“O, you who believer! Obey God and obey the Messenger and those in authority among you. And if you differ among yourselves concerning any matter, refer it to God and the Messenger, if you believe in God and the Last Day. That is better, and fairer in outcome” (Nasr, 2015, p. 383).
The verse fifty-nine of Sūrat al-Nisā has received a set of different interpretations from both Shīʿa and Sunni scholars, particularly those (mainly jurists) who attempted to interpret it from a political perspective. Dating as back as the 5th/11th century, Sharḥ a-taʿarruf li madhhab-i taṣawwuf (Commentary Upon a-taʿarruf li madhhab-i taṣawwuf) can be the first Sufi text addressing the term ulu al-amr (lit. authority) and its interpretation as sultan/king as the shadow of God on the earth. The writer of the Sharḥ, is Khԝajah Imām Abū Ibrāhīm Mustamlī Bukhārī (d. 434/1044), a student and close companion of Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm Kalābādhī (d. 380/990 or 994-5), the writer of the first Sufi manual, A-Taʿaruuf li madhhab-i ahl-i taṣawwuf (lit. Recognition of the School of the People of Sufism), however, it is Mustamlī the commentator who pays attention to ulu al-amr and interprets it as sultan. Bringing a ḥadīth from the Prophet saying that “sultan is the shadow of God on the earth”, Mustamlī concludes that “most of exegetes believe that ulu al-amr indicates sultan” (Mustamlī, 1363, p. 113), and therefore he is the sole authority after God and the Prophet.
Until there is no proper research on the term and its different meanings across time and location, we really do not know how other scholars from different backgrounds have interpreted it since 5th/11th century onwards. However, we have access to one of the newest interpretations, which is done by Khomeini before 1979 revolution, according to which ‘the just jurist’ should be regarded as the true example of this notion, itself a component of the theory of wilāyat al-faqīh. Within this brand-new framework, the Shīʿa faqīh, who is adorned with justice, enjoys divine and immediate legitimacy. It is to be mentioned that before him, the nineteenth-century jurist and theologian, Mullā Aḥmad Narāqī also addresses ulu al-amr, and his reading is the same as that of his successor. Obviously, changes in Shīʿa political philosophy since the Safawid era onwards, revolved around a number of factors, chief among them ulu al-amr and the question of authority as well as a different interpretation of this notion as the ‘just jurist’, himself the special vicegerent of the Hidden Imam.
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