The Transformation Course of the Concept of Nafy-e Sabil (Non-Dependency Rule) in the Islamic Jurisprudence of Shi’ism

The purpose of the present study is to survey the transformation course of the concept of Nafy-e Sabil (non-dependency rule) in the Islamic jurisprudence of Shi’ism using a historical approach. In this regard, descriptive analysis was used to show that the inclusion circle of non-dependency rule has moved through a gradual course to a conceptual extension to explain hegemony and refute its various forms. Jurists during the Qajar dynasty compared to the former jurists paid more attention to the verse of non-dependency rule, especially in terms of political and social issues. It doesn’t seem that proposing non-dependency rule as a jurisprudential principle in the middle of the Qajar dynasty and the hegemony of western countries over other ones including Islamic states has merely been coincidental, but rather Shi’ite jurists have been paying attention to the general implications of the 141st verse of Surah an-Nisa’. The above concept has undergone a serious jump since the middle of the 13th century A.H. as the non-dependency rule began to be classified as a jurisprudential principle in this period. One of the causes for this important subject in the political jurisprudence of Shi’ism relates to a significant social and political fact back then, that is the hegemony of Kuffar (non-believers) over Muslims. The non-dependency rule in the modern era in which we witness the intellectual, economic, and political hegemony of modern western countries over other societies including a vast part of Islamic world has had definite political usage. Shi’ite scholars in the modern era with regard to the political implications of the above-mentioned rule, have set it as the theoretical basis to fight against foreign hegemony.