He is thus the founder of a number of sciences...

He is thus the founder of a number of sciences, such as jurisprudence ( fiqh ), hadithology, exegesis of the Holy Qur’an ( tafsir ), syntax ( nahw ), and many others.[^4] The same course of Imam ‘Ali (‘a) has been followed by the other Holy Imams (‘a), their followers and partisans who, directed by the Holy Imams (‘a), founded the Islamic sciences.[^5] In the field of education, while building the virtuous community, the Holy Imams (‘a) worked on diagnosing and constructing two important projects: First Project: Cultural And Educational Courses Any educational course plays a major role in successfully strengthening the cultural aspect of the virtuous community by making its individuals competent enough to fulfill their requirements and fill the gaps of their cultural needs.

While building the virtuous community culturally, the (‘a) adopted four cultural policies that complemented each other. These policies are as follows:While building the virtuous community culturally, the (‘a) adopted four cultural policies that complemented each other.

These policies are as follows: Freedom of Thought and Sources of Islamic Education First Line: Freedom of Thought and Accurate Ijtihad Freedom of thought and accurate ijtihad forms the general framework and foundation of educational policy. A reference to this point, which is one of the distinctive features by which the jurisprudence of the Twelver Imamiyyah sect outmatches other sects and jurisprudential schools, has been made in the previous chapter regarding intellectual and doctrinal aspects.

We saw that the Holy Imams (‘a) had a clear-cut goal and accurate course on which their educational school was set up and its scientific foundations framed. This framework was established on the following foundations: First : The Holy Qur’an and the authentic Sunnah (traditions) of the Holy Prophet (S) are the essential sources of Islamic culture in all fields such as historical-philosophy, socio-philosophy, Muslim jurisprudence, ethics, ideology, cosmology, literature, and linguistics.

Second : The principle of the referential authority of the (‘a) must be observed in understanding Islam, its convictions and in obtaining Islamic law. In fact, Islamic texts, history and Prophetic traditions have suffered inaccuracy in interpretations and explanations in addition to variety and multiplicity in situations and trends.