FROM BID‘ TO SUNNA: THE WILAYA OF ‘ALI IN THE SHI‘I ADHAN Liyakat A. TAKIN Universiry oF Mia Although the witya of ‘Ab, Ab TaliD—theatestation of his spiritual and temporal authority — has always been professed bythe Sha and has appeared in thei itual and other practices (such as coinage) in various forms, its inclusion in the ah (call 0 prayer) was once generally rejected by ‘Shi scholars is now, however, a distinctive feature of the adhan in use among the Twelver Shia This paper tices and explains how this change eame about and how it was eventually justified by the leading scholarly authorities of the community, especially from the Safavid era and later A DISTINCTIVE FEATURE OF THE adh (call to prayer) as recited by Twelver Shi“is isthe inclusion ofthe wildya (piritual and temporal authority) of ‘AI b, AbI Tabb. ‘Thus, after reciting the shahada (bearing witness to the unity of one God and the prophecy of Mubammad) the ‘muadhdhin (caller to prayer) will normally state “Ash- +hadu anna ‘Aliyyan way isthe friend of God). Inthe minds of many Twelver Shi‘, this popular practice has become an important compo. nent of the adhan. However, the wilaya was not recited inthe adhan at the time of the Prophet or during the lives of any of the Shi‘F imams." In this paper, I trace its provenance and evolution. Initially, I examine the pro- rouncements of early Shit jurists on this issue and com- pare and contrast their views with the verdicts of later authors. The judgment ofthe later jurists, moreover, on: trasts starkly with the rulings of their predecessors. A need to assert and propagate the Shi‘ identity in terms of 8 nascent politcal state led eventually tothe inclusion of. the wilaya in the adhain. AC that point the Shi‘ jurists re- sorted to various forms of hermeneutics to vindicate such a practice, ‘The earliest Shi“ juridical work extant is al-Kulaynt’s (4. 329/981) Furd® al-kap.. Although in this work al Kulaynl examines various segments ofthe adhan, he does not discuss or even mention the wildya of “Ali as a part ‘of it at all? The first scholar to take up the wily in the "The SHI aan is also distinguished from is Sunt counter part by the inlusion of “hay “ala thayiama” (basen tthe best of deed), bua discussion af the genesis ofthis practice is beyond the seope of this paper. Muammad b. Ys'gub al-Kulayni, Furd* aba, 6 vos (bran; Da al-Kutub a-tamiyya, 13911971), 3: 302, aadhan was al-Sadug (4. 381/991). After reviewing the diferent parts of the adhan in his Man la yahduruhw al Fagih, he states: This is the correct aha: noting i to be added o sb traced from it. The Mufewwida? may God curse them, have fabricated traditions and have added to the adhan “Mubammad and the family of Muhammad are the best of mankind” reciting it} twice. In some of thei rad tions, after utering “I ear witness that Muharamad i ‘he Prophet of Allah (they ad] “I bear witness that°Al 4s the wal (rend) of God” twee. Among them there ae ‘ters wo rate instead ofthis “het witness hat ‘AD, isthe tue Commander ofthe Faithful” twice. There n0 dou that “Al isthe frend of God and that he isthe tre 2 The tenm Mutawwida refers fo those who espoused the do teine of tad delegation), 2, the elie that afte creation, God delegated His powers ove all maters pertaining to creation, pro ‘vision for His creatures, and wesldlyafues tothe Prophet and the imams. That his belief had permeated the Sil ranks canbe di cemed from several trations in SHIT hadith literature, Soe Klay, Ul aki vols. (Tehran, n.d), 22-5, and Mobs sad b,al-Hasan a-Si, Basir ol danginf faa? Al Mu hammed (Qui: Maki Ayatullahal-Mar ashi sl-Najai, 1404! 1983), 378-79, where several rains jusity the bliin ta wd. Subsequent Sh theologians distanced themselves from this doctrine, See a-Sadbq, Rsdlaral-Frigadat (A Shiite Creed), ‘A. Fyaee (Caleta: Oxford Univ. Press, 1361/1942), 100-101: Muti, Awa’ af-magalar (Qum: Maktaba al-Davari 1370) 1930), 240-41, The origin and doctrines of the Mufawida are also discussed by H. Modaresi, Criss and Consolidation in the Fonmative Period of Shue Islam (Princeton; Darwin Pres, 1993) ch. 2‘Takis: From Bid"a fo Sunna 167 Commander of the Faithfl nd that Muhammad and his family, peace be upon them, are the best of [God] ere tures, However, that isnt [part ofthe original adhdn. 1 tnave mentioned ths so tha those who ave been accused ‘of concocting [the doctrine of} afwid and have isin ated themselves in our ranks should become known. Itis clear that al-Sadug regards those reciting the wilaya as belonging to the Mufawwida, which is, for him, an ex tremist group, ashe unequivocally curses and condemns them for their actions. For al-Saduq, the recitation of the wildya in the adhan is one of the distinguishing marks of the Mufawwida, Thus the Mufawwida are to be differ- fentiated from the mainstream Twelver Shi‘is by this practice. ‘Many tenth- and eleventh-century jurists did not con- sider it important to discuss the issue of the wildyain the ‘adhan, ‘Thus, where and when the adhan is discussed in ‘some detail, there és no mention of the wilaya, as, for example in al-Mufids (4, 413/1022) Mugnia? or in the Intir of Shit al-Murtad3 (4, 436/1044). In his Tah