In the Name of the Most High

A Thesis on Wilayah

First: Definition of Wilayah

Linguistically, the Arabic word ‘wilayah’ stands for assuming an affair, undertaking the mission of putting it into practice, and having authority over it.

One of the Divine Attributes is ‘al-waali (The Guardian)’, which means the master over all things, the One who has absolute authority over them, and the manager of their affairs. Accordingly, the word ‘wilayah’ may come to mean management, supremacy, and putting into practice.

Terminologically, the word ‘wilayah’ means having custody of things or persons, having guardianship over their affairs, and having supreme authority and right of disposition over them.

In the terminology of Islamic law, the word ‘wilayah’ is considered the theme of divergent laws with miscellaneous issues.

Second: Divisions of Wilayah

Wilayah can be divided into:

(1) Substantial Divinely-Granted Wilayah, and

(2) Allowed Privileged Wilayah.

The substantial Divinely-granted Wilayah can be of many categories, some of which are as follows:

1. The absolute authority of God the Almighty over all beings: This wilayah (authority) has been created, fashioned, kept, given eternity, and managed by God the Almighty Who also has the power to terminate it if He wills.

2. The authority of the angels over the creation: Although the angels differ in standings and missions, God the Almighty has filled the heavens and the earth with them and made them executive managers of the heavens and the earth. This category of wilayah is considered the strongest Divinely-granted authority that God the Almighty has given to the angels.

3. The Divinely-granted authority of the Holy Prophet and Imams over the entire universe: Referring to this absolute authority of the Holy Prophet and Imams over the universe, a piece of the famous al-Ziyarah al-Jami’ah that is reported from Imam al-Hadi, peace be upon him, reads: “Every thing is made (by God) humble to you (i.e. the Holy Infallibles).”

4. The Own Authority: Every human being is invested with a Divinely-granted authority over himself/herself. This authority is granted to the soul over the body. Furthermore, all souled beings have similar authorities over their bodies.

Likewise, the Allowed Privileged Wilayah can be of various categories as follows:

1. The privileged authority of the Holy Prophet over the laws of the religion: God the Almighty has authorized the Holy Prophet to proceed independently with regard to the totality of the religious laws and regulations that He, the Almighty, revealed to him from the heavens. Thus, the Holy Prophet has become the superintendent over these laws.

2. The Holy Prophet and Imams enjoy authority over the souls and properties of the members of the Muslim community. Apparently, the same authority had been given to the prophets who came before the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him and his Household, with regard to their communities.

3. Persons who have been appointed by the Holy Imams as their representatives enjoy similar authority over the souls and properties of the people, whether these persons were appointed exclusively (like the Four Emissaries) or generally (like the well-qualified jurisprudents). This authority can be described as legal in the sense that it met the conditions of the religious laws and included all the managerial affairs of the Muslim community.

4. Judges who are appointed by the religious authority, be he actual ruler or not, enjoy authority over those who litigate before them.

5. Commanders-in-chief and military officers enjoy authority over those who are under their command. According to their ranks, a commander enjoys authority, power, and supervision over those who are of less rank.

6. Fathers and paternal grandfathers have authority over their sons and grandsons who are underage or in a state of insanity. They are therefore required to raise and guide these categories to what is good for them.

7. Mothers enjoy authority over their children with regard to nursing affairs as ordered by the religious laws.

8. Fathers and grandfathers enjoy authority over their virgin, mature, and sane daughters and granddaughter with regard to the question of their first marriage.

9. Every mature, sane person who is acquainted with the right and the wrong as determined by the religious law enjoys authority over the others with regard to enjoining the right and forbidding the wrong.

10. Masters enjoy authority over their slaves.

Points of Evidence Proving the Authority of the Well-qualified Jurisprudent (Wilayat al-Faqih)

In order to prove that the well-qualified jurisprudent enjoys supreme authority over the members of the community, scholars have provided a number of points of evidence, some of which are as follows:

1. The Holy Prophet is reported to have said in a form of supplicatory prayer, “O Allah, please have mercy upon my representatives who shall come after me, report my discourses and traditions, and teach them to people.” The point here is that the Holy Prophet has described those who report and teach his discourse and traditions to people as his representatives.

2. The Holy Prophet is also reported to have said, “Jurisprudents (or scholars versed in the religious affairs) are the trustees of the Messengers (of God) as long as they do not engage themselves in worldly affairs.” In this tradition, the word ‘trustee’ stands for the envoy or representative. This means that such a person enjoys authority over all others.

3. The Holy Prophet is reported to have said, “The scholars of my nation are just like the prophets who came before me.” This is a reference to the qualities and authorities these scholars should enjoy.

4. Imam ‘Ali is reported to have said, “The scholars are rulers over the people.”() Describing the scholars as rulers may indicate that they enjoy authoritative power over others.

5. Imam ‘Ali is reported to have said, “Nearest to the prophets are those persons who follow those prophets and obey them.”() This saying proves that the authority enjoyed by the prophets is granted to those who are nearest to them.

6. Imam al-Hussein is reported to have said, “The courses of all affairs and laws are in the hands of the scholars who are trusted with what is deemed legal and what is deemed illegal by God.” This is applicable to the well-qualified jurisprudents.

7. According to a tradition that is validly reported by Qaddaah, Imam al-Sadiq has said, “Scholars are the inheritors of the Prophets.”

