The Validity of Certitude and the Toleration of its Authority

فقه و اصول (Fiqh va uṣūl)

Article 9, Volume 57, Issue 1 - Serial Number 140, May 2025, Pages 207-230   

Document Type: Original Article

DOI: 10.22067/jfiqh.2024.84699.1660

Author

Seyed Mohammad Hasan Momeni^*

Assistant Professor, Department of Fiqh and Foundations of Islamic Law, Faculty of Theology and Islamic Studies, Allameh Tabataba’i University, Tehran, Iran, and Senior Lecturer in Advanced Islamic Jurisprudence Uṣūl-i Fiqh, Qom Seminary, Qom, Iran

Abstract

Most uṣūlī scholars hold that authority (ḥujjiyyat) and validity are intrinsic to absolute certitude (qaṭʿ-i ṭarīqī), and that certitude (qaṭʿ) is a complete cause for it. They believe that it is not possible to invalidate its authority or to issue a legal probation against acting upon such certitude, because doing so would entail denying its essential attributes, and would result in a contradiction either in reality or from the perspective of the person holding the certitude (qāṭiʿ). The present study, conducted through the descriptive-analytical method, seeks to prove the hypothesis that considering the possibility of double ignorance (jahl-i murakkab) within certitude, as well as the fact that certainty is temporally and conceptually subsequent to legal ruling, the real status of the matter and the position of the right of obedience (ḥaqq al-ṭāʿa), a legal prohibition against certitude similar to that applied to subjective certitude (qaṭʿ mawżūʿī) is acceptable without any impediment. This is because such practice of authority has, in fact, occurred in Sharīʿah as the obligation of the following is not an inherent quality of certitude, but rather a consequence of the right of obedience (ḥaqq al-ṭāʿah) and stems from the divine authority (ḥaqq-i mawlawiyyat), which is itself subject to the will of the sacred legislator for expansion or restriction. In addition, with the possibility of certitude aligning with double ignorance and its rank being posterior to the actual ontological reality of the object of certitude (maqtūʿ), the unity of subject (waḥdat-i mawżūʿī) as a necessary condition for contradiction is never established.

Keywords

indicative certitude; subjective certitude; intrinsic authority; prohibition of acting upon certitude; guiding prohibition; authoritative prohibition

References

Qurān-i Karīm.

Aḥadī, ʿAlī, ʿAskar Sulaymānī Amīrī, ʻAlī Riżā Ṣāniʿī. “Qaṭʿ va Yaqīn az Manẓar ʻIlm Uṣūl va Maʿrifatshināsī bar Pāyih-yi Dīdgāh-i Ākhūnd va ʿAllāmah Ṭabāṭabāyī”. Maʿārif ʻAqlī. No. 44, spring and summer  2023/1401, 33-56.

Āhangarān, Muḥammad Rasūl. “Taḥkīm va Taḥlīl Dīdgāh-i Imām Khumaynī dar Naqd Ḥujjīyat Zātī Qaṭʿ”. Fiqh va Uṣūl Ferdowsi University of Mashhad. No. 86, spring and summer  2012/1390, 9-32.

Ākhūnd Khurāsānī, Muḥammad Kāẓim ibn Ḥusayn. Kifāya al-Uṣūl. bi Taʿlīq Shaykh ʻAbbās Zāriʿī Sabzawārī. Qum: Mūʾassisa al-Nashr al-Islāmī. Chāp-i Shishum, 2009/1430.

Anṣārī, Murtaḍā ibn Muḥammad Amīn. Farāʾid al-ʿUṣūl. Qum: Majmʻ al-Fikr al-Islāmī. Chāp-i Nuhum, 2007/1428.

Baḥrānī, Yūsuf ibn Aḥmad. al-Durar Najafīya min al-Multaqaṭāt Yūsufīya. al- Beirut: Dār al-Muṣṭafā li-Iḥyāʾ al-Tūrāth. Chāp-i Awwal, 2002/1423.

Baḥrānī, Yūsuf ibn Aḥmad. al-Ḥadāʾiq al-Nāḍira fī Aḥkām al-ʿItra al-Ṭāḥira. Qum:  Mūʾassisa al-Nashr al-Islāmī. Chāp-i Awwal, 1985/1405.

Bujnūrdī, Ḥasan. Muntahā al-Uṣūl. Tehran: ʿ Urūj. Chāp-i Awwal, 1961/1380.

Ḥāʾirī Iṣfahānī, Muḥammad Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥīm. al-Fuṣūl al-Gharawīyah fī al-Uṣūl al-Fiqhīyah. Qum: Dār Ihyāʾ al-ʿUlūm al-Islāmīyya. Chāp-i Awwal, 1984/1404.

