Customer Reviews

Islamic Legal Orthodoxy

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Stewart has fully demonstrated the fallacy of perceiving Shii law as independent of Sunni law. His study reveals intriguing facts about the number of Sunni teachers that Shii luminaries such as Mufid, Tusi, Hilli, and others had. The book also shows the dependence which Shii scholarship had on Sunni works of usul al-Fiqh (legal principles) and Ijtihad (legal deduction). This book sets a fantastic precedent in our knowledge of Shiism and its historical background.

This book suprized me. It is the first time I was made aware of this claims or facts. The author shows that the Shia is a response to Sunnis. They did not have a school of their own but when they excluded from the Sunni community, first they dissimulate as a Shaf'i and than started their own school of thought. They did not know in the beginning what they were doing and in time they established and made their own philosophy and all these are due in response to Sunnis. Author provides a lot of short biographical information about the Shia muctehids, quite interesting information. Their acceptance of concensus just to get approved by the majority of community and than their refusal of concencus as part of usul al-fikh. Proof that Imam Cafer Al-Sadiq(as) was not really the founding Imam of the Shiat's. They did not have any school of thought at that time because majority of the community did not have their own school of thought where they would reject the Shiat's because of their belief in Imamate, Mutah etc. Interesting, definetely a must read.

Stewart has fully demonstrated the fallacy of perceiving Shii law as independent of Sunni law. His study reveals intriguing facts about the number of Sunni teachers that Shii luminaries such as Mufid, Tusi, Hilli, and others had. The book also shows the dependence which Shii scholarship had on Sunni works of usul al-Fiqh (legal principles) and Ijtihad (legal deduction). This book sets a fantastic precedent in our knowledge of Shiism and its historical background.

devin j stewart is a lia