According to the official website of Grand Ayatollah Noori Hamedani, speaking to chairman and members of the Islamic Seminary's Usul Association, His Eminence elaborated on the scope and importance of principles of Islamic jurisprudence and also touched on the Akhbari trend during the Safavid era. He said the enemy is always trying to create differences and discord among Muslims and when they saw the glory of Shi'ism in the Safavid era they established the Akhbaris to confront the Usuli (lit. principalist) scholars in order to marginalize the religion.
He went on saying that the Akhbaris introduced many innovations and alterations in the themes of the principles of Islamic jurisprudence and, consequently, in the Islamic law. "In the Safavid era the science of the legal theories (Usul) fell entirely in the hand of traditionalists (Akhbaris) and the scholars were discussing clandestinely the issues related to the principles of Islamic jurisprudence," His Eminence noted.
Grand Ayatollah Noori Hamedani said that training of scholars and qualified jurists is one of the merits of the school Ahlul-Bayt (AS) and that the household of the Prophet (S) taught and trained such scholars only to argue against the deviations with logic and reason.
"The jurisprudence which is available to us today is the same pure jurisprudence that was at the time of the infallibles (AS)," Grand Ayatollah Noori Hamedani said, "All the infallibles (AS), somehow always encouraged their students to learn the knowledge of Usul and the methods of derivation of jurisprudential rulings."
This great Shiite religious authority emphasized that one may not be acquainted with an Islamic law at some point, and knowledge of Usul can be very instrumental because he can find out his religious duties using the basics of Ilm al-Usul. It is necessary to know that all the disciplines and branches of knowledge that are available to us today, in the Islamic seminary have come from the time of Ahlul-Bayt (AS).
His Eminence further said that during the recent centuries the principles of Jurisprudence or the science of legal theories have been thriving. "Grand Ayatollah Brojerdi during his lessens in jurisprudence and principles explained the historical course of the jurisprudential issues to his student in order to inform them of the Infallibles' viewpoints. Today we have to know that without understanding the Infallibles' viewpoints we will not master the religious sciences," His Eminence noted.
Grand Ayatollah Noori Hamedani highlighted the need for nomination of a special day to celebrate the science of principles and said, "It is our duty to celebrate the great sciences such as jurisprudence, principles, interpretation, and theology on a special day."
He said all sciences originated in the religious sources. "Historically, we find that that the West made progress in Islamic sciences thanks to the efforts made by Muslim scholars."
Grand Ayatollah Noori Hamedani further reiterated that governance of the country is possible only through adhering to and upholding religious principles because the Islamic Revolution was heralded by religious scholars. "We must honor and preserve religious sciences as best we can," His Eminence stressed.