Religion and Theology

Sheikh Yusuf Al-Bahraniwas born in Bahrain in 1695. He is widely known for his role in the development of the Twelver Shia Islam. Sheikh Al-Bahrani grew up in a Usuli family in Bahrain though his family had to flee to Shiraz during the 1717 Omani invasion. As a young adult, he settled in Karbala where he became the dean of the Shii scholarship. It was during this time that he rejected the Usuli schooling and adopted the Akhbari school of thought.

Akhbari, a term derived from Arabic, means report or news. The Akhbari are Shia muslims who only believe that only the Quran, hadith and consensus are to be used to form verdicts, consequently rejecting the use of reasoning. Furthermore, they do not believe in models for imitation (marjas), but hold the notion that only the infallibles can act as authoritative evidence in Islam. The Akhbari also reject the Guardianship of the Islamic Jurists since they do not believe that Imams, being preachers, should not be involved in politics.

Even though al-Bahrani ascribed to the Akhbari thought, his was a position that incorporated some Usuli elements. It is because of this that he became his generations chief proponent of the neo-Akhbari creed (Cole, 53). Al-Bahranis neo-Akhbari thought accepted only the Quran and Hadith, which are oral reports from the Imams, as the sources for imami jurisprudence. Opposing the extremist views of Astarabadi, Sheikh Al-Bahrani did not hold the idea that the Quran could not be understood without the interpretation of Imams.

In addition, Sheikh Al-Bahrani opposed rationalist approaches to religion, thereby condemning the reading of theosophy and philosophy. In this light, he rejected Ijma (the principle of consensus), and Ijtihad (independent reasoning), both proponents of the Usuli school of thought. According to Juan Cole, Al-Bahranis neo-akhnarism sought to be an intermediate path between extremist Usulism and extremist Akhbarism (53-54).