SYI’AH ITSNA ‘ASYARIYAH

Abstract

The religious thoughts proposed Muslim thinkers since the middle age have been caused by same understanding, namely how is religious can be understood truly. In the second phase of the first hijriah, there were two significant developments in history of Islamic society. First, there was internal conflict in Islamic society. Second, there was the arrival of  Persian. From these two developments, there were some questions on theology and imamah (leadership). Based on these questions, some Muslim thinkers proposed their answers based on true Islamic teaching. Each formulation emerged and developed as different thought. Historically, the presence of syiah itsna Asyariyah can be separated from the doctrines and its interpretations to some verses adopted to justify it after the  mystery of Muhammad al-Muntazhar (al-Mahdi), or compared with Imam al-Ja’far al-Shadiq, or even with Ali bin Abu Thalib. In fact, some ideas proposed that Ali did not know about his special status as imam ma’shum. Based on historical sources, the rise of some Syiah doctrines was mainly due to political problem. But, in later development, the syiah is acknowledged as theological sect.