Mohammad Mahdi Shams al-Din

Author: Hassan Ejraei

Mohammad Mahdi Shams al-Din (1353-1421 AH) was a Shia jurist who wrote various jurisprudential works on the political system in Islam, women's issues, and hoarding. He believed that the evidence for the Guardianship of the Jurist was inconclusive, that there was no proof for the complete political deputyship of the jurist from the Infallible Imam, and that in this regard, one must suffice with the certain extent (*qadr al-mutayaqqan*). Based on this, the administration of government in an Islamic society, while observing the general principles of religion, is the responsibility of the people.

Name	Mohammad Mahdi Shams al-Din
Age	1353 AH (1935 CE) - 1421 AH (2001 CE)
Position	Shia Jurist, President of the Supreme Islamic Shia Council of Lebanon
Denomination	Shia
Nationality	Lebanese
Speciality	Fiqh and Usul
Professors	Sayyid Muhsin al-Hakim • Sayyid Abu al-Qasim al-Khoei

He also, relying on the prohibition of changing creation in Quran 4:119, argued for the primary prohibition of human cloning. He considered the distance of Shia jurisprudence from Maqasidi jurisprudence not to be due to jurisprudential or creedal reasons, but rather due to the Shiites' distance from governance. He also interpreted the guardianship of men over women in Quran 4:34 as relating only to the marital relationship and only in the case where the man financially provides for the woman.

Shams al-Din completed his seminary studies in Najaf and attended the advanced jurisprudence (*kharij*) classes of Sayyid Muhsin al-Hakim and Sayyid Abu al-Qasim al-Khoei. After that, he engaged in intellectual and cultural activities in Lebanon for many years and also held the presidency of the Supreme Islamic Shia Council of Lebanon. He was also one of the writers for the Al-Adwa' magazine and a founder of the Islamic Dawa Party.

Biography

Mohammad Mahdi Shams al-Din was born on the 15th of Sha'ban, 1353 AH, in Najaf. His father, Sheikh Abd al-Karim, was a graduate of the Najaf seminary, and his lineage traced back to al-Shahid al-Awwal. At the advanced levels of seminary studies, Mohammad Mahdi Shams al-Din was a student of Sayyid Mohammad Rouhani, Sayyid Yusuf al-Hakim, and Sayyid Ali Allamah Fani Isfahani. He attended the advanced jurisprudence (*kharij*) classes of Sayyid Muhsin al-Hakim and Sayyid Abu al-Qasim al-Khoei.

In addition to his studies, he was engaged in teaching and writing and participated in the establishment of "Jam'iyyat Muntada al-Nashr." Along with Mohammad-Reza Mozaffar and Mohammad-Taqi al-Hakim, they sought to reform mourning practices. Teaching at the Faculty of Fiqh in Najaf is among his credentials. Additionally, for several years, he resided in the city of Diwaniyah, Iraq, as a representative of the office of the Marja' Sayyid Muhsin al-Hakim.

Alongside Sayyid Ismail al-Sadr, Sayyid Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr, Sayyid Murtada al-Askari, Sayyid Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah, Abd al-Hadi al-Fadli, and Mohammad Mahdi Asefi, he was one of the writers for the Al-Adwa' Magazine, which was published with the support of Sayyid Muhsin al-Hakim and was simultaneously opposed by some groups in the Najaf seminary.

Shams al-Din was one of the founders of the Islamic Dawa Party, established under the leadership of Sayyid Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr in the summer of 1957. He then returned to Lebanon in 1969 and engaged in intellectual and cultural activities. In 1975, he was appointed by Imam Musa al-Sadr as the vice-president of the Supreme Islamic Shia Council of Lebanon, and after the abduction of Sayyid Musa al-Sadr in 1978, he effectively took over its leadership.

In 1979, he founded the "Ma'had al-Shahid al-Awwal" seminary in Beirut, which was one of the most important seminaries of its time.

He passed away on the 15th of Shawwal, 1421 AH (January 10, 2001), at the age of 68 in Beirut.

Views and Opinions

Guardianship of the Ummah over Itself

Template:Main Among the existing theories of political jurisprudence, Mohammad Mahdi Shams al-Din, like Mehdi Haeri Yazdi, while denying any special right for jurists in government, believes that the administration of government in an Islamic society, while observing the general principles of religion, is the responsibility of the people. According to Shams al-Din, jurists in the period of the Imam's occultation (a) are appointed to two positions: judiciary and explaining the fixed religious rulings. Other positions, including political authority and state sovereignty, have not been established for them. He also believes that jurists are not the deputies of the Infallible Imam in managing political affairs and have no guardianship over the people, and the political destiny of the people is their own responsibility. In his view, jurisprudence (*fiqahah*) is not a condition for the presidency of an elected Islamic state, and all matters of the state, including the head of state, are determined by referring to public opinion.

Relying on the Principle of Non-Guardianship of individuals over one another in Shia jurisprudence, Mohammad Mahdi Shams al-Din believes that no ruler possesses legitimacy, and the supreme principle in the rule of individuals over one another is that no one has the right of sovereignty over another, and any action to dominate another is illegal and illegitimate.

According to Haydar Hubb-Allah, a contemporary Shia thinker, Mohammad Mahdi Shams al-Din initially believed in political Islam but underwent an intellectual transformation from the early 1990s.

