The Influence of Philosophy and Sufism on the Imamology of Twelver Shīʿism in the 14^th Century

Abstract

Although Imamology has always been central to the theological doctrines of Twelver Shīʿism (al-Ithnā ʿAsharīya), the matter of how it was developed and revised during the Il-Khanid period has not yet been satisfyingly studied. According to previous research, although Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī (d. 1274) and his disciple al-ʿAllāma al-Ḥillī (d. 1325) tried to integrate the Islamic philosophy which had been systematized by Ibn Sīnā (d. 1037) into their traditional theology, the philosophy had little effect on their Imamology. With regard to theologians’ attitude to Sufism, it has been the common view that most Twelver thinkers did not approve of merging Sufiideas into their theology before Ḥaydar Āmulī (d. 1385), who is known as a Shīʿite adherent of Ibn ʿArabī (d. 1240).

This paper argues that Fakhr al-Muḥaqqiqīn al-Ḥillī (d. 1369/70), who was a son and disciple of al-ʿAllāma and a teacher of Āmulī, but who as yet has been scarcely studied, introduced the philosophical theory of the soul and the training theory of Sufism into his Imamology. It also shows that philosophy and Sufism already had influenced the Imamology of Twelver Shiʿism in the 14^th century. Fakhr al-Muḥaqqiqīn’s predecessors such as al-ʿAllāma had limited the role of the imams in divine assistance (luṭf) to physical actions and denied any impact on people’s hearts. However, Fakhr al-Muḥaqqiqīn interwove these outside theories into traditional theology, and developed his Imamology in that he expanded the imams’ instructive role in divine assistance into the psychological realm. Moreover, he developed a new description of the imams’ infallibility (ʿiṣma): he formulated that the imams can act rightly in all circumstances by virtue of the perfect asceticism (zuhd), achieved by the perfection of their rational souls.