Hujjat al-Islam wa al-Muslimin Mahdi Mehrizi, a member of the Council of Research Institutes of Contemporary Jurisprudence, on December 17, at the scientific meeting “The Method of Compiling the Network of Contemporary Jurisprudence Issues” by stating that we should prioritize attention to the Qur’an and starting from the Holy Qur’an in solving contemporary jurisprudence issues. He said: When the sources of ijtihad are mentioned in fundamental discussions, they say the Qur’an, Sunnah, consensus and reason, but in practice we do not witness this issue and many times the Qur’an does not have a serious place.
He added: Some people say that reason does not have much function and the consensus is back to the Sunnah, the Qur’an also tells the generalities, so our ijtihad is centered around the hadiths, but the hadiths are mostly unified, we must deal with its evidence and this is done by the llm al-Rijal.
Mr. Mehrizi stated that some people say that the Qur’an does not have much function in ijtihad because it has given generalities, and some people behave like this in practice without saying it explicitly, adding: In my opinion, starting from the Qur’an is the first key to solving the challenges of contemporary jurisprudence. Now, we have limited the Ayat al-Ahkam to a number of verses, but in the last two or three decades, there has been a debate as to why the Ayat al-Ahkam should be limited to this extent, including the fact that we can benefit from stories.
Stating that the Holy Qur’an is not looking for stories and memories, Mehrizi added: When it talks about the rule of a woman, it can mean that a woman has the ability to rule, and interestingly, the Qur’an mentions the rule of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba as two good examples. It refers to governance. He praises the Queen of Sheba that she understood well and that when her male advisers told her to attack Solomon, she forbade it and then saved her country with tact. He also mentioned Shu’ayb’s daughters who were shepherds, but we are still debating whether women’s employment is permissible or not.
350 Qur’anic verses about women
He added: About 350 verses in the Qur’an are directly and indirectly about women, and if these verses are used in jurisprudential inferences, there will be a good change in jurisprudence. The Qur’an goes through several stages in the discussion of women; First, he criticizes pure-lslamic era beliefs and forbids burying girls alive. In the next stage, he enters into the knowledge issues that God created man as a couple, male and female. He brought up Balqis and Shu’ayb’s daughters, and in the fourth stage, he modified the laws, while the previous processes were continued.
The professor of the seminary added: Al-Qawamiyyah and “Fadrbuhhenna” should be understood in this context and we cannot issue a fatwa that contradicts all these backgrounds. In the discussion of divorce, we have 24 Qur’anic verses, in which 8 out of 14 emphasize the observance of Allah’s limits; He said 11 times to behave with famous women and twice he said to behave beautifully; The spirit of these verses is to prevent material and spiritual harm to women because women’s rights were violated in many cases; Either they did not give her a dowry, or when she divorced, they did not allow her to remarry.
He stated that the Holy Qur’an emphasizes on the satisfaction of women’s sexual instincts, residence and peace, the evolution of men and women together as the philosophy of marriage, and he stated: Which of these things does the marriage of a 5-year-old girl have in it? They go away and do not use the Qur’an and then create a challenge of child marriage for jurisprudence and society. Child marriage is fundamentally incompatible with the Qur’an.
He emphasized that in jurisprudence, we usually say that we cannot consider the reason of rulings to be involved in inference because our intellect is incapable, but what if the text has stated the reason? Can’t it be used again?
Mr. Mehrizi stated that verse 34 of Surat al-Nisa’ brought up the issue of quality and said that quality is due to two things, adding: First, men are capable breadwinners, and the second is that God has given some superiority over others. In this verse, the Qur’an does not even intend to declare the superiority of men over women in general by using the expression “men are strong against women by what Allah has favored over them and what they spend from their wealth”. that each of the men and women that these two have the ability, they also have the consistency because it is not logical to say that because some men are more capable then all of them should be managers.
Jurisprudence is the birth of Qur’an and Hadith
The researcher of women and family studies stated that today we have many female managers, representatives and employees who are more successful than some men, and said: therefore, in cases where the texts themselves have used explanatory tools or contexts, we should also use them. It should be considered lawful with the big goals. Jurisprudence is a human knowledge that is formed under the supervision of Qur’an and Hadith; Jurisprudence is the birth of Qur’an and Hadith.
Emphasizing why we should not use the meaning of narration in hadiths, he added: If anyone pays attention to the process of collecting and narrating hadiths, he will see that the principle of narration is meaning unless it is proven otherwise. Because narration is rational and common sense. Of course, we can make an exception in worship, but otherwise there is no need.
Mr. Mehrizi stated that it is necessary to look critically at the narrative books of the Muhaddiths and especially the Akhbarians, and added: We have some hadiths in the discussion of prayer and worship and the virtue of Mut’ah, which are not found in the book al-Kafi and other four books, but were included in the hadiths in later periods. They have said, for example, if someone participates in congregational prayer, the reward of his prayer is incalculable; Or, for every drop of ghusl of a person who performs Mut’ah, they write a reward that cannot be counted.
Mut’ah in hadiths; From great virtue to emergency permission.
He added: There are many hadiths mentioned in the book Wasa’l al-Shi’ah that are referred to Shaykh Mufid and others, but they are not in the works of these great men. It is interesting that when referring to the hadiths of Mut’ah in al-Kafi, he said that Mut’ah is forbidden except in necessary cases. Therefore, there is no reward at all. One of the differences between the books Wasa’l and al-Kafi is that al-Kafi has stated the titles of the chapters neutrally, but Wasa’l al-Shi’ah has even stated the titles in a directional way, which leads a person to the mustahab and haram, etc.
Mr. Mehrizi clarified: Therefore, the jurist should not think that he only has the means of Shi’ah, it is enough, but he should refer to the original source. Therefore, the fundamental work in hadith studies is to find the original version of hadith books. While the oldest sufficient version dates back to the late 5th century, only its entirety is current.
Mr. Mehrizi said: lf we do not see the Qur’an and the Sunnah side by side and in a complete form and do not have a serious reference to the Qur’an, it is an isolated view and causes us to issue incorrect fatwas. In the story of Fadak, we have that the first caliph accepted the martyrdom of Umm Ayman alone and no one said why the martyrdom of a woman was enough, and Imam Ali (‘a) did not object either, although the second caliph who came questioned it, but why shouldn’t it be done today? Can the testimony of a woman be accepted alone?
Ali (‘a) never condemned women’s intellect
In the end, he said: I have collected all the material that was written by Imam Ali (‘a) about women. It is interesting that there is no mention of condemning women in his biography, but there are some things in the sayings attributed to him. This shows that forgery is possible in sayings and narrations, but not in the prophet’s lifestyle.
In the continuation of this meeting, Hujjat al-Islam Dr. Piruzmand reviewed and criticized the discussion presented.