Al-Mufaddal ibn Umar al-Ju'fi

al-Mufaḍḍal ibn ʿUmar al-Juʿfī
المفضل بن عمر الجعفي
Bornbefore 748[a]
Diedbefore 799
RegionKufa (Iraq)
Affiliationearly Shi'ism / ghulāt
Mufaddal Tradition
GhulātWritings:
 Ideas:
 Influenced:
Non-ghulātWritings:
 Ideas:
Teleological argument (argument from design)
 Influenced:
Twelver Shi'ism

Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Mufaḍḍal ibn ʿUmar al-Juʿfī (Arabic: أبو عبد ﷲ المفضل بن عمر الجعفي), died before 799, was an early Shi'i leader and the purported author of a number of religious and philosophical writings. A contemporary of the Imams Ja'far al-Sadiq (c. 700–765) and Musa al-Kazim (745–799),[1] he belonged to those circles in Kufa whom later Twelver Shi'i authors would call ghulāt ('exaggerators') for their 'exaggerated' veneration of the Imams.[2]

As a money-changer, al-Mufaddal wielded considerable financial and political power. He was likely also responsible for managing the financial affairs of the Imams in Medina.[3] For a time he was a follower of the famous ghulāt leader Abu al-Khattab (died 755–6), who had claimed that the Imams were divine.[4] Early Imami[b] heresiographers and Nusayri sources regard al-Mufaddal as a staunch supporter of Abu al-Khattab's ideas who later spawned his own ghulāt movement (the Mufaḍḍaliyya). However, Twelver Shi'i sources instead report that after Ja'far al-Sadiq's repudiated Abu al-Khattab in 748, al-Mufaddal broke with Abu al-Khattab and became a trusted companion of Ja'far's son Musa al-Kazim.[5]

A number of writings—collectively known as the Mufaddal Tradition—have been attributed to al-Mufaddal, most of which are still extant.[6] They were likely falsely attributed to al-Mufaddal by later 9th–11th-century authors. As one of the closest confidants of Ja'far al-Sadiq, al-Mufaddal was an attractive figure for authors of various Shi'i persuasions: by attributing their own ideas to him they could invest these ideas with the authority of the Imam.[7] The writings attributed to al-Mufaddal are very different in nature and scope, but Ja'far al-Sadiq is the main speaker in most of them.[8]

A major part of the extant writings attributed to al-Mufaddal originated among the ghulāt, an early branch of Shi'i Islam.[2][c] A recurring theme in these texts is the myth of the world's creation through the fall from grace of pre-existent "shadows" or human souls, whom God punished for their disobedience by concealing himself from them and by casting them down into the seven heavens.[9] The Kitāb al-Haft wa-l-aẓilla (Book of the Seven and the Shadows, 8th to 11th centuries)[10] develops the theme of seven primordial Adams who rule over the seven heavens and initiate the seven historical world cycles.[11] The Kitāb al-Ṣirāṭ (Book of the Path, written c. 874–941) describes an initiatory "path" leading believers back through the seven heavens towards God.[12] Those who grow in religious devotion and knowledge climb upwards on the chain of being, but others are reborn into human bodies, while unbelievers travel downwards and reincarnate into animal, vegetable, or mineral bodies.[13][d] Those who reach the seventh heaven and attain the rank of Bāb ("Gate")[e] enjoy a beatific vision of God and share the divine power to manifest themselves in the world of matter.[14]

Among the extant non-ghulāt texts attributed to al-Mufaddal, most of which were preserved in the Twelver Shi'i tradition, two treatises stand out for their philosophical content. These are the Tawḥīd al-Mufaḍḍal (al-Mufaddal's Tawhid) and the Kitāb al-Ihlīlaja (Book of the Myrobalan Fruit), both of which feature Ja'far al-Sadiq presenting al-Mufaddal with a proof for the existence of God.[12] The teleological argument used in the Tawḥīd al-Mufaḍḍal is inspired by Syriac Christian literature (especially commentaries on the Hexameron), and ultimately goes back to Hellenistic models such as pseudo-Aristotle's De mundo (3rd/2nd century BCE) and Stoic theology as recorded in Cicero's (106–43 BCE) De natura deorum.[15] The dialectical style of the Kitāb al-Ihlīlaja is more typical of early Muslim speculative theology (kalām),[16] and the work may originally have been authored by the 8th-century scribe Muhammad ibn Layth.[17] Both works may be regarded as part of an attempt to rehabilitate al-Mufaddal as a reliable transmitter of hadiths in the Twelver Shi'i tradition.[18]


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  1. ^ Modaressi 2003, p. 333. Asatryan 2000–2012b also mentions the kunya Abū Muḥammad.
  2. ^ a b Asatryan 2000–2012b; Halm 2001–2012. On the ghulāt more generally, see further Hodgson 1960–2007; Anthony 2018. On their cosmology and theology, see Asatryan 2017, pp. 137–161.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference money-changer was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Amir-Moezzi-Eir was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Asatryan 2000–2012b. Turner 2006, p. 183 discusses the account of the proto-Twelver scholar al-Kashshi (fl. first half of the 10th century), who cites some reports alleging that al-Mufaddal had briefly fallen into heresy during his time with Abu al-Khattab, and that Ja'far had reluctantly repudiated al-Mufaddal as an infidel. However, most Twelver Shi'i sources deny that al-Mufaddal was ever involved in any heresy (see Amir-Moezzi 2013).
  6. ^ For the term 'Mufaddal Tradition', see Halm 1978; Halm 1981; De Smet 2020, p. 300. A list of works is given by Modaressi 2003, pp. 333–337 and Asatryan 2000–2012b (summarized in the sections below).
  7. ^ Asatryan 2017, p. 59.
  8. ^ Asatryan 2000–2012b. Many of Ja'far al-Sadiq's followers belonged to the ghulāt, which may also partly explain why this Imam looms so large in ghulāt writings such as those attributed to al-Mufaddal; see Gleave 2008–2012.
  9. ^ Asatryan 2017, pp. 140–141; cf. Halm 2001–2012.
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference layers was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ Cite error: The named reference tanasukh+7adams+adwar was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  12. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Asatryan-Eir was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  13. ^ Cite error: The named reference naskh/maskh/raskh was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  14. ^ Asatryan 2017, pp. 145–147.
  15. ^ Daiber 2014, pp. 171–178; Chokr 1993, deuxième partie, chapitre I, 3 Deux ouvrages attribués à Ǧa‘far al-Ṣādiq, 10–17.
  16. ^ Chokr 1993, deuxième partie, chapitre I, 3 Deux ouvrages attribués à Ǧa‘far al-Ṣādiq, 21.
  17. ^ Cite error: The named reference Ibn-al-layth was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  18. ^ Cite error: The named reference rehabilitate was invoked but never defined (see the help page).