This esoteric knowledge pertains to the interpretation of...

This esoteric knowledge pertains to the interpretation of the Qur’ān and to doctrine, but it is rarely directly pertinent to the details of ritual law. For the Shī‘ī scholars of the law, the fuqahā , whose business is providing clear textual evidence in support of legal judgments as to what actions are obligatory, recommendable, neutral, discouraged or forbidden, it is natural to develop a preference for a natural common sense reading of the texts.

So, there is a hermeneutic tension to be found in the Shī‘ī seminaries. On the one hand, there is a special sensitivity to the esoteric encouraged by the pronouncements of the Imams ( ‘a ), and on the other hand interest in the juristic studies fosters a tendency toward literalism and common sense reasoning.

The situation is further complicated if we consider the split among the Shī‘ī jurists into the Akhbāriyyūn and Uṣūliyyūn With respect to exegesis, there are two fundamental issues dividing these two groups: first, how to distinguish authentic from inauthentic narrations attributed to the Prophet and his folk ( ‘A ), and second, how to derive juridical rulings on the basis of the authentic narrations.

The Akhbāriyyūn tended to accept the entire corpus of aḥādīth or to adjudicate authenticity on the basis of the text of the narrations, while the Uṣūliyyūn sought to derive the authenticity of a report first by estimating the reliability of its chain of transmission and then considering the text itself.

Once the authentic reports have been identified, the Akhbāriyyūn would let them speak for themselves to answer questions of law, while the Uṣūliyyūn argued that various principles ( uṣūl ) of jurisprudence must be used in order to provide answers to many legal questions, and in these principles common sense and reason are prominent.

By the mid-nineteenth century, the Akhbāriyyūn had virtually disappeared, and the uṣūlī attitude toward exegesis, favoring common sense and rationalism, has come to dominate not only studies of Islamic law and the principles of jurisprudence, but the Islamic sciences generally. The literalism associated with the study of the law is a moderate literalism that emphasizes the place of reason and common sense.

Philosophical Instructions displays a balance between uṣūlī literalist and esoteric tendencies in the context of a defense of Islamic philosophy. The charge of misinterpreting sacred texts is obviated by the absence of any significant reliance on scripture at all.