The Charismatic Community: Shi'ite Identity in Early Islam

10. Degrees of Faith

CHAPTER 10 Degrees of Faith Establishing a Hierarchy within the Shi˜ite Community Sometime during or shortly after the imåmate of Ja˜far al-Œådiq, the term mu˘min¶n or “believers,” without qualification, came to be widely used in Imåm¥ Shi˜ite discourse to refer to fellow Imåm¥ Shi˜ites. The word ¥mån (faith or belief) is used in many traditions attributed to al-Œådiq and later Imåms to designate not only full and unhypocritical belief in the Islamic creed but faith in the Imåm¥ Shi˜ite version of that creed in particular. The identification of Imåm¥ Shi˜ites with the mu˘min¶n became so standard that most of the Imåm¥ ÷ad¥th literature on the status and role of the individual Shi˜ite is found in chapters and sections dealing with the nature of belief and unbelief,1 and al-¡usayn b. Sa˜¥d al-Ahwåz¥, a contemporary of the ninth, tenth and eleventh Imåms, entitled his thematic collection of traditions dealing with the ideal spiritual and moral characteristics of the individual Shi˜ite, “Kitåb al-mu˘min.”2 The exclusive identification of Shi˜ites with the mu˘min¶n, or true believers, was a natural, doctrinal corollary to the idea, already expressed in traditions attributed to earlier Imåms and al-Båqir in particular, that walåyah toward ˜Al¥ and the ahl al-bayt was a sine qua non of ¥mån and the litmus test of religious sincerity. Yet, while the identification of Shi˜ites with the “true believers” was founded upon the intrinsic connection between walåyah and ¥mån that one finds in Shi˜ite ÷ad¥th discourse, it is interesting to note that once this identification was established in more precise, theological terms— perhaps as early as the late second and early third centuries—the 191 192 The Charismatic Community concept of walåyah was partially eclipsed by that of ¥mån as the primary signifier of Shi˜ite identity. In traditions attributed to al-Œådiq and later Imåms, the term walåyah continues to be used, but it is far less prevalent and central than it is in those attributed to al-Båqir. Walåyah is no longer presented as a comprehensive term connecting belief in God and the Prophet with the charismatic attachment to ˜Al¥ and the ahl al-bayt, and it is no longer the primary or sufficient marker of ¥mån. Rather, in traditions attributed to al-Œådiq and later Imåms, walåyah often refers to a doctrinally imprecise and in some cases, purely sentimental, attachment to the charismatic authority of the ahl al-bayt in general. As such, it represents merely the first and most basic rung on the ladder between outward submission to God and His prophet (islåm) and true belief (¥mån). While walåyah certainly remained one of the necessary conditions of ¥mån, it was no longer the only one, or even the most lofty of them: Beyond simple walåyah or general attachment to the ahl al-bayt, one must also know and demonstrate absolute obedience to both the individual person and the precise doctrinal positions of the Imåm. Thus, the link between the terms walåyah and ¥mån became less direct; and while Shi˜ite ÷ad¥th traditions attributed to al-Œådiq and later Imåms are concerned with charting, theologically, the territory between islåm and ¥mån, a parallel attempt seems to have been made to map the theological degrees between a general attachment to the ahl al-bayt and true ¥mån. This resulted in the development of a kind of internal hierarchy among those identifying themselves as the sh¥˜ah of the ahl albayt —a development that proved theologically and rhetorically useful for explaining the deep and often bitter divisions that arose as a result of the doctrinal disputes and succession crises that plagued the Imåm¥ community from the time of al-Œådiq. This chapter examines the ways in which the theoretical recognition of degrees between simple attachment to the ahl al-bayt and true Shi˜ite belief was discussed in traditions from al-Œådiq onward, and the extent to which this both reflected and fostered the sense of spiritual hierarchy that informs all essential aspects of Imåm¥ thought. The transition from walåyah to ¥mån as the primary term relating to membership in the Shi...