For this to happen...

For this to happen, he must rise to the final degree and become a marja` al­taqlid, where other qualities besides just his scholarship, e.g., his piety and conformity to the shari`a, cause him to be respected above other mujtahids, and thus to become a source of certainty to his muqallids that in following him they will not deviate from the shari`a.

This is a question of certainty (qat`, yaqin): the evidence for the existence of a precept must be such as to leave no room for any kind of doubt in the mind of the person who models his behaviour according to it; in the case of proofs concerning sensory evidence, the very data themselves are only probablistic, so no proof employing them can arrive at demonstrable certainty.

Therefore, in such a proof, other probabalistic elements such as `aql are admissible, but these cannot be used to derive the precepts of the shari`a. Muhammad Baqir b. Muhammad al­Bihbihani (1116­8/1704­7 ­ 1208/1793­4). The Shaykh Murtada b. Muhammad Amin b. Shams al­Din b. Ahmad b. Nur al­Din b. Muhammad Sadiq al­Shushtari al­Dizfuli al­Ansari (1214/1799 ­ 1281/1864), whose "Rasa'il", on usul al­fiqh were published as "Fara'id al­Usul''(Tehran, 1296).

His works in usul and fiqh now form the backbone of the present­day teaching of these subjects. One of the `atabat, the Shi`i sacred towns in Iraq, the site of the battle where the third Imam, al­Husayn, and his followers were massacred on 10 Muharram 61/680. It is about 95 kms. S.S.W. of Baghdad. The Shaykh Yusuf b. Ahmad al­Bahrani (d. 1186/1772), author of ''al­Hada`iq al­Nadira Ahkam al­`Itra al­Tahira" (ed. M.T. al­Irwani, 20 vols., Najaf, 1377­ ). a) Ja`far b. Khidr b.

Yahya al­Najafi (1164/751 ­ 1227/1812), known as "Kashif al­Ghita `an Mubhamat al­Shari`a al­Gharra" (Tehran, 1271). b) The Sayyid Muhammad Mahdi b. Murtada b. Muhammad b. ` Abd al­Karim al­Hasani al­Husayni (1154­5/1741­2 ­ 1212/1797), known as the Sayyid Bahr al­`Ulum. c) The Sayyid Muhammad Mahdi al­Shahrastani al­Ha'iri b. Abi'l­Qasim al­Musawi (d. 1216/1801). Muhammad Baqir b. Muhammad Taqi b.

Maqsud `Ali al­Majlisi al­Isfahani (1037/1627 ­ 1111/1700), compiler of the encyclopaedic collection of Shi`i hadith, "Bihar al­A nwar" (110 vols, Tehran, 1376­ [vol. VIII, Tehran, 1304]) The Sayyid Ni`mat Allah b. `Abdillah b. Muhammad al­Musawi al­Jaza'iri (d. 1112/1700), a pupil of the `Allama al­Majlisi (see previous note). Muhammad b. Murtada b. Mahmud Muhsin al­Kashani (d. 1091/1680).