Analyzing the Criterion for the Essential Components of Islam and the Imāmiyyah School

Islām is the proclamation of religious principles, and the term Islām is a generic one, encompassing both formal Islamic faith and genuine Islamic faith. The status of faith, its ranks, and divine reward and punishment are all attributes of Islam as genuine faith. In many Islamic traditions (aḥādīth), disbelief is defined as the opposite of faith, rather than the opposite of the first stage of Islām, leading to apostasy. Ḍarūrī—the essential component of religion—is a quality lacked inherently by shar‘—the religious regulations—or madhhab—the religious school; the quality of Ḍarūrī is applied to individuals’ minds and intellect, and to whether or not they possess the attributes of Thubūt (affirmation), Vuḍūḥ (clarity) and Shuhrah (rough consensus), as concerns all Muslims or all people practicing a particular religious school. The absence of these conditions can change a religious quality back to an unessential one. Ḍarūrī is different from such concepts as Ma‘lūm (self-evident), Tasālum (unanimous consensus), and Mujma‘un ‘Alayh (of broad agreement) since, unlike Ḍarūrī, they are all theoretical concepts and need logical verification before they are applied. If the denial of Ḍarūrī is brought about either by religious doubt or by ignorance, it will not entail religious disbelief and apostasy whether in terms of religion or of a particular religious school. If one’s rejection of a religious Ḍarūrī originates from his/her denial of Allah, or the divine mission of the Prophet of Islam, then (s)he has certainly lost Islamic faith; one’s denial of Ḍarūrī, as concerns a particular religious school, however, does lead to his/her abandonment of the Shi‘ite school, in which case, (s)he is still considered a Muslim