Reflections & Thoughts | For those interested in this new format called “Reflections & Thoughts”, please read the first two paragraphs in this post.
One of the signs of a common or lay person—or a simpleton—is their tendency to reduce a scholar’s entire body of work to just a few unusual or controversial opinions. This tendency can be observed among amateurs across religious traditions, between sects of a religion, or even within a single sect, where a scholar’s complex academic contributions are dismissed based on a few isolated positions. For instance, imagine reducing Aristotle to just one of his more peculiar ideas while ignoring his vast intellectual legacy in fields such as logic, metaphysics, and ethics, which continue to influence thinkers to this day, including Muslim scholars.
Consider Ibn Hazm or Shatibi—two great Andalusian scholars—who might be dismissed simply because of some obscure Fiqhi opinions, while the wealth of insights in their works has benefited hundreds of scholars in later centuries and shaped the development of Sunni legal theory and jurisprudence.
In the Shia tradition, similar examples exist. Imagine defining Shaykh Saduq solely by his belief in sahw al-nabi and reducing him to just that. Shaykh Saduq represents a school of thought of his own, and to understand him, one needs to grasp his life, theology, approach to hadith, and many other facets. Shahid Awwal, in his al-Lum’ah, stated that a woman cannot listen to the voice of a non-mahram man. Subsequent commentators pointed out this as a mistake, but it would be absurd to dismiss Shahid Awwal as a jurist or suggest he was a weak scholar simply because of this opinion.
Likewise, contemporary scholars are not immune to such simplifications. For instance, imagine someone reducing and dismissing Ayatullah Sadiq Rouhani (d. 2022), a prominent student of Sayyid Khui, solely for his ruling that a girl could marry without the consent of her guardian—a position that contrasts with the majority view in both Sunni and Shia jurisprudence. To reduce Ayatullah Rouhani to this one opinion would seem laughable in scholarly circles, as it reveals the critic’s ignorance of the scholar’s broader ideas, frameworks, and methodologies rather than any weakness in the jurist himself (even if we were to assume this particular opinion was incorrect).
This simplistic attitude is similarly displayed by simpletons when dismissing mystics and philosophers. The lay person does not have the ability to appreciate scholarship because they lack the tools and depth required for it. The habit of reducing a scholar’s legacy to a few odd opinions is an unfortunate sign of lay thinking. True intellectual engagement demands a nuanced understanding of a scholar’s entire body of work, recognizing that even the most profound minds may hold opinions that seem strange or incorrect—and may indeed be incorrect. The true measure of a scholar’s worth lies in the breadth and depth of their contributions, the extent of their advancement of knowledge, and their strengthening of Islamic civilization, rather than a selective focus on a few eccentricities.
Sayyid Ali studied in the seminary of Qom from 2012 to 2021, while also concurrently obtaining a M.A in Islamic Studies from the Islamic College of London in 2018. In the seminary he engaged in the study of legal theory, jurisprudence and philosophy, eventually attending the advanced kharij of Usul and Fiqh in 2018. He is currently completing his Masters of Education at the University of Toronto and is the head of a private faith-based school in Toronto, as well as an instructor at the Mizan Institute and Mufid Seminary.
