Shi’a Research Institute is proud to announce the successful defence of Dr. Vinay Khetia’s PhD paper at McMaster University, under the Department of Religious Studies.
His thesis, “A Study of Shi’i Liturgy’, is currently under a lengthy, but crucial process of being converted to an academic peer-reviewed monograph, currently under consideration by various academic publishers for formal publication.
This monograph by Dr. Khetia explores the historical, doctrinal, and philosophical aspects pertaining to Twelver Shīʿī liturgy. In doing so, it brings to light the broad historical contours which established its textual development and proliferation from the period of the Imāms until that of Shaykh ʿAbbās al-Qummī.
Through an in-depth investigation into the culture and practice of the rigorous and systematic transmission of liturgical texts, this study provides, for the first time, clear evidence of a method for preserving the liturgical compositions that were attributed to the Imāms.
With a selection of words and phrases drawn from these texts, a sensitive analysis is made of their theological and cosmological underpinnings. It is hoped that such an analysis will pave the way for further consideration of this, until now, somewhat neglected field of Islamic Studies.