a book dealing with the Shiafiqh. It includes ۱۴ sections each of which consists of a number of chapters. The issues discussed in this work include: addressing, ordinance and prohibition, general and peculiar, absolute and conditioned, abstract and concrete, abrogation, narration, actions, consensus, analogy, discretion and imitation, prohibition, permissibility, negating, and authorizing previous state.
The book is very important in two aspects:
۱. The first reason for the importance of this book is that it is the first complete book in the Shia and Imamiyyah fiqh. The Sunnites tended toward discretion since the very time the prophetPBUH passed away, and up to the end of the life of Ahmad ibn Hanbal (۲۴۱ AH) they practically followed this approach and after him they tended toward imitation. However unlike the Sunnites, the Imamiyyah Shias considered discretion, in its broad sense, un-approachable until the beginning of the occultation of Imam Mahdi (۲۶۶ AH) or even up to the end of the minor occultation (۳۲۹ AH). They received their religious decrees directly or indirectly by the narrators, the messengers or the special delicates of the Imam; and if during these periods any books were written, they either included scattered narrations (such as the four hundred principles) or if they were partially organized (such as al-Taklif by Abu Ja'far Muhammadibn Ali Shalmaghani, al-Nawadir by Abu Ja'far Ahmad Qomi, al-Mahasin by Ahmad ibn Abi Abdullah Barqi, and the best of all al-Sharaye' by Ali ibnal-Husaynibn Musa ibn Babawayh), they include narrations which were written in the form of decrees. The first period in which the necessity of discretion was felt was at the event of the major occultation (۳۲۹ AH). Although at this period outstanding religious jurists appeared from among the Shias (such as the al-Hasan ibn Abi 'Aqil al-'Ummani,Muhammadibn Ahmad ibn al-Junayd, and the greatest of All ShaykhMufid), there are no books available from this period in the field of the usul al-fiqh. It is said that ShaykhMufid wrote a book in usul al-fiqh, which was included completely in the book of Kanzal-Fawa'id by Abu al-Fath Muhammadibn Ali al-Karajaki, one of outstanding students of Mufid and SayyidMurtada; furthermore, there is a treatise assumed to have been written by him concerning some issues of usul al-fiqh, such as analogy and consensus.[۱]
۲. However, before the mentioned book was written, there was no complete book available concerning the Shiausul al-fiqh, particularly with the approach employed in this book; and the hypothetical writing or writings before the mentioned book just included a number of scattered issues in the field of usul al-fiqh, adopted from the Sunnites. Therefore al-Zari’ah should be considered as the most important and the most ancient source in the field of the Shiausul al-fiqh. This book ought to be considered as the origin of the history of the independence of the Shiausul al-fiqh, even though SayyidMurtada in this book has narrated the views of the Sunnites, such as Abu Hanifa, Shafi'i; and Jiba'ide, such as Abu Ali, Abu Hashim, Abu al-Husayn al-Basri, Nizam, Abu al-'Abbas ibn Shurayh, Abu Bakr al-Farsi, Qaffal, Abu al-Qasim al-Balkhi. Meanwhile, SayyidMurtada, himself, has a substantial view concerning any issue of the usul al-fiqh, as it is so concerning the other fields of knowledge.[۲]
۳. The second reason for the importance of the mentioned book is that, as SayyidMurtada himself writes in the introduction, the issues of usul al-fiqh have been separated from the issues of the principles of the religion; while in the previous books these fundamental issues were amalgamated.[۳]
In this book, Sayyid has mentioned the views of the scholars concerning each issue and has provided their reasons in detail; then he has tried to answer to them critically and has finally argued for his viewpoint through abundant reasons; and in some cases he has agreed with their views, or he has provided new reasons for his own stand.
He has thoroughly presented all the issues of the usul probably with the same order as they are generally presented in the common books, and then he has discussed them appropriately as the sect of the Imamiyyah necessitates; he has even explained about some issues such as analogy and opinion and their validity, based on the views which run against the Shia’s viewpoints; then he has presented the counter arguments appropriately based on the viewpoints of the Shia sect.
The influence of SayyidMurtada’s opinions on the views of the scholars living after him is clearly observable; they have quoted his peculiar views concerning all the issues and have sometimes agreed with him and sometimes have disagreed with his view. They have directly quoted his words in many cases.[۴] ‘Iddat al-Usul, written by Shaykh Tusi, which is one of the most important Shia resources in usul, has mostly mentioned the very same views and reasons by SayyidMurtada; and in many cases, it has mentioned them with minor changes. The direct quotes sometimes include detailed discussions in numerous pages from al-Zari’ah, while Shaykh Tusi clearly acknowledges his direct citation from the source.[۵]
Apparently, there existed numerous copies of the book, al-Zari’ah, used by the scholars for citations in their own writings. The author of Adab al-Murtada has referred to a number of the mentioned copies.
[۱]Refer to Rowzat al-Jannat, translated by Shaykh Abu al-Fattah Karajaki, p. ۵۵۲; and the introduction to Tahzib, published in Najaf, authored by Khirsan.
[۲] The science of usul has been used here in its common sense; otherwise, the sources of part of the Shiite usul should be studied through the words of the Imams.
[۳]For instance, refer to al-Mughni, written by Qadi Abduljabbar Mu’tazili.
[۴]Concerning the issues of ordinance, general and specific, narration, consensus, analogy etc. refer to the books of ‘Iddah, Tahzib, Ma’alim, Qawanin, Fusul, Zawabit,Haqa’iq and other books.
[۵] Refer to the whole discussion of the issue of analogy in the book ‘Iddat al-‘Usul.
