Tradition and Sunnah
In both Catholicism and Shi'i Islam, tradition may be seen as a source for religious teaching second only to scripture, and thus as authoritative. However, what is meant by tradition differs in these two faiths, although there are also several common points. Both Catholics and Muslims agree that divine guidance has been delivered by scripture and by the passing down of narrations from one generation to another. However, for Christians, scripture is also a record of what was passed down about the life of Jesus and his apostles, the epistles of Paul, and other written documents that were selected by the Church as authoritative, while for Muslims, scripture is the record of the revelation given to the Prophet. To Muslims, the New Testament looks more like a book of hadiths than the direct revelation (wahy) of God. Nevertheless, Christians and Muslims, along with Jews and Zoroastrians, are recognized by the Shi'a as ”ahl al-kitab”, people of the book; and the books in question are taken as containing divine messages for their peoples. These books reach contemporary believers in any of these faiths by being handed down from one generation to another, that is, by tradition.
For Catholics, however, Church tradition is itself authoritative. Catholics believe that the history of the Church, the decisions made in its councils and the statements of doctrine enunciated by its popes are guided by the Holy Spirit, and as such have divine authority. For the Shi'a, on the contrary, there is no analogous belief. Theological doctrines that were common at one time may be rejected later if good reason is found for so doing regardless of traditional acceptance. Because of this, for example, Shaykh Saduq's theology was largely superceded by that of Shaykh Mufid, and later the akhbari school of thought was displaced by the usuli school. The fact that a given doctrine or practice becomes accepted by the majority of scholars at any given time carries no theoretical weight for other scholars. Each scholar must use the best of his own cognitive abilities to study the sources and reach his own conclusions. In this sense, the Shi'i approach to religion is a rationalist one.
Sunnah, which is often translated as “tradition”, is indeed authoritative for Muslims, but not the sunnah of the clergy, of the seminaries, or of the Muslim community; rather, it is the sunnah of the Prophet (s) that is taken by Muslims as second in authority only to the Qur'an.
In Islamic jurisprudence, four sources of legal rulings are commonly mentioned:
1. the Qur'an
2. the Sunnah
3. reason (Shi'i) or analogy (Sunni)
4. consensus.
The reliance on consensus in Sunni legal theory is in some respects similar to the Catholic reliance on tradition, although Catholics have focused more on doctrinal issues while Muslims have been more concerned with practical rulings. However, for the Shi'a, consensus is reduced to the Sunnah, since it is valid only when it unveils the view of the Prophet or the Imams. Hence, for all practical purposes, in present circumstances the sources of legal rulings among the Shi'a are limited to the first three mentioned above: the Qur'an, the Sunnah, and reason.
Sunni and Shi'i Muslims are in agreement that what is meant by the Sunnah is the example of the Prophet (s) in word and deed as recorded and passed down in the form of narrations, called hadiths. For the Shi'a, however, narrations of the words and deeds of the twelve Imams are also taken as authoritative. Sometimes this is justified on the grounds that knowledge of the Sunnah of the Prophet (s) was best preserved in his household, his ahl al-bayt. Nevertheless, the authority of the Imams is seen as derivative relative to the Sunnah of the Prophet (s), and the Imams themselves often justified the stance they took with reference to the Sunnah of the Prophet (s).
Notes:
[1] Pater Liber is one of the Roman gods who came to be identified with Dionysus, or Bacchus, the god of licentiousness and drunkenness.
[2] See also 53:23.
[3] Muhammad ibn Babawayh al-Qummi, A Shi‘ite Creed, tr. Asaf A. A. Fyzee (Tehran: WOFIS, 1982), 85-86.
[4] This narration is found in various Shi‘ite as well as Sunni collections of hadiths. See the book: Shi‘ism in Sunnism by Sayyid Muhammad Reza Mudarrisi Yazdi (Qom: Ansariyan, 2003), p. 52.
[5] This narration is reported in Tabari, cited by S. H. M. Jafri in The Origins and Development of Shi‘a Islam (Qom: Ansariyan, 1989), 179-180.
[6] There is an established idea among many Shi‘a jurists that in the time of the presence of Imams as well as in the reign of a just jurist, certain positions such as acting as a judge or Friday and Eid prayer leader must be decided by appointment. (Editor’s note)
[7] Hajj Mulla Ahmad Naraqi, ‘Awaid al-Ayyam (Qom: Maktab-e Basirati, n.d.) 187-188, translated in Wilayah and Marjaiyah Today (Houston: Al-Fajr, 1995), 214.
[8] See Ayatollah Ali Meshkini, “Wilayat al-Faqih,” in Wilayah and Marjaiyah Today, 195-200.
