Investigating the Role of Imam Sajjad (A.S.) in the Transformation of Islamic and Jurisprudential Sciences during the Umayyad Era

The main issue of this article is to investigate the role of Imam Sajjad (A.S.) in the transformation of Islamic and jurisprudential sciences during the Umayyad era. The research method is descriptive with a qualitative approach, and data collection was carried out using library sources. The research tools were first-hand documents and notetaking, and the data was analyzed through content analysis. Among the Arabs of the pre-Islamic era, sciences were not prevalent. With the advent of Islam, Quranic sciences were the first to emerge. As Islam expanded, the Prophet (PBUH) commissioned the Companions to disseminate Islamic beliefs, issue fatwas and judgments, and interpret the Qur'an and jurisprudential rulings among the people. During the era of the Rightly Guided Caliphs, religious sciences such as Qur'anic recitation, jurisprudence, and exegesis continued in the style of the Prophet. In the Umayyad period, people turned to jurists and religious scholars for learning sciences and interpreting rulings. However, during the era of Imam Sajjad (A.S.), due to the importance of jurisprudential issues, scientific and jurisprudential movements evolved into two streams: one separate from the political authority and one aligned with it. The hypothesis of the article is that after the tragedy of Karbala, Imam Sajjad (A.S.), as the heir and holder of the Prophet’s position, by shifting from a political to a scientific, jurisprudential-religious approach, connected his own jurisprudential and scholarly interpretation to the knowledge of the Prophet. As a jurist, he engaged in interpreting the Qur'an, elucidating the conduct and hadiths of the Prophet and the Imams, issuing judgments and fatwas in Islamic rulings. By training students and expressing jurisprudential rulings and his own thought in Sahifa Sajjadiyya and Risalat al-Huquq, he laid the groundwork for the continuation of the jurisprudential and scholarly approach for the Imams after him, namely Imam Baqir (A.S.) and Imam Sadiq (A.S.).