Author
Assistant Professor at the Razavi Institute for Islamic Sciences, affiliated with the Islamic Research Foundation. Mashhad, Iran.
Abstract
The term sīra is one of the most frequently used Islamic concepts, particularly significant in various fields of study and especially in Shi‘i jurisprudence. Shi‘i jurists, in accordance with their use of sources for legal deduction, have employed this religious term and cited it as evidence or an indicator of a legal ruling. The key question, however, is whether the jurists’ use of the term sīra has been limited and occasional, or whether it has been extensive and developed to the level of a technical term in jurisprudential scholarship. The present study seeks, through a review-based method and by examining the usage of the word sīra in texts on devotional jurisprudence (fiqh al-‘ibādāt), to demonstrate the extent to which Shi‘i jurists have employed this concept. For this purpose, using the Comprehensive Shi‘i Jurisprudence Software (Jāmi‘ al-Fiqh Ahl al-Bayt) and searching the keyword sīra across works of analytical (istidlālī) jurisprudence, the study investigates jurisprudential writings on acts of worship from the fifth to the fifteenth centuries AH. The findings show that the term sīra in the discourse of Shi‘i jurists has passed through two distinct phases: A period of stagnation, in which the use of the term was limited and infrequent; and A period of flourishing, during which references to sīra increased and the term developed into a recognized technical concept within jurisprudential literature.
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