In the following Hadith...

In the following Hadith, the Holy Imam -asws has, in fact, given out a different set of Principles, which are closer to the Ahl y e Sunnah but are considered as Farroo-e-Deen (peripheral issues) by the Shia Mujtahids: أبوعلي الاشعري، عن الحسن بن علي الكو في، عن عباس بن عامر، عن أبان بن عثمان، عن فضيل بن يسار، عن أبي جعفر عليه السلام قال: بني الاسلام على خمس: على الصلاة والزكاة والصوم والحج والولاية ولم يناد بشئ كما نودي بالولاية، فأخذ الناس بأربع وتركواهذه يعني الولاية Abu Ali al-Ash’ari has narrated from al-Hassan ibn Ali al-Kufi from ‘Abbas ibn ‘Amir from Aban ibn ‘Uthman from Fudayl ibn Yasar from Abu Ja’far, recipient of divine supreme covenant, who has said the following: ‘Abu Ja’far -asws , recipient of divine supreme covenant, has said: ‘ Islam is based on five principles .

They are: Prayer, al-Zakat (charity), Fasting, Hajj and al-Wilayah. The call to none of the other principles has been as emphatic as it has been to al-Wilayah . People accepted the other four but they left aside this i.e. al-Wilayah.

’ [27] By redefining and reshaping the Divine Commands (carving Usools and Faroos), a new ‘Shia-Ijtihad’ system was constructed by some Shia mullahs soon after the ‘Grand Occulation’ of the 12 th Imam -ajfj , which met with severe resistance from all Shias among the public as well as learned.

Those days the word ‘Ijtihad’ was only used by Sunnis and was considered to be a forbidden ‘concept’ [28] among the followers of Ahl Al-Bayt -asws and Shia used to narrate Ahadith and act upon religion by taking Ahadith of the Infallible Imams -asws . The first ‘Shia-Mujtahid’ who came forward, by amending the ‘Sunni-Ijtihad’ (first formulated by Shafai’i’), was Ibn-e-Junaid.

[29] Subsequent to receiving stern resistance but ‘Shia-Ijtiahd’ was gradually accepted and it’s adoption served the purpose of bringing Shias closer to Sunnis system. That is how Sunni-Ijtihad became Shia! It then became the norm to criticise Sunnis’ beliefs but to emulate them in Ijtihad and get a firm grip on the possibility of introducing one’s own judgement on those aspects of religion which were fully covered and extensively discussed in both the Book and the Ahadith of -asws .

Hence, Shia Ijtihad was incepted, which after strong opposition found its way into the main stream twelve-Imami Shia community, as it is found in its present form.