Islam in World Cultures: Comparative Perspectives - Islamic Books ...

Shi’ite Islam in Contemporary Iran 7 7Twelver Shi’ite History, Belief, and Popular Ritual PracticeThe English words “Shi’ite,” “Shi’ism,” and “Shi’a” come from the Arabicshi’atu Ali, “partisans or party of Ali,” the cousin and son-in-law of the ProphetMuhammad. Twelver (ithna ashari) and other forms of Shi’ism differ fromSunni Islam on the issue of the succession to Muhammad as leader of the Muslimcommunity after his death in 632 C.E. The partisans of Ali argued that leadershipof the Muslim community should go to a member of the family of theProphet because they inherited from Muhammad special spiritual knowledgeand abilities to help them to better lead the Muslim community. In the Shi’itev i e w, Ali was designated by the Prophet as his caliph, or successor, but this positionwas refuted by other Muslims, who argued that succession should be determinedby the traditional (sunni) political method of consensus among the commu n i t y ’s leaders. Ali eventually became the fourth caliph in 656 C.E., inheritinga position already saddled with great political and social problems, which eventuallylead to his murder in 661 C.E. by disgruntled former supporters.After Ali’s death, his followers designated his progeny as the true caliphsand called them imams (from the Arabic imam, “leader”); in principle they arevested with both religious and political authority. The Twelver Shi’ites are socalledbecause they recognize a succession of twelve Imams who are regardedas sinless and infallible and so the only ones worthy to lead the community(Halm 1999). However, after Ali, none of these twelve Imams ever became politicalruler of the Muslim empire. Instead, they kept to their own Shi’ite religiouscircles and taught those around them. In the struggles for leadership ofthe Muslim community after Ali’s death, the political caliphate passed into thehands of Mu’awiya, the governor of Damascus, who established a hereditarydynasty from the Umayyad branch of the Quraysh tribe. He pensioned offHasan, the second Shi’ite Imam (who retired in Medina), and made his ownson Yazid caliph, so as to secure dynastic succession. Upon Hasan’s death, hisbrother Husayn was recognized as the third Imam and was urged by his followersto retake the leadership of the community from Yazid. The Umayyad forcesput an end to the revolt by killing Husayn and most of his family and supporterson the desert plain of Karbala, in Iraq.Nine consecutive Imams came to head the Shi’ite community afterH u s a y n ’s death. The sixth Imam, Ja’far Sadiq (d. 757), codified Twelver Shi’itelaw and recommended that the Imam should be a religious teacher and notconcern himself directly with running a government (Arjomand 1984, 34).The twelfth and last Imam entered a hidden state of existence called “occultation”in 939 C.E. This last Imam is believed by the Twelvers to be still alive andto appear secretly to select pious Muslims. This unseen dimension of the imamatehas a cosmological function, for the twelfth Imam stands as an intermedi a ry between God and the world, giving blessings to all (Tabataba’i 1977,