The Conferment of Legislation upon Immaculate Imams According to Imamyah Scholars

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Abstract

The term 'conferment' is sometimes used in a sense counter to
arbitration and sometimes it implies the assignment of at least some
affairs to a noble man by God. The latter sense of the term is being
classified in two general forms of generic and legislative. Conferment
in legislative sense means that the Lord has assigned the institution
of some judicial and public laws to Immaculate Imams without being
preceded by any revelation or inspiration. This is called Welayat
to legislation or legislative Welayat. This essay has examined
this sense of conferment according to Imamyah point of view and
concluded that Imamyah approach has given rise to three theories
in this regard each one of which has its own proponents and can
be categorized in two groups of theories respectively insist on the
commonality of legislation and those that see the latter an specificity
of Divine Essence. Both theories ground themselves in Quranic
documentations; however, it seems that the theory of commonality
represents the dominant view of scientific community of Imamyah.
This theory is of two kinds in respect of its scope, i.e. minimal and
maximal, the former one of which insists on legislative conferment as
a specific gift of the Prophet while the latter regards it as a common
gift of the Prophet and Imams and both defend their stances with
verses of Quran and prophetic traditions.