A Comparative Study of Precautionary Concealment From the Viewpoint of Etan Kohlberg and Imāmīyya Jurisprudents

Document Type : Original Article

Author

member of faculty if law of Payame Noor University

Abstract
Kohlberg, the famous Shī‘a researcher, believes that taqīyya (precautionary concealment) is a characteristic of the Shī‘as who justified it from the advent of Imāmīyya during the era of Imām Bāqir (a) based on the ambiguous meanings of some qur’ānic verses. On the other hand, Imāmīyya jurisprudents believe that the rational principle of precautionary concealment had been used by the previous nations as well. They also believe that in the Imāmīyya jurisprudence, precautionary concealment means verbal and behavioral pretention against opponents in order to prevent harms, so it comes into the interest of the Five Rules. Now the question revolves around the origin of the difference between these two viewpoints. Examining these two viewpoints toward Precautionary Concealment verses for the first time, this descriptive-analytical study suggests that in order to understand the nature of precautionary concealment based on the qur’ānic verses, this famous Shī‘a researcher has relied mainly on Sunnī resources in line with a few early Shī‘a resources, while forgetting the rich content of later or contemporary jurisprudential resources. Thus, his viewpoint suffers from lack of reliance on valid resources.

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