Roads to Iraq

Newspaper Al-Sharq Al-Awsat reported that Muqtada Al-Sadr wants to finish his studies and prepares to obtain Hassan Nasrallah status.

What this means? What to study to become an influential cleric and how?

Historically, the Shiite-clerics had no hierarchical structure and there is no formal organization or hierarchy among them. In Shiite community there are two classes of religious status:

Muqallid

Those who had to follow the rulings of a Mujtahid, regular citizens and low-rank clerics.

Mujtahid

Those who could follow their own independent judgments obtained by religious studies.

Ulama (lit. learned persons) - Is a highly ranked Mujtahid - the religious class can be used of a person learned in any branch of knowledge but the plural is restricted to the religiously learned.

Those aiming to become top-ranking Ulama will head for the most important centers of religious learning which are at present, Qum and Najaf, must study three levels, and as each level is completed the student [Talib, plural Tullab] goes on to the next level.

1- Muqaddama (the preliminary level)

At this level the emphasis is on obtaining a good grasp of Arabic, which is vital to all further studies. Usually, groups of students’ will gather around a teacher who will go through the texts with them in lessons lasting between one-and-a-half to two hours. Teachers at this level are usually senior students or assistants of the principal Mujtahids.

Studies

Nahw (Syntax)
Sarf (Grammatical Inflections)
Mantiq (Logic)
Balagha (Rhetoric)

2- As-Sutuh (the externals).

At this level the teachers are usually mujtahids who have only recently obtained their authority of ijtihad and are seeking to build up their reputations.

A number of these will announce lectures based on the main texts and the students are free to choose which lectures to attend. Students can at the same time develop a special interest by attending lectures in one of the optional subjects but their progress to the next level is dependent on their obtaining a thorough grasp of the main texts in the two principal subjects, Fiqh and Usul al-fiqh.

Studies

Usul al-Fiqh (Principles of Jurisprudence)
Fiqh (Principles of Jurisprudence)
Optional Subjects include: Falsafa (Philosophy), Hikma (Theosophy), Ta’rikh (History) and Akhlaq (Ethics).

3- Dars al-Kharij (or Bahth al-Kharij, graduation classes).

It will usually have taken students about ten years to reach this stage and thus most will be in their mid-twenties. At this level the teaching is done by the principal Mujtahids themselves.

Each Mujtahid will announce a time and place for his teaching session and the students are free to pick and choose whose lectures they will attend. The subjects are usually Fiqh and Usul al-fiqh.

If a popular or very eminent Mujtahid is giving a session, several hundred students (and even other Mujtahids) may be gathered around him. Each Mujtahid’s method of teaching is of course different, but in general there is a tendency to a dialectical involvement of the audience.

Studies

There are no set books at this level; the student refers to whichever books he needs either in following up lectures and debates or in writing his treatise.