SHARIAsource

This is a reference to al-Shāfiʿī's report indicating that the Prophet advised his followers to compare the statements attributed to him to the Qurʾān and to accept those that conform to the Qurʾān and reject those that do not. Hossein Modarressi cites this reference to show that the understanding among many early Muslims was that the Qurʾān was the criterion for testing the validity of all other sources.

This source is part of the Online Companion to Hossein Modarressi, Text and Interpretation: Imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq and His Legacy in Islamic Law (Harvard University Press, 2022).

This is a reference to unusual sexual behaviors that were espoused by the school of Medina based on the idea that a wife's entire body was available for her husband's pleasure. Hossein Modarressi cites this reference to show that, along with other schools and jurists, Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq strictly forbade such sexual relations.

This source is part of the Online Companion to Hossein Modarressi, Text and Interpretation: Imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq and His Legacy in Islamic Law (Harvard University Press, 2022).

This is a reference to a Sunnī source on the unlawfulness of assassination. Hossein Modarressi draws on this source to show various Muslim legal views (including that of Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq and the legal legacy of the House of the Prophet) on the impermissibility of assassination.

This source is part of the Online Companion to Hossein Modarressi, Text and Interpretation: Imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq and His Legacy in Islamic Law (Harvard University Press, 2022).

Ibn Isḥāq's Kitāb al-maghāzī, is a compilation of reports on events that occurred during or prior to the life of the Prophet Muhammad, including his military expeditions. Ibn Isḥāq “arranged [the reports] into what he deemed to be their correct chronological order and to which he added his own comments” adding a chain of narration to most reports. This excerpt is on the birth of the Prophet. 

For more on the text, see Nicolai Sinai and William Montgomery’s entry on the Prophet Muhammad in Encyclopedia Britannica. 

Among the preserved rasāʼil (letters) of ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd al-Kātib (d. 132/ 750), the testament written for the ʿAbdallāh, the son of the last Umayyad caliph, Marwān II (r. 127-132/745–750), serves as one of the most pivotal legal-political treatises for early Islamic legal history. ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd al-Kātib was the head of the chancery under Marwān II (r. 127-132/745–750). He elucidated in this testament matters of statecraft, particularly the duties and functions of the ṣāḥib al-shurṭa, the head of the elite military corps.  In this treatise, ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd describes the ṣāḥib al-shurṭa as an official who acted as both an elite military commander and magistrate responsible for investigating criminal cases and punishing them in accordance with the judgments of the ruler. 

The source was edited (along with other letters) by the late Iḥsān ʻAbbās in his book, ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd b. Yaḥyá al-Kātib, wa-mā Tabaqqá min rasāʼilih wa-rasāʼil Sālim Abī Al-ʻAlāʼ. Amman, Jordan: Dār al-Sharq, 1988, and scans of the few pages dedicated to the shurṭa have been made available.