A Methodological Study of Akhbarism: The Thought of Muhammad Amin al-Astarabadi

Every intellectual school of thought needs to be fluid and responsive. Throughout history those schools or paradigms of thought that could not keep pace with the advance of time and were unable to respond to the issues of the day were slowly forgotten and eventually died. Intellectual methods for understanding Islam-which is the final religion-need to be revisited and subjected to a serious pathology. This is because the teachings of Islam are universal, for all times and all places. Akhbarism was the method of choice for understanding religious text in a certain period of the history of Shīʿi thought. In this age as well it is presenting itself as a living and responsive method. The study at hand will investigate the origin of Akhbarism and its formative influences and intellectual underpinnings. From its beginnings as a purely traditional method, using only textual authority to expound the rulings of Islamic law, to a more elaborate system with a bearing on other fields, it will trace the repercussions, both intellectual and social, of this school of thought in Shīʿi history.