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CHAPTER 9 Shi˜ites and Non-Shi˜ites The Distinction between Ámån and Islåm The notion of walåyah that was so prevalent in the thought of early second-century Shi˜ites was both a polemical concept—being juxtaposed with ˜adåwah or barå˘ah—and a somewhat generalized one, signifying a basic belief in the righteousness of ˜Al¥’s cause and attachment and loyalty to his descendants, the ahl al-bayt, collectively. As such, it was a terminology that reflected the purposes and the aims of the Shi˜ites in the late Umayyad period. Most Shi˜ites of this period were concerned principally with the overthrow of the Umayyads, their most avid oppressors, and it was a cause and a concern widely shared throughout the Islamic community. It seemed clear that the accomplishment of this would have to come through military means, and with the numerous rebellions of the late Umayyad period, it indeed seemed imminent. It was certainly no time to squabble over hairsplitting doctrinal issues: There was a widespread sentiment in favor of the rise of a religious and political leader from among the family of the Prophet, broadly construed, and that sentiment had to be harnessed to the greatest possible extent if the Umayyads were to be overcome. However, with the success of the ˜Abbåsid Revolution and the consolidation of the ˜Abbåsid state toward the latter half of the second century, the situation of the Shi˜ites changed dramatically. Many of the supporters of the ˜Abbåsid call for “the chosen one from the family of Mu±ammad (al-ri¿å min ‹l Mu÷ammad),” and the agitators for the cause of the ahl al-bayt against the Umayyads seem to have 177 178 The Charismatic Community been rather satisfied with the revolution’s outcome. Even those who had been holding out for an ˜Alid candidate must have become resigned to the new Håshimite, if not ˜Alid, dynasty, after the muchanticipated but failed uprising of the ¡asanid, Mu±ammad b. ˜Abd Allåh al-Nafs al-Zakiyyah in the year 145. The Råfi∂¥ Shi˜ites who were loyal to Ja˜far al-Œådiq and who opposed (at least in principle) the ˜Abbåsid claim to legitimate leadership, needed to develop a systematic doctrine that would encapsulate the intellectual argument for their own legitimist claims. They had to distinguish themselves clearly from the ˜Abbåsids and their apologists, from Zayd¥ moderates and from those attached to rival ˜Alid candidates from the ¡asanid line. It is well known to scholars of Shi˜ism that it was in this environment that the precise and elaborate doctrine of the imåmate first emerged among the Råfi∂¥ Shi˜ites attached to Ja˜far al-Œådiq, and under his direction. It was Marshall Hodgson who first detailed the catalytic effect of the ˜Abbåsid Revolution on the development of an Imåm¥ Shi˜ite doctrine that not only distinguished Imåm¥ Shi˜ites from their ˜Abbåsid, Zayd¥, and ¡asanid rivals but also included a means for the indefinite perpetuation of Imåm¥ Shi˜ite leadership through the doctrinal concept of naƒƒ—the necessary and continual bequeathing of the imåmate from the existing Imåm to his designated successor.1 In Part III of this book, I argue that concomitant with, and related to, the development of a firm doctrine regarding the leadership of the Imåm¥ Shi˜ite community , was the parallel development of a somewhat less formal, but no less essential, doctrine defining the nature and limits of membership in that community. The concept of membership in the Shi˜ite community that developed in the early ˜Abbåsid period was clearly related to the simultaneously emerging doctrine of the imåmate, in that it demanded more than a mere show of support or walåyah for ˜Alid leadership generally. It required knowledge and formal recognition of the “Imåm of one’s time” and of a specific line of Imåms preceding him. It also demanded absolute obedience to the specific doctrines and teachings of the Imåms. As a result of these more stringent requirements, Shi˜ite doctrine began to recognize a certain hierarchy within the Shi˜ite community itself, based on the varying degrees of knowledge and obedience demonstrated by its members—thereby distinguishing the fully committed and doctrinally knowledgeable members of the Imåm¥ Shi˜ite community from those merely clinging to a sentimental attachment to the ahl al-bayt...

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