Shi'ism and the Transmitted Sciences

The Islamic sciences, which owe their existence to the ulama of Islam
who organized andformulated them, are divided into the two categories
of intellectual ('aqli) and transmitted (naqli). The intellectual
sciences include such sciences as philosophy and mathematics. The
transmitted sciences are those which depend upon transmission from
some source, such as the sciences of language, hadith, or history.
Without doubt the major cause for the appearanceof the transmitted
sciences in Islam is the Holy Qur'an. With the exception of a few
disciplines such as history, genealogy, and prosody the other
transmitted sciences haveall come into being under the influence of
the Holy Book. Guided by religious discussions and research, Muslims
began to cultivate these sciences, of which the most important are
Arabic literature (grammar, rhetoric, and the science of metaphors)
and the sciences pertaining to the external form of religion
(recitation of theQur'an, Qur'anic commentary (tafsir) hadith,
biography of learned men, the chain oftransmission of hadith, and the
principles of jurisprudence).
Shi'ites played an essential role in the foundation and establishment
of these sciences. In fact, the founders and creators of many of these
sciences were Shi'ites. Arabic grammar was put into a systematic form
by Abu'l-Aswad al-Du'ali, one of the companions of the Holy Prophet
and by Ali. Ali dictated an outline forthe organization of the science
of Arabic grammar. One of the founders of the science of eloquence
(rhetoric and the science o metaphors) was Sahib ibn 'Ahbad a Shi'ite,
who was a vizier of the Buyids.
The first Arabic dictionaryis the Kitab al-Ayn composed by the famous
scholar, Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Basre the Shi'ite who founded the science
of prosody. He was also the teacher of the great master of grammar,
Sibuwayh.
The Qur'anic recitation ofAsim goes back to Ali through one
intermediary, and 'Abdallah ibn 'Abbas, whoin hadith was the foremost
among the companions, was a student of Ali. The contributions of the
Household of the Prophetand their associates in hadith and
jurisprudenceare well known. The founders of the four Sunni schools of
law are known to have associated with the fifth and sixth Shi'ite
Imams. In the principles of jurisprudence the remarkable advances
accomplished by the Shi'ite scholar Wahid Bihbahani and followed by
Shaykh Murtada Ansari have never been matched in Sunni jurisprudence
according to existing evidence.