Sayyid Murtada’s School of Thought, Jurisprudential Works, and Unique Ideas

Ali Ibin-e Hussein, known as “Sayyid Murtada ‘Alam ol-Huda”, is one of the prominent Shiite jurists, who was born in Baghdad in the year ۳۵۵ AH. Having left a heritage of dozens of precious works in the sciences as theology, jurisprudence, principles of jurisprudence and literature, he passed away in ۴۳۶ AH. He was mostly outstanding in the knowledge of theology and jurisprudence in the Islamic sciences. He understood the necessity of the verification of jurisprudential school based on the teachings of Ahl al-Bayt ^PBUT and wrote the book of Al-Zari’ah ila Osul al Shari’ah. In this book, he reviewed and criticized the jurisprudential methods and tools of the Sunni jurists, and based on reasons such as: the literal meaning of the Qur’an, widely transmitted narrations and consensus he institutionalized the new juristic and ijtihad method by means of writing numerous books and treatises. He presented the Shiite jurisprudence as an independent legal school. Through comparative jurisprudential studies and in the books of Al-Intisaar and Nasiriyaat, he proved the strength of the ideas of the Shiite jurists in comparison with the ideas of the other Islamic sects. Some of Sayyid Murtada’s opinions are not compatible with the words of the popular Shiite jurisprudents. In this article, some of these opinions have been briefly presented.

Keywords: jurisprudence, legal school, works in jurisprudence, legal opinions, Sayyid Murtada

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* Associate professor of fiqh and private law, Shahid Motahari University