Alone With the Beloved: the Words of ʿalī B. Al-Ḥusayn Inthe Ṣaḥīfa Sajjādiyya

Chapter 1: Prologue

For over thirteen centuries the Ṣaḥīfa al-Sajjādiyya, lit. The Book of Sajjād, has been considered to be a literary work of great importance amongst Muslims, and a part of the Islamic literary inheritance.

According to Chittick (p.xv, 1988), the Ṣaḥīfa al-Sajjādiya (The Prayer Manual of Sajjād)1 is today one of the oldest prayer texts in the Islamic tradition. Attributed to have been authored by the great grandson of the Prophet Muḥammad; ʿAlī b. al-Ḥusayn (38-95/658-9-713-4), it has been part of the rich history of Islamic ritual.

It has also been part of the rich history of Islamic thought, holding a pivotal and essential position as a manual of prayers, particularly treasured within the Shīʿa Ithnā ʿAsharī (Twelver) school (hereafter referred to as the Shīʿi/Shīʿa)2 while its significance is still universally acknowledged among Muslims from other theological schools.

From early days, the prayers of Sajjād have become a part and parcel of the identity and lives of those who have used and drawn from it, becoming an essential part of Islamic spiritual life; Chittick describes it as “one of the deepest veins of Islamic spirituality” (Chittick, p. xivi, 1988).3 This vein can surely have been said to sustain and nourish the minds and souls of the Shīʿa communities in particular as much now as then, and possibly for Muslims in general. Amongst the Shīʿa, the Ṣaḥīfa is considered in rank only after the Qur’ān and the Nahj al-Balāgha of ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib (d. 40/661).

Moreover it is a popular and well-established principle amongst the Shīʿa that the authorship of the words contained in the Ṣaḥīfa belongs to the great-grandson of Prophet Muḥammad himself, namely ʿAlī b. al-Ḥusayn - also known as Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn and Sajjād - who in the Shīʿa school of thought is considered to be the fourth Imam.

It could be stated that the study of Shīʿism has for the most part been a neglected branch of Islamic studies in the West. However, during the last few decades a select group of scholars have given considerable attention so particular areas within Shīʿi Islam. The forerunners in this group include Rudolph Strothmann (1877-1960), Louis Massignon (1883-1962) and Henry Corbin (1903-1978). More recently scholars like Etan Kohlberg, M.A Amir-Moezzi, Farhad Daftary, Moojan Momen, Ḥusain M. Jafri, Heinz Halm, Wilferd Madelung and others have further improved our understanding of Shīʿi Islam.

Despite this recent research, particularly the first two centuries have not received the same share of modern scholarship and in-depth study they deserve. The general body of Muslim heresiographers have generally regarded the Shīʿa as those who digressed from the norm. Western scholars of Islam have many times adopted a similar view and treated Shīʿi Islam as a digression or heterodoxy as opposed to an orthodoxy.

Similarly the Ṣaḥīfa being a text of such substance and significance, no thorough study has been undertaken of it, apart from Howarth’s dissertation in part-fulfilment of his M.A., and Chittick’s introduction to the translation. However, Chittick’s translation and introduction of the Ṣaḥīfa and Risālat al-ḥuqūq are a welcomed and essential contribution to the vast and rich literary Islamic and Shīʿi heritage.

The Ṣaḥīfa and some sayings and poems, and the Risāla4 are the only surviving works going back to ʿAlī b. al-Ḥusayn.

The importance of theses document and the possibility of a wider reading, a besides analytical and linguistic investigation have been largely overlooked in Islamic scholarship and particularly in Western scholarship where these texts still remain fairly unknown. Most of the studies done on the texts, even that done by Chittick (1988) has adopted a reductionist approach by focusing only on its place within Muslim ritual. In order to advance a wider application within Islam and beyond, based on a re-reading of ʿAlī b. Ḥusayn’s texts it is necessary to move from a ritualised status quoist reading to a quest for the historical and spiritual ʿAlī b. Ḥusayn.

Methodology, Approach, Aim and Objective

In this research I intend to do two things, firstly I will study and reconstruct the historical context in which the Ṣaḥīfa was produced. This approach will be based on the thesis that to understand it is to follow the dynamics of the work, its movement from what it says to that about which it speaks. Beyond my situation as a reader, beyond the situation of the author, I offer myself to the possible mode of being-in-theworld that the text opens up and discloses to me in what Gadamer calls Horizontverschmelzung in historical knowledge. Secondly, applying the Reader Response Theory, I will engage the texts from a contemporary discourse. This will focus primarily on a flesh and blood, and socially located reader. Attention will also be given to praxis.

Although the Ṣaḥīfa is used in ritual, and sometimes theological discourses, it’s a written text that has been circulated within Muslim society for centuries.

Consequently, it’s may also be treated as a form of literature and that means that we will have to examine its validity as a historical text attributed to ʿAlī b. al-Ḥusayn. In other words, the production of the Ṣaḥīfa can be seen to have taken place in a similar manner to that of literature. Thus, it is possible to study it critically with the same methods that are used to study any other ancient literature. For example, we will ask questions about the setting within which the text emerged and the motives that were the directing force for its production. The text will then be delineated by observing changes in literary style, shifts in vocabulary and phrasing, breaks in continuity, types of connectors, thematic, and factual inconsistencies. Thus, through the process of textual criticism we will try to identify changes that may have occurred in the transmission of the text while at the same time employing literary criticism to examine the content of the text; such as its language, composition, and origin. This includes a philological study of the text, analysis of its content, investigation of the sources used, determining the literary genre of particular passages, and drawing judicious conclusions regarding the authorship of the text.

In order to have a better appreciation of the context of the Ṣaḥīfa, the circumstances and environment within which they were produced and to provide a wider perspective of the life ʿAlī b. al-Ḥusayn, We will begin with seeking to explore the milieu contemporary to him and prior to him, during the life of his great grandfather Prophet Muḥammad (d. 632/11) and also

before, relating only significant issues in order to enhance and develop and augment this study as an in depth and detailed historical survey would fall outside the scope of this work. The massacre at Karbalā (680/61) where he was present will also be related.

Subsequently we will advance to the following chapter where I will draw a picture of his life and personality, affording a valuable window to the author and through him to the text and a closer glance of his mindset.

With this behind us we will move forward to seek to investigate the text as a textual production observing its historical background, tracing its origins and transmissions, continuing to undertake a critical study of the text’s authenticity, attempting to apply both traditional Islamic and contemporary Western methods. This will also entail a linguistic analysis of the text, examining its forms and literary aspects. Moreover, an account will also be given of reports of what has been said of the Ṣaḥīfa.

Following this, the next chapter will explore the style and salient themes found across the Ṣaḥīfa, before finally arriving at the closing remarks and conclusion. Where reference is made to the Qur’ān Yūsuf ʿAlī’s translation has been used unless otherwise indicated.

It is my hope that in this research I will be able to show first; how the text is as relevant today as it was when it was first produced and secondly; how a demythologised ʿAlī b. al-Ḥusayn as a historical figure represents the contemporary human aspirations.