who will intercede for his nation on the day of the Meeting with God, and may He bless ʿAlī, his trustee, and the Imams among his descendants, God’s Chosen Ones.
2 The Chief Justice ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Nuʿmān1 said: I transmit this book, The Islamic Legal Schools’ Conflicting Principles of Interpretation, and Refutation of Those Who Contradict the True Doctrine Therein, from my father, the Judge Muḥammad ibn al-Nuʿmān,2 may God be pleased with him and grant him contentment. My father transmitted this book from his father, the Judge al-Nuʿmān ibn Muḥammad ibn Manṣūr ibn Aḥmad ibn Ḥayyūn of the Tamīm tribe, may God be pleased with him and grant him contentment, and make his final destination and resting place one of honor, the author of this book. This, after he had presented this book to our Master and Ruler, the Imam al-Muʿizz li-Dīn Allāh,3 the Commander of the Faithful, God’s blessings upon him, upon his pure forefathers, and upon the Imams among his noble progeny, and after the Imam had permitted him to transmit it. My grandfather’s composition of the book and transmission of it to his son, and the son’s transmission of it to his son after him, took place after each transmitter among them had presented the work to the Imam of his time and obtained permission from him to transmit it on the Imam’s authority, and after his Highness al-ʿAzīz bi-llāh,4 the Commander of the Faithful, God’s blessings upon him, had granted a second permission to my father, his Chief Justice Muḥammad ibn al-Nuʿmān, God be pleased with him. I presented the book to our Highness, the Imam al-Ḥākim bi-Amr Allāh,5 the Imam of the present age, and he granted me permission to transmit it on his authority and to dictate it without restriction to the Imam’s servants, inscribing on the back of the volume a venerable affidavit in his exalted hand: “We have permitted the audition and dictation of this book to Our Judge, ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Nuʿmān, praise be to God, Lord of all the generations!”
PROLOGUE
In the Name of God, the Merciful and Beneficent:
3 Praise be to God, Who revealed the Book to his servant, Muḥammad, the bearer of glad tidings and warner, and rendered it as He describes it in His Scripture: «a cure for what is in the breasts of mankind, guidance, and mercy for the faithful,»6 and «an explanation of all things, guidance, mercy, and glad tidings for the Muslims.»7 God bless Muḥammad, the Seal of the Prophets and Foremost of the Messengers, and the Imams among his pure and virtuous progeny.
4 Now, to the heart of the matter: I noticed that all those who pray toward Mecca,8 after agreeing on the explicit text of the Qurʾan and accepting the Messenger as truthful, differ in their legal rulings on many individual points of the law, some fundamental principles, and many matters of interpretation. Concerning these issues they have adopted sundry views, dispersed into diverse groups, and formed various disputing parties, and this despite being aware of God’s word: «that you remain steadfast in religion, and make no divisions therein»;9 «Nor did those to whom the Scripture was given make schisms until after there came to them clear evidence»;10 «Those to whom the Scripture was given differed concerning it only after clear proofs had come unto them»;11 «Religion before God is Islam. Nor did the People of the Book dissent therefrom except after knowledge had come to them, through malevolence toward each other»;12 «Do they then earnestly consider the Qurʾan, or are their hearts locked up?»;13 and «Do they not earnestly consider the Qurʾan? Had it been from other than God, they would surely have found therein much incongruity.»14 For in these verses, God censured division and disagreement and encouraged unity and solidarity, commanding and promoting the latter. He made it desirable to uphold the faith and prohibited the formation of schisms therein.
5 I have therefore decided to write a detailed exposition of this matter in the present book, and in doing so I seek assistance from God, place my trust in Him, and depend on the support, direction, and guidance of His ward the Imam, adopting him as a beacon to guide my way and a stock of provisions against my time of need, and drawing and scooping up water from his overflowing sea. I begin by setting forth the causes of their disagreement, what led and compelled them to differ, and what paved their way to discord. I will follow this by presenting their doctrine in general and the principles they have adopted for themselves, demonstrating the invalidity of these principles as support for their views. I will pair all that with an exposition of the doctrine of the people of truth15 concerning that over which these others have differed, clarifying and explaining it, and adducing quotations and evidence in support of it. After that I will present the doctrine of each group, the arguments they have adduced in support of those doctrines, refutation of the positions they have taken in which they have strayed from the Truth, and the doctrine of the people of truth regarding these positions, according to what we have learned on the authority of our Imams, peace be upon them. I seek thereby nothing but the reward for serving this goal and for undertaking to provide the means to reach it. However, proof belongs to the wards of God, who alone are able to provide it and open the doors that lead thereto.
THE CAUSE OF DISAGREEMENT
6 In this book, I have chosen to follow the path of concision, omitting the chains of authority from oral reports as well as repetition, so that readers and examiners of this work might find it easy to follow, and citing only such oral reports as are well known, widely accepted, and transmitted reliably. To this category belong the following: the reliably transmitted report from ʿAlī, God’s blessings upon him, that he said, upon witnessing the people’s disagreement after the passing of the Messenger of God: “Were the mat for dispensing justice folded for me, and were I to sit before the people, I would judge among the people of the Qurʾan by the Qurʾan, among the people of the Torah by the Torah, and among the people of the Gospel by the Gospel. No two of you would disagree over a single ruling of the religion”;16 the reliably transmitted report from the Messenger of God: “The best judge among you is ʿAlī”;17 and the report that when the Prophet Muḥammad sent ʿAlī to Yemen, the latter remonstrated, “O Messenger of God, you have sent me to people who are experienced elders, yet I am young and have no knowledge of judgeship!” The Prophet struck ʿAlī’s chest with his hand, blessing him, “O God, make him learned in the religion and lead him to the manifest truth.” ʿAlī, God’s blessings upon him, remarked, “After that, no case between two parties was difficult for me to judge.”18
7 In the ability to judge is combined all knowledge that people require regarding God’s lawful and unlawful things, the obligations He has imposed, and His rulings. Concerning these things, the people must submit to the one whose knowledge was attested to and prayed for by the Messenger. During the entire extent of ʿAlī’s life after the passing of the Messenger of God, those who had followed the Messenger before him found themselves needing to consult him concerning the religious law, while ʿAlī had no need to consult or ask anyone at all about such matters. This is one of the things that engendered anger toward ʿAlī on the part of those who had been regularly consulted and to whom people referred concerning matters about which they disagreed. An example of this is the reliably transmitted report attributed to ʿAlī according to which he often used to command, “Ask me before you lose me.”19 He also stated, “My eyelids never shut, nor did sleep ever enter my head even one day during the days of my life with the Messenger of God until I had learned the permitted and forbidden things that Gabriel, peace be upon him, had brought down that day, whether a report from the Prophet or a citation from the Scripture. So ask me, for you will not find anyone more knowledgeable about what is between the Scripture’s two covers than I. There is no verse in the Qurʾan but that I learned when it was revealed and about what it was revealed.”20 To present all the reports of this type would cause us to go beyond the scope
