ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Authority From a Shiite Perspective Tradition and Sunnah In both Catholicism and Shi'i Islam, tradition may be seen as a source for religious teaching second only to scripture, and thus as authoritative. However, what is meant by tradition differs in these two faiths, although there are also several common points.

Both Catholics and Muslims agree that divine guidance has been delivered by scripture and by the passing down of narrations from one generation to another. However, for Christians, scripture is also a record of what was passed down about the life of Jesus and his apostles, the epistles of Paul, and other written documents that were selected by the Church as authoritative, while for Muslims, scripture is the record of the revelation given to the Prophet.

To Muslims, the New Testament looks more like a book of hadiths than the direct revelation ( wahy ) of God. Nevertheless, Christians and Muslims, along with Jews and Zoroastrians, are recognized by the Shi'a as ” ahl al-kitab ”, people of the book; and the books in question are taken as containing divine messages for their peoples. These books reach contemporary believers in any of these faiths by being handed down from one generation to another, that is, by tradition.

For Catholics, however, Church tradition is itself authoritative. Catholics believe that the history of the Church, the decisions made in its councils and the statements of doctrine enunciated by its popes are guided by the Holy Spirit, and as such have divine authority. For the Shi'a, on the contrary, there is no analogous belief. Theological doctrines that were common at one time may be rejected later if good reason is found for so doing regardless of traditional acceptance.

Because of this, for example, Shaykh Saduq's theology was largely superceded by that of Shaykh Mufid, and later the akhbari school of thought was displaced by the usuli school . The fact that a given doctrine or practice becomes accepted by the majority of scholars at any given time carries no theoretical weight for other scholars. Each scholar must use the best of his own cognitive abilities to study the sources and reach his own conclusions.

In this sense, the Shi'i approach to religion is a rationalist one.