The Rulings

The Rulings

The rulings are the collection of laws the prophets and messengers bring from the Almighty, which the worshippers are obliged to follow. Some of them might have been abrogated and others added over time, according to the knowledge of the Wise One, Who knows what is best for the worshippers and their countries in every era. Abrogation, changes, and additions [of laws] are not valid unless dispatched by the infallible warner, who speaks from God and works by His command. Whoever seeks anything beyond that^[71] is very misguided. Moreover, if we take a look at the heavenly legislation or divine rulings, we will find that applying them is the only way to reform souls, bodies, countries, and the economy. Therefore, whoever legislated, changed, abrogated, or added to the jurisprudence, other than the infallible ones who speak for God, has claimed to be a god and that the creation must worship him, even if he does not say it. The Quran states that the Jews used to worship their rabbis and monks instead of God because they permitted what was forbidden and forbade what was permissible, and the people obeyed them. Concerning the saying of God Almighty, {They have taken their scholars and monks as lords besides God},^[72] Imam Abu Jafar^℗ said: “As for their scholars and monks, the people obeyed them, adopted their words, followed their command, and took their teachings as religion. The people took the scholars as their lords by obeying them and abandoning and throwing behind their backs what God commanded, His books, and His messengers. They followed what the scholars and monks commanded, obeying them and disobeying God. This was mentioned in our Book so that we may learn a lesson from them.”^[73]

Thus, for any ideology in which a person believes, if he does not receive it from an infallible who conveyed it from God, then it is worship without God. If a person practices legal rulings that are not given by an infallible who conveyed them from God, then this person is worshipping the person who issued and legislated the rulings. This is because the legislator is claiming to be a god, whereas the infallibles themselves do nothing but transmit the legal ruling from God.

Imam Al-Sadiq^℗ said in his famous message to the Shia:

O successful people upon whom God has mercy! God has perfected the good that

He has given you. Know that it has never been in God’s knowledge or command for anyone to follow his own desires, opinions, or standard in his religion. God has sent down the Quran and clarified everything within it, and assigned a people for the Quran and for learning it. Those who possess the knowledge of the Quran, which was given to them by God, cannot adopt their desires, opinions, or standards. God has sufficiently enriched them with knowledge specific for them, and placed it with them as a favor from Him. They are the people of remembrance of whom God has commanded this community to ask. If anyone asks them, they will guide him and give him knowledge of the Quran, which will guide him to God by His permission and to all ways of truth, since it is in God’s prior knowledge to believe them and follow their footsteps. No one turns away from them, from asking them, or from the knowledge with which God has favored them and placed with them, except those who, within God’s knowledge, were overcome by wretchedness during the origin of creation^[74] (under the shadows). They are the ones who turn away from asking the people of remembrance, to whom God has given the knowledge of the Quran, placing it with them and commanding people to seek it from them. They are the ones who follow their desires, their opinions, and their own standards to the point that Satan enters them. This is because they have made out the people of faith in the knowledge of the Quran from God to be disbelievers, and have made out the people who deviated from the knowledge of the Quran to be believers. They forbade much of what God permitted and made permissible much of what God made forbidden.

This is the root of the fruit of their desires. The Messenger of God^℗ entrusted [a

Will] to them before his death. However, they said: “After the Messenger’s death, we are allowed to follow the opinion on which people agree.” This was after God’s Messenger^℗ had died after he^℗ made a Will for us and commanded us to abide by it. So, this is in opposition to God and His Messenger. No one is more insolent toward God and more deviant than those who have adopted this and claimed it is allowed.

By God, it is God’s right that His creation obeys Him and follows His commands

during Muhammad’s^℗ life and after his death. Can those enemies of God claim that one of the Muslims during Muhammad’s^℗ time followed their own sayings, opinions, or criteria? If he says “Yes,” then he has lied to God and gone far astray. If he says, “No; no one else was allowed to follow his own opinions, desires, and standards,” then he has acknowledged the evidence against himself and is of those who claim that God is obeyed and His command followed, even after the death of the Prophet^℗. As God has said: {Muhammad is only a Messenger. Certainly other messengers passed away before him. So, if he died or is slain, will you turn back on your heels? Whoever turns back on his heels will never harm God in anything. And God will reward the grateful ones.}^[75] This verse tells you that God is obeyed, and His command is followed during the life of Muhammad^℗ and after the death of Muhammad^℗. It was not allowed for anyone who was with Muhammad^℗ to follow his desire, opinion, or standards, in opposition to Muhammad’s^℗ order. It is also not allowed for the people after Muhammad^℗ to follow their desires, their opinions, or their own standards.^[76]

If the Imams^℗ cannot issue their own rulings despite the completeness of their intellect and having knowledge of the Book’s explicit and allegorical meanings and its revelation and interpretations, but instead are to convey them from God and His Messenger^℗, then how can anyone else do so, considering their deficient intellect and ignorance of the Book’s explicit and allegorical meanings, revelation, and interpretations

When Abu Hanifa came to visit, Imam Al-Sadiq^℗ said to him, “O Abu Hanifa, do you know the book of God as it should be known? Do you know the abrogating and abrogated [verses]?” He said, “Yes.” Al-Sadiq^℗ said, “O Abu Hanifa, you claimed to have this knowledge. Woe to you, for God has only given this knowledge to the people of the book upon whom the book has descended. Woe to you, for it is only for particular ones from the descendants of our Prophet^℗. God has not bequeathed you a single letter of His book, so if you are as you say, which you are not, then tell me about [God’s saying] . . . ”^[77]