A major topic of theological debate in Iran today, owing to the influence of some Western thinkers, is the desacralisation of the world and of religion. One of the main areas on which proponents of desacralisation have focused is the status of the Imam. Some authors have claimed that Shīʿī scholars from the early centuries, including Shaykh al-Ṣadūq, did not recognise any superhuman attributes for the Imams and that they and other classical scholars reduced the Imamate of the Prophet’s Household to that of “pious scholars” (ʿulamāʾ abrār). Some also assert that those figures who opposed this view were accused of being extremists (ghulāt) and expelled from the Shīʿī mainstream.
This article will endeavour to examine the description that Shaykh al-Ṣadūq presents of the ghulāt in his writings in order to identify the boundaries of Shīʿī extremism in his thought, and show, contrary to the claims of these authors, that Shaykh al-Ṣadūq, while believing in the possibility of the Prophet experiencing a lapse in his prayers (sahw al-nabī), nevertheless affirmed superhuman qualities for both him and his Household and held them as a matter of religious belief.