Prohibition of Human Cloning

According to Mohammad Mahdi Shams al-Din, human cloning is forbidden (*haram*) as a primary ruling. He refers to Quran 4:119, in which changing God's creation is described as being in line with Satan's will. In Shams al-Din's view, human cloning leads to an inappropriate physical change, which is referred to as "changing creation" in the aforementioned verse.

He also puts forward the lack of ownership over the body as another reason for the primary prohibition of cloning, saying: Only God is the owner of man, and man cannot perform such a disposition.

As researcher Seyyed Hassan Eslami has stated, Shams al-Din relies on the verse about changing creation, the principle of non-ownership of man over his body, and the Principle of Prohibition (*Asalat al-Hazr*) (as opposed to the Principle of Permissibility (*Asalat al-Ibahah*)) in this matter. Eslami raises some criticisms of Shams al-Din's view, including that Shams al-Din considers human cloning an instance of inappropriate physical change and therefore an instance of Quran 4:119, whereas if human cloning leads to the cloning of a healthy being, his argument will be incomplete; because in that case, cloning is not an instance of inappropriate change.

Reason for Shia Fiqh's Distance from Maqasidi Fiqh

Mohammad Mahdi Shams al-Din holds that the only reason for Shia jurisprudence's distance from the Maqasidi method was a historical reason and the distance of Imami jurists from social and governmental affairs, and this matter has no jurisprudential or creedal basis. In this regard, he points to the prevalence of Maqasidi jurisprudence in the Islamic Republic of Iran and believes that Shia jurists taking over the government has been a cause for paying attention to Maqasidi jurisprudence.

Contrary to Shams al-Din, other Shia scholars believe that the reason for the lack of attention to Maqasidi jurisprudence among Shia jurists stems from reasons such as the belief in the impossibility of attaining the underlying reasons (*malakat*) for rulings and consequently the impossibility of attaining the real causes of rulings, the unsystematic nature of Maqasidi jurisprudence, the narrative richness of the school of Ahl al-Bayt, and the issuance of numerous narrations from the Shia Imams (a) condemning analogical reasoning (*qiyas*).

Opposition to the Guardianship of Men over Women

In Shams al-Din's view, based on Quranic verses such as the first verse of Surah al-Nisa and Quran 3:195, the human identity of men and women in the Holy Quran is the same, and being a man or a woman does not imply superiority or inferiority.

He also, citing Quran 4:34, believes that the phrase "Men are the protectors and maintainers of women" (*al-rijalu qawwamuna 'ala al-nisa'*) in the said verse must be explained alongside the condition "because of what they spend (to support them) from their means" (*wa-bima anfaqu min amwalihim*). Based on this, he believes that in addition to the man's guardianship over the woman being only in the marital relationship, the spending of wealth, i.e., paying for the woman's living expenses, must also be done by the man; otherwise, the man's guardianship (*qawwamiyyah*) over the woman will not exist.

Like Morteza Motahhari, Mohammad Mahdi Shams al-Din holds that the narrations prohibiting women's management are related to the context in which they were issued and cannot be generalized to other eras.

Works

Mohammad Mahdi Shams al-Din has written over 30 works on various topics including political jurisprudence and Islamic government, the event of Ashura, Quranic exegesis, women's issues, and Nahj al-Balaghah. Some of his jurisprudential works include:

• Nizam al-Hukm wa al-Idarah fi al-Islam (The System of Governance and Administration in Islam), is Shams al-Din's first work, written in 1954, and was the first political text in Arabic to address the issue of Islamic government in the modern era. The second edition of the book was published with additions about forty years after its first printing. He considered the evidence for the guardianship of the jurist inconclusive and believed that in this regard, one must suffice with the certain extent (*qadr al-mutayaqqan*), and there is no proof for the complete political deputyship of the jurist from the Infallible Imam. Consequently, Shams al-Din believes that Islamic government requires the election of the people. He also considers the Maqbula of 'Umar ibn Hanzalah to be an expression of the role and position of the people in determining the ruler, based on which the legitimacy of the government is indebted to the popular will.
• Al-Ihtikar fi al-Shari'a al-Islamiyya (Book): A Comparative Jurisprudential Study, is a comparative study of hoarding within the framework of comparative jurisprudence, written in 1410 AH. It includes the rulings on hoarding, compelling the sale of hoarded goods, and hoarding in companies and governments. It was published in Persian in 1999 under the title "Hoarding in Islam: A Comparative Study in Jurisprudence from the Viewpoint of Islamic Schools of Thought."
• A series of books titled Masa'il Harija fi Fiqh al-Mar'a on four topics: hijab, women's leadership, marital rights, and women's economic and social activities:

• Al-Sitr wa al-Nazar*, is about women's hijab.
• Ahliyyat al-Mar'a li-Tawalli al-Sultah*, about women's leadership, was published in Beirut in 1996.
• Huquq al-Zawjiyya wa Haqq al-'Amal lil-Mar'a*, which was published in Beirut in 1415 AH.

• *Al-Silm wa Qadaya al-Harb 'ind al-Imam 'Ali*: A study of Nahj al-Balaghah, published in Beirut in 1981, contains an examination of Imam Ali's (a) views on war and peace in relations between states and nations, which has also been translated into Persian.