Document Type : Original Article
Author
University of Allameh Tabatabai
Abstract
Social supplications (du‘ā‘) in Shi‘ism constitute a branch of Shi‘i social theology, which also encompasses social hadith, social exegesis, social jurisprudence, social theology, social ethics, and social supplications. Unlike individual supplications, which merely express the relationship between the supplicant and the Almighty God, social supplications reflect the relationship between the supplicant, God, and people (nās), including companions, relatives, and members of society. They introduce us to the full range of positive and negative social values virtues, merits, and moral excellences on the one hand, and vices, defects, and transgressions on the other as articulated in the supplications of Shia leaders. The scope of Shi‘a social supplications is remarkably broad, encompassing all domains of social life, collective relations, and the public sphere of human existence including family, relatives, kin, and associates; livelihood, trade, business, bribery, and fairness; poverty and wealth; education and training, teachers and mentors, students and educators; leadership, subordination, management, justice, fairness, oppression, coercion, tyranny, discrimination, corruption, rebellion, and transgression; as well as collective acts of worship and spiritual practices such as congregational prayer, Friday prayer, and pilgrimage (ḥajj). These supplications seek to diminish the spirit of rivalry, hostility, obstruction, and pessimism in collective relations, while promoting and expanding constructive values of altruism, benevolence, optimism, and empathy among members of society. Such values correspond to the common good, enhance social bonds, solidarity, and cohesion, and sustain the vital functions of different sectors of society. This article focuses on the social dimensions contained in the Makārim al-Akhlāq supplication, which is regarded as one of the distinctive supplicatory texts of the Shiite tradition.
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