Ḥāʾirī Yazdī. ʿAbd al-Karīm. Durar al-Fawāʾid. Qum: Mūʾassisa al-Nashr al-Islāmī. Chāp-i Shishum, 1997/1418.

Ḥamīdī, Muḥammad Riḍā, Mujtabā Ṣādiqī. “Barrisī Ḥujjīyat Qaṭʻ bā Rūykard bi Mafhūm ʿUqalāyī Ḥujjīyat”, Nakhustīn Hamāysh-i Millī Vāzhihpazhūhī dar ʿUlum-i Islāmī. Yāsūj. 23-39.

Hudāyī, ʻAlī Riżā. Muḥammad Riḍā Ḥamīdī. “Barrisī Imkān va Vuqūʻ Manʻ Mutābiʻat az Qaṭʻ bā Rūykard bi Ārāy Imām Khumaynī”. Pazhūhishnāmih-yi Matīn, no. 66, spring 2015/1394, 133-159.

Imām, Sayyid Muḥammad Riḍā, ʿAbd Allāh Jvān. “Barrisī Dīdgāh-i Imām Khumaynī Pīrāmūn Manshaʾ Ḥujjīyat Qaṭʿ”, Nashrīyih-yi Matīn. No. 72, Āzar 2017/1395, 1-17.

ʿIrāqī, Żīyāʾ al-Dīn. Naḥāya al-Afkār. Muqarr Shaykh Muḥammad Taqī Burūjirdī. Qum: Mūʾassisa al-Nashr al-Islāmī. Chāp-i Sivum, 1996/1417.

Isfahānī, Muḥammad Ḥusayn. Nihāya al-Dirāya fī Sharḥ al-Kifāya. Qum: Āl al-Bayt. Chāp-i Duwwum, 1995/1415.

Ismāʻīlī, Muḥammad ʿAlī, Sayyid Muḥammad Mahdī Aḥmadī. “Pazhūhīsh dar Ḥujjīyat Zātī Qaṭʿ dar ʻIlm Uṣūl”. Majallih-yi Fiqh. no. 83, Farvardīn 2015/1394, 103-130.

Istarābādī, Muḥammad Amīn ibn Muḥammad Sharīf. al-Fawāʾid al-Madanīya. Qum: Mūʾassisa al-Nashr al-Islāmī. Chāp-i Duwwum, 2005/1426.

Jazāyrī, Sayyid Niʿmat Allāh. Sharḥ al-Tahdhīb. Nuskhih-yi Khaṭṭī bi Naql az Farāʾid al-Uṣūl. Qum: Majmʻ Fikr Islāmī. Chāp-i Nuhum, 2007/1428.

Kāshif al-Ghiṭāʾ, Jaʻfar. Kashf al-Ghiṭāʾ ʿan Mubhamāt al-Sharīʻa al-Gharrāʾ. Qum: Būstān-i Kitāb. Chāp-i Awwal, 2000/1420.

Khūʾī, Abū al-Qāsim. Miṣbāḥ al-Uṣūl. Muqarr Sayyid Muḥammad Surūr Fāżil Bihsūdī. Qum: Dāvarī. Chāp-i Panjum, 1996/1417.

Kulīnī, Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb. al-Kāfī. Tehran: Dār al-Kutub al-Islāmīyya. Chāp-i  Chāhārum. 1987/1407.

Mufīd, Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad. al-Amālī. Qum: Kungirah-yi Shaykh Mufīd. Chāp-i Awwal, 1993/1413.

Muḥaqqiq  Sabziwārī, Muḥammad Bāqir ibn Muḥammad Muʾmin. Dhakhīra al-Maʿād fī Sharḥ al-Irshād. Qum: Āl al-Bayt. Chāp-i Awwal, 1831/1247.

Muʾminī, Muḥammad Ḥasan. Imāmat az Nigāh ʻAql va Maʿrifat Dīnī. Qum: Dalīl-i Mā. Chāp-i Awwal, 2014/1392.

Nāʾīnī, Muḥammad Ḥusayn. Ajwad al-Taqrīrāt. Muqarr Abū al-Qāsim Khūʾī. Qum: ʿIrfān, Chāp-i Awwal, 1973/1352.

Nāʾīnī, Muḥammad Ḥusayn. Fawāʾid al-Uṣūl. Muqarr Muḥammad ʿAlī Kāẓimī. Qum: Mūʾassisa al-Nashr al-Islāmī. Chāp-i Awwal, 1998/1376.

Najafī Iṣfahānī, Muḥammad Riḍā. Vaqāya al-Adhhān wa al-Albāb wa Lubāb Uṣūl al-Sunah wa al-Kitāb. Qum: Āl al-Bayt. Chāp-i Awwal, 1993/1413.

