This thesis results from a qualitative social science research, carried out between the years 2016 and 2019, which challenges established notions of Shīʿism as defined with respect to religious authority. The literature recognises Shīʿī authority to be distinct from non-Shīʿī contexts, through its hierarchical institutionalisation in the marjiʿiyyah, supported by theological doctrines, and its particular orthopraxy through a specific rigid performance of taqlīd.
By carrying out research amongst Shīʿa university students in the UK, and the student societies catering for them (ABSocs), this thesis successfully highlights numerous nuances that contest normative generalised ideas about how Shīʿa Muslims perceive and perform religious authority. Through assessing their attitudes and performances, my thesis contrasts their stances against theories of structured authority and its margins for different modes of agency – applying them in the context of Shīʿī religious authority.
Examining jurisprudential texts, the thesis demonstrates the disparity between how taqlīd is theoretically defined and how it has been converted into practice – the former allowing the ‘lay’ individual some religious interpretive agency while the latter divests him of such autonomy.
After problematising the depiction of UK’s Shīʿa student community as a conventional diaspora, the thesis underscores the disconnection between their contexts and that of the marjiʿiyyah, both in terms of geography as well as culture, particularly on attitudes towards gender. The marjiʿiyyah and Shīʿī jurisprudence are shown to be male-dominated spaces that are unrepresentative of women. Issues surrounding gender, including the practice of hijab observance, were noteworthy trigger points for divergence away from the established model of religious authority performance.
The thesis argues that expressions of Shīʿism, as a lived tradition, are malleable. Shīʿī religious authority, while being recognised as a central element of Shīʿism, is one such instance. The range of performances by the participants evince reconstructions of normative practice. These reconstructions often contravene orthopraxy in ways that do not compromise the subjects claims of attachment and loyalty to Shīʿism or Shīʿī identity. These reconstructed performances allow for religious interpretive agency within the reimagined authority models. The need for such recreated models, without simply disengaging from the marjiʿiyyah, speaks to the importance of this institutionalised religious authority as a facet of Shīʿism. By bringing to light the nuances in the participants’ performances, the thesis highlights the ongoing tussle between established or traditional Shīʿism, and the endeavours to reformulate Shīʿism in newer contexts.