1. Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsa'i was a prominent Islamic theologian and jurist who founded the influential Shaykhi school of Twelver Shi'ism, which attracted followers from throughout the Persian and Ottoman Empires.
20 Facts About Shaykh Ahmad
1. 2.
Shaykh Ahmad was a native of the Al-Ahsa region of eastern Arabia, educated in Bahrain and the theological centres of Najaf and Karbala.
3.
Shaykh Ahmad spent 16 years in Iran, where he received the protection and patronage of princes of the Qajar dynasty.
4.
Shaykh Ahmad diverged from the Usuli school on key issues related to Islamic eschatology, the role of the ulama, and the proper interpretation of the mystical hadith of the Twelve Imams.
5.
Shaykh Ahmad claimed to derive his authority from the Imams, who communicated to him in visions.
6.
Shaykh Ahmad's teachings were complex, thus he often practised Taqayya concealing his controversial ideas from his opponents.
7.
Shaykh Ahmad was born in the al-Ahsa Oasis in the month of Rajab of the year 1166 AH.
8.
Shaykh Ahmad's family came from nomadic Sunni ancestry in the Bani Khalid tribe, but had converted to Shi'ism and settled in al-Ahsa five generations earlier.
9.
Shaykh Ahmad observed how those who professed the Faith of Islam had shattered its unity, sapped its force, perverted its purpose, and degraded its holy name.
10.
Shaykh Ahmad attained sufficient recognition in such circles to be declared a mujtahid in Karbala, an interpreter of Islamic law.
11.
Shaykh Ahmad contended with Sufi and Neo-Platonist scholars, and attained a positive reputation among their detractors.
12.
Shaykh Ahmad declared that all knowledge and sciences were contained within the Quran, and that to excel in the sciences, all knowledge must be gleaned from the Quran.
13.
Shaykh Ahmad evinced a veneration of the imams, even beyond the extent of his pious contemporaries and espoused heterodox views on the afterlife, the resurrection and end-times, as well as medicine and cosmology.
14.
Shaykh Ahmad's views resulted in his denunciation by several learned clerics, and he engaged in many debates before moving on to Persia where he settled for a time in the province of Yazd.
15.
When Shaykh Ahmad al-Ahsa'i wrote, there was no Shaykhi school, which only crystallized after his death.
16.
Shaykh Ahmad lived at a time when his branch of Islam was deeply divided on the role of the Muslim learned man.
17.
Shaykh Ahmad appointed Kazim Rashti as his successor, who led the Shaykhi movement until his death.
18.
Shaykh Ahmad taught his students how to recognize the Mahdi and the Masih.
19.
Shaykh Ahmad was a prolific writer, he is known to have completed 71 published works during his career, of which 354 contemporary manuscripts are known to be still extant.
20.
The most comprehensive bibliography of Shaykh Ahmad's known works identifies twelve wide subject areas addressed by individual works:.