The Juristic Premises of Martyr Muḥammad Bāqir al-Sadr (A Study of the Most Significant Rijāl and Legal-Theoretical Opinions and Their Impact on Fatwā)

Abstract

This research examines the foundations of juristic inference (istinbāṭ) in the thought of Martyr Muḥammad Bāqir al-Sadr, a dimension that has received insufficient scholarly attention despite its considerable significance. The importance of the research lies in exploring al-Sadr's jurisprudential methodology and tracing the foundational principles he employed in formulating his legal rulings (fatāwā), constituting a scholarly contribution to the field of contemporary Shīʿī jurisprudential studies. The research problem is that al-Sadr's jurisprudential and legal-theoretical foundations, despite their profound influence in establishing a distinctive jurisprudential school, lack a comprehensive systematic study that reveals their bases and applications. The most important findings are: that al-Sadr's school is distinguished by general methodological features including comprehensiveness, analytical precision, and creative renewal; and that his distinctive opinions in rijāl criticism and legal theory contributed to divergent jurisprudential ruling, most notably the Doctrine of the Right of Obedience (ḥaqq al-ṭāʿa), the novel interpretation of the apparent legal ruling (al-ḥukm al-ẓāhirī), the Theory of Isnād Compensation, his original contributions to the probative authority of normative practice (al-sīra), the Theory of Firm Correlation (al-qarn al-akīd), and the interpretation of scholarly consensus (ijmāʿ) through the accumulation of probabilistic values.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.54633/2333-025-059-009