8. Abu-Khadijah has reported Imam al-Sadiq to have said, “Choose from among you a man who is well-acquainted with what has been deemed legal or illegal by us, for I appoint such a person as the judge between you.” In this sense, the word ‘judge’ should mean ‘ruler’ or ‘supreme authority’.

9. ‘Umar ibn Hanzhalah has reported that he asked Imam al-Sadiq, “Two of our companions disputed about a debt or an issue of inheritance; they therefore sued one another before the ruling authority and the judges (of the regime). Is this acceptable?” The Imam (‘a) answered, “Anyone who litigates before such judges, be he right or wrong, has in reality litigated to the Evil One (Taghut). Whatever he gains from that court is considered illegally gotten property, even if it is his right. This is because he has taken it by the judgment of the Evil while Almighty Allah has commanded to deny him, saying, ‘Have you not seen those who assert that they believe in what has been revealed to you and what was revealed before you? They desire to summon one another to the judgment of Satan, though they were commanded to deny him.(4:60)’”

“What should they do instead?” asked the reporter.

The Imam explained, “They should choose one from among you who has reported our sayings, learnt the questions that we have deemed legal and those we have deemed illegal, and gained knowledge of our judgments; hence, they should accept him as arbitrator, for I declare such ones as your judges. If he then decides our own judgments, the rejecting party will have actually belittled the judgment of Allah and rejected us. Whoever rejects us has in fact rejected God the Almighty, which is as grave as polytheism.”

10. Imam al-Kazhim is reported to have said, “Faithful jurisprudents are the fortresses of Islam.” This means that they are religiously required to defend Islam.

Qualifications of the Supreme Religious Authority and Factors of his Success

The following are the most important conditions and qualifications that must be enjoyed by the personality of the trusted religious authority:

1. Jurisprudential Knowledge: What is meant by jurisprudential knowledge is that the religious authority is required to enjoy the faculty of full acquaintance with ijtihad; that is the process of deducing religious laws from their sources.

2. Efficiency: By efficiency, we mean that a religious authority must enjoy actual, practical, or field ability to accomplish or fulfill what he is required to do. In other words, a supreme authority must have sufficient experience to administer all affairs that are under his authority. Besides, all his conducts and capabilities in the field of practicing authority and putting into effects his laws are required to be distinctive, firm, and wise. The evidence of this conditional qualification can be inferred from rule of rationally approvable line of conduct (sirat al-‘uqala') through which it becomes possible to choose the most skilled in all fields separately. Another evidence of this conditional qualification is Imam Ali’s saying, “Verily, the worthiest of this position is the most competent to manage it.”

3. Most Knowledgeability: One of the conditional qualifications that must be enjoyed by the supreme religious referential authority is most knowledgeability, which can be proved through many points of evidence, one of which is the authenticated report of ‘Umar who has reported Imam al-Sadiq to have said, “The judgment that should be accepted as valid verdict is the judgment of the most decent, most knowledgeable in the laws of the religion, most honest in narrating our discourses, and most pious. If the judgment of such a person is obtained, then the judgments of the others must not be taken into any consideration.”

4. Decency and Trustworthiness: Trustworthiness is an essential qualification that must be enjoyed by the supreme referential authority who assumes the position of religious leadership, because justice cannot be spread in any community unless there is a just leader to establish it. It is said that one cannot give what he does not possess. Decency, as a qualification, comes to mean abidance by the religious laws and keeping on the right path.

5. There are further qualifications that must be enjoyed by the religious authority, such as masculinity, maturity, legitimacy of birth, belief (in the principles of the religion), and freeness of mental and rational defects.

When these qualifications are found in a person who presents himself as the supreme religious referential authority, ordinary and duty-bound people are required to recognize and refer to him, because such a well-qualified referential authority is considered the imam of the age about which a prophetic tradition reads, “Whoever dies before recognizing the authority (i.e. imam) of his time has died as non-Muslim.”() In this prophetic tradition, the imam of the age is not Imam al-Mahdi; rather, the supreme religious referential authority who lives amongst each and every generation is regarded as the imam of that generation. However, such imam, is required to be characterized by the following features:

1. He is required to be merciful and sympathetic with the faithful believers.

2. He is required to be stern against the atheists and infidels.

3. He is required not to pay any attention to or fear the words and censures of the enemies.

4. He is required to call all people to the true religion by means of wisdom and goodly exhortation.

5. His words and deeds are required to be corresponding to each other.

6. He is required to carry the high moral standards of the Infallible Imams.

7. He is required to have full familiarity with what is going on in the Muslim media.

8. He is required to have acquaintance with all the plots that are conspired against Islam and Muslims and, as a result, he must have the healing dose against such conspiracies, answers to all spurious arguments, and remedy to all the problems in which Muslims are engaged. He is also required to set up mechanisms through which it is possible to stand against the enemy and frustrate the schemes of the infidel Westerners and the hypocrites who follow them.

9. He is required not to be overpowered by any other party or group, neither in the east nor in the west.

10. He is required to be the most knowledgeable of all people of the age he is living in.

11. He is required to exert all possible efforts for the sake of paving the way to and establishing the posts of Imam al-Mahdi’s global government.

All duty-bound people are under the obligation of investigating to find such a person who enjoys all these qualifications, because he is the true leader who paves the way to the advent of Imam al-Mahdi. Once they find him, they are required to follow and obey him.

Presently, this well-qualified referential authority who enjoys all these qualifications is His Eminence the Grand Ayatollah Shaykh Muhammad Musa al-Ya‘qubi, the supreme religious authority of all Muslims, may God keep us under his blessed shadow.

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