Najafī, Farzānih, Muḥammad Āqāyī. “Barrisī Taṭbīqī Ḥujjīyat Qaṭʻ az Dīdgāh-i Ākhūnd Khurāsānī, Shahīd Ṣadr va Imām Khumaynī”, Pazhūhish-hā-yi Ḥuqūqī Mīyān Rishtih-ī. no. 11, autumn 1981/1401, 70-83.

Najafī, Farzānih. Tahlīl Mabānī Ḥujjīyat Qaṭʻ bā Taʾkīd bar Naẓarāt Shahīd Ṣadr. Supervisor: Muḥammad Riḍāyī. Hamadān: Bu Ali University. Tīr 2018/1396.

Nikūʾī, Majīd, Ḥusayn Sīmāyī Ṣarāf. “Naqdī bar Kāshifīyat Zātī Qaṭʻ az Vāqiʿ dar Partū Maʻrifatshināsī Jadīd”, Muṭāliʻāt Fiqh va Ḥuqūq Islāmī, no. 20, Khurdād 2020/1398, 373-402.

Qurbzādih, Fāṭimah. “Barrisī  Ḥujjīyat Zātī Qaṭʻ va Āsār ān”, Muṭāliʻāt Fiqhī. No. 1, Isfand 1977/1397, 49-64.

Raḍawī Qumī, Sayyid Ṣadr al-Dīn. Sharḥ al-Wāfīya. Nuskhih-yi Khaṭṭī dar Ḥāshīyah-yi Farāʾid al-Uṣūl Shaykh Anṣārī. Qum: Majmʻ Fikr Islāmī. Chāp-i Nuhum, 2007/1428.

Rūḥānī, Sayyid Muḥammad. Muntaqī al-Uṣūl. Muqarr ʿAbd al-Ṣāḥib Ḥakīm. Qum: Daftar Āyat Allāh Sayyid Muḥammad Ḥusaynī Rūḥānī, Chāp-i Awwal, 1993/1413.

Ṣābirī, Ḥasan, Amīr Maḥmūdī, ʿAbd al-Karīm ʻAbd Allāhī. “Vākāvī Qaṭʻ va Ḥujjīyat ān dar Āyāt va Rivāyāt”, Fiqh va Uṣūl. no. 126, autumn 2022/1400, 107-127.

Sabzavārī, Hādī ibn Mahdī. Sharḥ al-Manẓūmah. Taṣḥīḥ va Taʿlīq Ḥasan Ḥasanzādih Āmulī. researched by Masʿūd Ṭālibī, Tehran: Nāb, Chāp-i Awwal, 1991/1369; 2001/1379.

Ṣadr, Muḥammad Bāqir. Durūs fī ʻIlm al-Uṣūl. Beirut: Dār al-Muntaẓar, Chāp-i Awwal, 1985/1405.

Ṣafāʾī, Muḥammad Ḥusayn, Ḥusayn Vālih. “Arzyābī az Muvājihih-yi Maʿrifatī Uṣūlī bā Akhbārī zīl Masʾalah-yi Ḥujjīyat Zātī Qaṭʻ”, Muṭāliʻāt Fiqh va Ḥuqūq Islāmī, no. 27, summer 1981/1401, 305-332.

Ṣāḥib Jawāhir. Muḥammad Ḥasan ibn Bāqir. Jawāhir al-Kalām fī Sharḥ Sharāyʿ al-Islām. Beirut: Dār Iḥyāʾal-Tūrāth al-ʻArabī.  Chāp-i Haftum, 1984/1404.

Shākirī, Bilāl, Sayyid Muḥammad Bāqir Qadamī, Riḍā  Mīhandūst. “Nigāhī Intiqādī bi Ḥujjīyat Zātī Qaṭʻ”, Pazhūhish-hā-yi   Uṣūlī. no. 27, 43-70.

Subḥānī, Jaʻfar. al-Maḥṣūl fī al-Uṣūl. Muqarr Muḥammad Ḥusayn Ḥāj ʻĀmulī.  Qum: Imām Ṣādiq(AS). Chāp-i Awwal, 1994/1414. 

Ṭūsī, Muḥammad ibn Ḥasan. al-ʿUda  fī Uṣūl. Qum: Alāqahbandīyān. Chāp-i Awwal, 1996/1417.

Yazdī, Muḥammad Kāẓim. Ḥāsīyah Farāʾid al-ʿUṣūl. Muqarr Muḥammad Ibrāhīm Yazdī  Najafī. Qum: Dār al-Hudā. Chāp-i Awwal, 2005/1426.