Authority of Knowledge in Early Shī‘īsm: The Contribution of Imam al-Ṣādiq to Conceptualizing the sunna

The way through which Imāmī Shī‘a attribute their teachings to the Prophet Mohammad is the starting point to study early Shī‘ī intellectual history. The most famous and important Shī‘ī Imams, namely Mohammad al-Baqīr and Ja‘far al-Ṣādiq, proposed the principles of Shī‘ī thought in the first half of the second century; accordingly, they encountered problematic situations when being asked about how they accessed the Prophet’s knowledge. Even though Imam al-Ṣādiq put great emphasis on the sunna of the Prophet, at the same time he criticized both the Traditionists and Aṣḥāb-u-Ra’y. He tried to show how his access to the sunna of the Prophet is not akin to what others claim. Most of the Traditionists were not able to engage in and discuss the various issues with Imam al-Ṣādīq, as he considered himself to be the Prophet’s descendant who was also his only true successor. Hence, he tried to introduce himself as the only authority who could correctly interpret the sunna of the Prophet. In this study, I will attempt to explore the sunna discourse in the early Jaʻfarī school. It will be investigated how this early school conceptualized the notion of sunna in light of the imāmah doctrine and vice versa.