Alhassanain(p) Network for Heritage and Islamic Thought

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This is the first comprehensive study of the life and works of Muhammad Baqer as-Sadr -an Iraqi scholar who made an important contribution to the renewal of Islamic law and politics in the contemporary Middle East. Executed in 1980 by the regime of Saddam Hussein, Sadr was the most articulate thinker as well as a major political actor in the revival of Shi’i learning, which placed Najaf in southern Iraq at its centre.

Dr Chibli Mallat examines in depth the intellectual development of Sadr and his companions, who included Ayatollah Ruhullah al-Khumaini. He assesses how Sadr reformed the system of religious education and developed innovative approaches to the key areas of study of law, economics and banking. The author convincingly demonstrates how Sadr’s ideas and activities were influential in the rise of political Islam across the Middle East, particularly in countries with strong Shi’i constituencies such as Iran, Iraq and Lebanon, and played an important part in the Iranian revolution of 1979.

Given the renewed interest in Islam as a religious, political and social phenomenon, this is a most timely book and will be widely read by students and specialists of law, economics and the politics of the Middle East as well as of the history of ideas.

Cambridge Middle East Library

Editorial Board

ROGER OWEN (CHAIR)

SHAUL BAKHASH MICHAEL C. HUDSON DENIZ KANDIYOTI

RASHID KHALIDI

NOAH LUCAS BASIM MUSALLAM MALCOLM YAPP

The Cambridge Middle East Library aims to bring together outstanding scholarly work on the history, politics, sociology and economics of the Middle East and North Africa in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. While primarily focusing on monographs based on original research, the series will also incorporate broader surveys and in-depth treatments.

THE RENEWAL OF ISLAMIC LAW

Muhammad Baqer as-Sadr, Najaf and the Shi’i International

CHIBLI MALLAT

School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London

CAMBRIDGE

UNIVERSITY PRESS

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© Cambridge University Press 1993

This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press.

First published 1993

First paperback edition 2003

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress cataloguing in publication data

ISBN 0 521 43319 3 hardback

ISBN 0 521 53122 5 paperback

Notice:

This work is published on behalf of www.alhassanain.org/english

The typing errors are n’t corrected.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments 10

Note on transliteration and dates 11

Italic and capitals 11

Abbreviations 11

Dates 11

General introduction: The law in the Islamic Renaissance and the role of Muhammad Baqer as-Sadr 12

Law as Lingua Franca 12

Muhammad Baqer as-Sadr: a bio-bibliographical presentation 18

The political context 25

PART I: Islamic law and the constitution 31

Introduction to Part I 32

1- Archetypes of Shi’i law 37

The relevance of the Usuli/ Akhbari controversy 37

Akhbaris and Usulis: the differences 39

Absolute rapprochement 41

Conclusion: The significance of the controversy 42

Shi’i law colleges, traditional curriculum and new concerns 43

An early episode: when did Sadr stop imitating? 44

Legal studies in Najaf, or how one becomes a mujtahid 46

Study cycles 48

The’diploma’ 50

The structure of civil society 52

Shi’i internationalism 53

‘Reputation’ and the new concerns 54

The challenge to the law curriculum 55

Relevance to the present 57

A late episode: Sadr and the exchange of letters with Khumaini in 1979-80, or’who is the most learned jurist?’ 58

Conclusion: the Renaissance and the marjaiyyaa 62

2- On the origins of the Iranian constitution: Muhammad Baqer as-Sadr’s 1979 treatises 67

Introduction: on wilayat al-faqih 67

Stage 1: reading the Qur’an constitutionally 70

Stage 2 : the philosophical perspective 75

Stage 3: proposing a constitution for Iran 77

The two-tier separation of powers 80

Prerogatives of the marja’ jrahbar 81

Internal structure and historical legitimisation 82

3- The first decade of the Iranian constitution: problems of the least dangerous branch 86

The jurists in the constitution 86

The Council of Guardians between legislature and executive 86

The jurist in the Iranian constitution: comparative perspectives 90

The January debate and its aftermath 96

Islamic law constrained 98

Towards the demise of the Council of Guardians 103

The final stage 109

Epilogue: the opening of a new constitutional decade 112

PART II: Islamic law,’Islamic economics’ and the interest-free bank 115

Introduction to Part II 116

4- Law and the discovery of’Islamic economics’ 118

Iqtisaduna, an expose 118

Principles and method 118

Principles of Islamic economics 118

‘Islamic economics as part of a larger system’ 120

The status of religion in the economy: subjective impulse v. social interests 121

