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Shi’ite Seminaries (Hawzah ‘Ilmiyyah)
By: Ayatullah Shaheed Sayyid Muhammad Baqir al-Hakim
Since their first day, Muslims were forming debate groups in the form of assemblies (halqah) to confer the various branches of their sciences. Such sessions progressed into famous schools in the history of Islam, such as the School of Kufah, Madinah, Basrah, Mecca, Cairo, Andalusia and many others. In the tradition of the Ahl al-Bayt’s followers, such schools are called hawzah (seminaries).
Moving with this stream, which was familiar to Muslims, the Ahl al-Bayt (‘a) established these schools to not only teach the general knowledge of Islam but also activate schools of other fields of knowledge and Islamic sciences in all the cities of the Muslim world. This role became more evident during the age of Imam al-Baqir and Imam al-Sadiq—peace be upon them. They played a distinctive role in educating and disseminating knowledge among the entire Muslim community. As has been previously cited, the major Muslim scholars and scientists studied under the Holy Imams (‘a).( This discussion will be further discussed in the topic of the intellectual referential authority within my encyclopedia entitled ‘The Role of the Ahl al-Bayt (‘a) in Muslim Life’)
Likewise, the Holy Imams (‘a) played a major role in the establishment of schools, especially for their followers and partisans (Shi’ah), within a special course which they drew up to build the virtuous community. This interest originated from their belief in the vital role the educational establishment could play in founding the pillars of education.
Schools of Kufah and Qum
The School of Kufah was one of the private schools in the history of the Ahl al-Bayt (‘a). Shi’ism found its way to Iraq at the beginning of the Islamic conquest of Iran along with the earliest prominent companions of the Holy Prophet (S), such as Hudhayfah ibn al-Yaman and Salman al-Farsi. They participated in this conquest and were the first to hold the highest governmental offices of the Islamic caliphate in the city of Mada'in, along with ‘Ammar ibn Yasir, ‘Abdullah ibn Mas’ud, and many others.
The School of Qum, a branch of the School of Kufah before it became an independent school specializing in the sciences of the Shi’ah, was then established in this small town by sincere followers of the Ahl al-Bayt (‘a) to avoid being harassed by the ruling authorities.
Other schools in the Muslim east followed the Schools of Kufah and Qum, such as the schools in Ray (southern Tehran), Khurasan (northern Iran), Isfahan (central Iran), Afghanistan, and Jabal ‘Amil (southern Lebanon).
After that, the School of Kufah, from which four thousand scholars graduated, each of whom used to say, “Ja’far ibn Muhammad al-Sadiq (‘a) taught me…”, developed to extend to Baghdad. That was during the ages of Imam al-Hasan al-’Askari (‘a) and the ‘Four Envoys’ in the Age of the Minor Occultation.
It distinctively expanded during the periods of Shaykh al-Mufid, al-Sharif al-Murtadha, and Shaykh al-Tusi in whose age this school moved to the cities of Najaf, Hillah, and Karbala' respectively. Finally, it settled in the holy city of Najaf in the last couple of centuries.
Passing through different stages, the School of Qum kept on swinging between expansion and contraction until it became the second most important school in the Shi’ite world in modern history after the School of Najaf.(The history of these schools involves many details. I expect to have the opportunity to discuss these details in my book on the virtuous referential authority, which deals with the applied aspect and the history of the virtuous community after the Occultation).
Graduation of Well-Versed Jurisprudents
The Holy Imams (‘a) took much interest in establishing religious seminaries. To achieve this goal, they encouraged their followers to embark upon teaching, issuing verdicts, and holding meetings and assemblies dedicated to such subjects. A firm, influential methodology was set up for running such schools in order to put into action a set of scientific, educational, and spiritual objectives and contribute to the achievement of other social, political, and organizational goals, the details of which will be discussed in the following books of this series.
However, the principal goal was to maintain the momentum of ijtihad. In addition to the graduation of proselytizers from all countries where the followers of the Ahl al-Bayt (‘a) existed, the most important objective of the scholastic courses in these schools was to graduate well-versed scholars and researchers in fields like Muslim jurisprudence, Usul, preliminary sciences to these two fields and other Islamic sciences. Actually, this curriculum remained consistent for ages until the latest developments of the modern age made it necessary to add some new courses to it.
As a result, we can see that such schools (hawzah) are abounding with large numbers of well-versed jurisprudents (mujtahid) in every age and among every generation and social class. It is also noticeable that these schools differ from one another competitively in the quality and quantity of their graduates and in the profundity of the jurisprudential, fundamental, and Islamic studies that they teach.
However, such increasing interest in the achievement of this goal resulted in negative consequences that affected the nature of the scientific outcome of these schools and their capability of achieving other goals. It is thus noticed that there are gaps, both wide and limited, in the yield of other Islamic fields of knowledge, such as exegesis of the Holy Qur’an, Islamic doctrine, philosophy, ethics, Hadith, history, and literature. This is so because there was always urgent need for ijtihad (i.e. deep specialization) in the fields of fiqh and Usul, and some other fields of knowledge which did not need such specialization.(During the age of the referential authority of Sayyid Muhsin al-Hakim in the holy city of Najaf and Sayyid al-Burujirdi in Qum, several attempts were made to rectify the progress of the scholastic courses of these schools and fill the gaps found therein. These attempts developed greatly to reach their climax after the victory of the Islamic Revolution in Iran when a large movement of reformation began to bear fruit).
