A Review and Critique of Different Approaches of the Imami Shiites towards Jurisprudential Theological Methods with Emphasis on the Positions of the Imams

Among the fundamental differences of the Muslims of the first centuries, which overshadowed other differences, were the disagreement over the sources of knowledge of religious subjects and teachings, and also different views of individuals and groups on ways of gaining knowledge such as hearing, intellect, heart, and preferring one to another. Imami Shiites have been the main medium and means of transmitting the oral heritage and practical life of Shiite Imams to later Muslims. The vast amount of the heritage of the Imams (AS) that is available now is the product of discourses and speeches that were first in direct contact with them or in their own time. However, they are not at the same level in epistemology, morality and spirituality, nor in theological-jurisprudential methods. Their different views on the nature of reason, the ways of acquiring religious knowledge, the different approaches of some of them to analogy, and their partial confrontation with the Imams are among the examples which, in addition to the reports of the authors of sectology, are evidenced by numerous narrative and biographical proofs. By studying these reports, it becomes clear that the Shiite Imams, by considering the different talents of their companions, have tried to guide their methods and perceptions in the right direction. In this article, we seek to report and examine these differences and the positions taken by the Imams against them, and also point out the reasons for this, citing reliable hadith and Shiite biographical sources.