‘Islamic economics is not a science’ 122

The central economic problem 124

Labour and need 124

The method of Iqtisaduna: law and economics 126

Distribution and the factors of production 131

Factor one. Land 131

A: Land historically determined 132

AI: Land of conquest 132

AIa: Man-made prosperous land: public property 132

Alb: Dead land at the time of the conquest: state property 133

AIc: Naturally prosperous land 134

A2: Land of persuasion 134

A3: Land of agreement 135

B: The requirement of constant exploitation and the theory of land ownership 135

A general theory can now be sketched: 136

Factor two. Minerals 137

Factors three and four. Water and other natural resources 138

Conclusion: The general theory of distribution before production 139

Distribution and justice 141

A: Distribution after production 141

The superstructure -What the fuqaha have to say 141

B: Production and the role of the state 144

Iqtisaduna, Perspectives 145

Iqtisaduna in the literature 145

Theory and practice: Iqtisaduna, land reform and state intervention in Iran 150

5- Muhammad Baqer as-Sadr and Islamic banking 162

Iqtisaduna on riba and Islamic economics 166

Riba in al-Bank al-la Ribawi fil-Islam 168

An Islamic bank in an adverse economic environment 170

The interest-free bank: introductory remarks 170

The interest-free bank between depositors and investors 172

A The regime of term (fixed) deposits 172

B Profit and the Islamic bank 175

C The regime of mobile deposits (IFB 65-8) 175

The interest-free bank’s activities 176

A: Deposits, loans, and the compensation theory 176

B: The cheque as transaction 177

C: Theory of deposits 178

D: Other transactions 180

First category: Services to customers 180

Second category: loans and facilities 183

Third category: purchase of commercial papers 185

Banks in an Islamic environment 185

Conclusion: new financial horizons for the sharfa 187

Epilogue: the economics of lawyers and historians 188

Conclusion: The costs of renewal 190

Notes 192

The law in the Islamic Renaissance and the role of Muhammad Baqer as-Sadr 192

Introduction to Part I 199

5’ Dossier’, in Cahiers de P Orient, 1988, quoted this volume, General introduction, n. 34-1- Archetypes of Shi’i law 199

2- On the origins of the Iranian constitution: Muhammad Baqer as-Sadr’s 1979 treatises 205

3- The first decade of the Iranian constitution: problems of the least dangerous branch 211

Introduction to Part II 213

4- Law and the discovery of’Islamic economics’ 213

5- Muhammad Baqer as-Sadr and Islamic banking 218

Bibliography 222

Books and Pamphlets 222

Articles 232

Acknowledgments

This work is owed, primarily, to my parents, whose generosity and encouragement allowed me to complete it. I should like to dedicate it to them.

Several persons have also helped me in many ways. I should like to thank in particular Professors John Wansbrough and Tony Allan, for their constant and sympathetic support. Special gratitude goes to Albert Hourani and Dr Roger Owen, whose dedicated advice saw the work to the press. Several persons have read the manuscript and offered their welcome suggestions to improve it: Professor Roy Mottahedeh, Dr Robin Ostle, Dr Norman Calder, Professor William Twining, Mr Chris Rundle and my colleague in the department, Ian Edge, as well as anonymous readers at Cambridge University Press. At the Press, the professionalism of Dr Gill Thomas helped sustain my efforts. The Hariri foundation offered financial help to help complete the work, and I should like to acknowledge the friendliness and support of Mona Kni’o at the London branch of the Foundation. Jane Connors, Liz Hodgkin, and Jad Swidan read part of the manuscript and contributed valuable suggestions, and my colleagues Ja’far Delshad and Jawdat al-Qazwini offered their insiders’ view and their friendship from the very beginning of the research. My wife helped me put the work in shape and provided relentless support. To all, I would like to express my deep gratitude. I am of course responsible for the mistakes and imperfections which remain.

Note on transliteration and dates

Italic and capitals

I have adopted for Arabic and Persian words the standard transliteration of the International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, but I have omitted the diacritics, except in the bibliography and index. /’/ is used for’ayn and /’/ for hamza.

Arabic and Persian words have been italicised throughout, except for usual non-italicised items which are current in English (such as the Qur’an), and institutions like the Iranian Majles (Parliament). In this case, they also begin with a capital. Following Henry Corbin (En Islam Iranien, 4 vols., Paris, 1971-2), the word Imam is capitalised only in reference to the Twelve Imams of the Shi’i tradition.

Also, as in Batatu’s standard work on Iraq (The Old Social Classes and the Revolutionary Movements in Iraq, Princeton, 1978), we have found it more accurate to write as-Sadr rather than al-Sadr, at-Tabataba’i rather than al-Tabataba’i etc.

Abbreviations

Q Qur’an

BSOAS Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies

IJMES International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies

SI Studia Islamica.

Dates

If a single date is used, reference is to the Gregorian Christian calendar.

When a hijri (Hegire) date is used, it is followed by the corresponding Gregorian date. No specification is made to Hijri qamari (lunar calendar) or to Hijri shamsi (solar calendar generally used in modern Iran) since the context is generally sufficient to distinguish the use of each, which is in any case followed by the AD date.