Nevertheless, these schools made speedy progress in opening the door to Ijtihad and maintaining the graduation of well-versed scholars in the various fields of Islamic sciences even in the harshest circumstances through which the Islamic world passed.
They could also stand steadfast in the face of attempts at distortion which were encountered by other religious schools in the Islamic world, such as al-Azhar in Cairo and the al-Zaytunah Schools of the Indian subcontinent, plus the schools of Mecca, Madinah, Baghdad, and other places.
Graduation of Missionaries
Among the other objectives of these schools was to graduate preachers, missionaries, envoys to other countries and teachers for subsidiary religious seminaries.
In this respect, these schools had to face a big problem. This was the absence of a curriculum competent enough in form and content to achieve these objectives directly and respond to the requirements of the latest developments and the various stages, especially in the new regions of the followers of the Ahl al-Bayt (‘a). This was so because the level of general knowledge of the Muslim nation, as well as the type of knowledge and the new cultural and educational problems, were different and more progressive than the previous ones. Besides, the multiplicity, ramifications, and reciprocity of the branches of knowledge, in addition to the existence of modern scientific and technical methods, not to mention other channels of development—all required a new treatment of the curricula at both levels of form and content so as to spare time for the students, summarize knowledge for them, and supply them with useful means in practical fields.
In view of this, the idea of specialization in the various fields of knowledge became practicable and more effective since it would meet realistic requirements.
Surmounting New Problems
In spite of all the problems mentioned, the religious seminaries were able to surmount them, albeit partially, by means of increasing their personal scientific competence to enable a student to acquire scientific and technical knowledge through personal effort widening the horizons of knowledge.
The following features of these schools have helped in the achievement of all that has been accomplished in the discipline:
(1) Freedom of thought and research
(2) Freedom in choosing classes and instructors
(3) Freedom in controlling and utilizing time suitably
(4) The financial system of these schools which is, to a great extent, controlled by the social and cultural requirements of the virtuous community
(5) The system of social relations that drives students to respond to the cultural requirements of the Muslim nation
Another factor was the moral course of the religious seminaries that arouses religious responsibility, prompts the highest degrees of piety and asceticism, and induces mental and spiritual education.
These factors have made the students of these religious seminaries move speedily to fill these gaps and stand steadfast against temptation.
Maintenance of Islamic Heritage
Among the other objectives of the religious seminaries was the maintenance of Islamic heritage in general and the heritage and culture of the Ahl al-Bayt (‘a) in particular. They were to provide Islamic thought, doctrine, history, and other researches related to Islam with the new, genuine, and pure thought based purely on Islamic resources and intended to face the other ideological trends.
We notice that these schools and seminaries continued to produce profound research and wide-ranging cultural investigation to maintain this heritage, such as research in the biography of reporters of Hadith (‘ilm al-rijal) and Islamic encyclopedias of Hadith and jurisprudence.
These seminaries produced grand scholars and reformers in various scientific fields, such as Avicenna, Shaykh al-Mufid, Sharif al-Murtadha, Sharif al-Radhi, Shaykh al-Tusi, Shaykh Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, al-Muhaqqiq al-Hilli, ‘Allamah al-Hilli, Shaykh al-Tabrisi, al-Shahid al-Awwal (First Martyr; Muhammad ibn Makki), al-Shahid al-Thani (Second Martyr: Zayn al-Din al-’Amili), Ibn Tawus, Shaykh al-Baha'i, Sayyid al-Damad, Mulla Sadra (Sadr al-Din al-Shirazi), ‘Allamah al-Majlisi (Muhammad Taqi); Shaykh al-Majlisi (Muhammad Baqir), al-Faydh al-Kashani, al-Muhaqqiq al-Karaki, al-Wahid al-Bahbahani, Sayyid Bahr al-’Ulum, Shaykh Kashif al-Ghita', Shaykh al-Jawahiri (known as Sahib al-Jawahir), Shaykh al-Ansari, and al-Shirazi the reformer.
In the past century, these seminaries produced master scholars such as Jamal al-Din al-Afghani, Shaykh al-Akhund al-Khurasani, Shaykh al-Mamuqani, Shaykh al-Na'ini, al-Muhaqqiq al-’Iraqi, Sayyid al-Burujerdi, ‘Allamah Kashif al-Ghita', ‘Allamah Sharaf al-Din, Sayyid Muhsin al-Amin, Shaykh al-Balaghi, Sayyid al-Hakim, ‘Allamah al-Tabataba'i, Sayyid al-Khumayni, Martyr Mutahhari, Martyr al-Sadr, Sayyid al-Khu'i, and many others who played a major role not only in the Shi’ite world but also in the Islamic world as a whole. These scholars have enriched the Islamic scientific schools with new theories as they have written scientific encyclopedias and research papers on Muslim jurisprudence, the sciences of the Holy Qur’an, various fields of Islamic knowledge, history, and doctrine. In addition, they approached with great determination the events through which they served Islam and its blessed renaissance and boldly faced international colonization, atheism, and local tyranny.
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