Journal of Hadith Studies
Year:2015 | Volume:7 | Issue:13|Papers Count:15

In the holy Quran no mention is made of the marriage of Yusuf and Zulaykha, but in the compendiums of narrations and exegeses of the two sects there are fourteen narrations about it of which eight are mentioned in exegeses and six in books of traditions. Of course, the exegeses compared to books of narrations are much older. A survey of these narrations shows first that they have been reported in different ways. A study of the chain of evidence and the texts of these narrationsshows, moreover, that their evidence is weak and their content is also problematic. These narrations in respect of the chain of evidence are either morsal (lacking the mention of the first transmitter), marfu'' (attributed), maqtu''(disconnected; with an interrupted isnad) or havebeen reported by less reliable narrators. In the texts of these narrations there are also many differences. Moreover, there are certain points in them which cannot agree with the indisputable instructions of the holy Quran. On the other hand, a look at the Scriptures shows that some part of the content of these narrations has been taken from the Scriptures which after some changes and additions have found their way in the compendiums of narrations and exegeses. One of these is that the names of the two sons of Yusuf are taken from the Torah but unlike the Torah they are ascribed to Asnat rather than to Zulaykha. Considering the number and inclusiveness of the narrations reported by Wahab Ibn Munabih compared to other narrations, it is likely that the roots of these narrations return to him, and the narrators after him each in his own way has added some parts to them. The result is that some Muslims on this issue have referred to the people of the Book, i.e. the Jews and Christians and have been influenced by their narrations. Therefore, the validity of the narrations is suspected though the likelihood of the marriage considering it is the common points of so many narrations is not rejected.

Foregrounding is one of the contemporary literary theories, which from a literary perspective to texts, in prose or verse, endeavors to explain and analyze those effective features and elements in the body of the discourse which rhetorically distinguish literary texts from ordinary ones. According to the Formalists, foregrounding is achieved through diminishing or increasing the rules. In other words, the poet or writer through ignoring some of the rules of the standard language or adding some other rules to it foregrounds the form of his language and separates it from normal language. Decreasing the rules occurs in the field of rhetoric but adding to rules takes place in domain of figures of speech. Fatimah, peace be upon her, in the well-known sermon of Fadak defends her legal rights and tries through her prominentdiscourse to guide the people who had ignored the rights of the household of the Prophet, peace be upon him and his progeny, back to the right path. Reflecting on the expressive and influential speech of Fatimah, peace be upon her, reveals the literary splendors in that discourse. Her choice of diction and the combination of words in the structure and fabric of her speech makes the text of the sermon separate from other text. Fatimah, like a competent orator, by infusing literary figures in her speech and making her discourse rhythmic and balanced increases the effect and value of her speech. This research attempts to analyze the sermon of Fadak from a literary perspective in the light of Foregrounding. Accordingly, the narrative text of the sermon is discussed on the basis of decreasing and increasing the rules and in consequence its literary magnificenceis analyzed and explained.

By upcoming of the fabrication of hadiths and its penetration into hadith resources, distinction between the original and fabricated hadiths became one of the important priorities of hadith scholars. One way to achieve this end is to study the masters of hadith and try to discover the characteristics of each narrator. In the periods near to the origin of hadiths which is also near to the time of the holy Prophet, this task was easier since knowing the narrators was done either without any intermediary or just a few ones. From the third and fourth century onward, scholars of hadith and narrations wrote some books in which they gathered and recorded the narrators and their characteristics so that there existed a resource for those who wanted to study this subject. In introducing the narrators, they sometimes used some terms that were not clear. Today, understanding and discovering the referents of these terms is one of the responsibilities of the scholars of jurisprudence and hadith. One of these terms is «salim al- Jobnah» which was used for some narrators by some Imamite scholars of biographical evaluation. In this study, after surveying the views of the scholars of hadith regarding the meaning and referent of this term, and by considering the terminology and the accompaniment of this term with others, also, by taking into account the similar phrases and terms in the literature of both Sunni andImamite biographical evaluation, an attempt is made to reconsider the meaning of this term and show that what is meant by it is the narrators'' righteousness of the character.

In his book Man La-Yadhiraho al-Faqih, Sheikh al-Saduq reports a group of traditions whose common theme is the permission and lawfulness of work. By accepting this group of traditions he founds a rule on whose base he issues his personal judgment. This rule which is called "permission" (rukhsat) in the literature of Sheikh al-Saduq is one of the methods which he uses in solving the conflict among traditions. However, this rule compared to other methods of solving the difference among traditions is not comprehensive, and because it does not have a known criterion in its application it does not have enough validity and apparently it cannot be called a general rule. Understanding the concept of the rule of permission, explaining its function from the viewpoint of Sheikh al-Saduq and the assessment of the validity of the rule of permission are some of the points which have been analyzed and evaluated in this article.

Many well-known traditions reported by the elite and the public is that al-Mahdi will come on Friday. However, there are some other traditions which clearly indicate that the Imam's comingwill be on Saturday. The question is that which of these two groups of traditions are more valid. This article shows that although Friday is most known to be the day of the coming of the Imam, evidence shows that his coming on Saturday is more probable, although these two groups of traditions could be brought together. Following an analyticaldescriptive method and by surveying all traditions indicating the day of coming and evaluating their validity this article has attempted to bring together these two groups of traditions and concludes that Friday will be the day of coming for the elite and Saturday for the public.

The question of the validity of the book We Have Sent It Down on the Night of Ordainmentby HasanIbn Abbas Ibn Harish al-Razi is the point of disagreement among the traditionists of the two schools of tradition of Qom and Baghdad. The traditionists of Qom such as Saffar, Koleini and Sheikh al-Sadoq have accepted the validity of the book and have reported its hadiths among their hadith sources under two headings, “Proving the Virtues of the Imams”, especially in relation to the knowledge of the Imams, and “Arguing for the existence of the Imam.” In contrast, the followers of the school of Baghdad hold that the author of the book is weak and his book is totally unreliable. Saffar al-Qomi speaks of presenting the book to Imam al-Jawad, peace be upon him, and the confirmation of its content by the Imam has been counted as a convincing reason for its validity. This article attempts, besides having an analytical look at the content of the book, to discuss the judgment of the Baghdadi scholars of the hadith on theauthor of the book and in consequence to explain the likely reasons of the difference among the followers of the Qom and Baghdad sects on the validity of the book and also evaluates the reliability of the account given on presenting it to the Imam.

One of the narrations which have been used in key discussions on Jurisprudence and Principles, such as balance and preponderance, fame of judgment, personal judgment and following others’ judgment, the rule of jurisprudent, etc., is the narration reported by Umar Ibn Hanzalah from Imam al-Sadiq, peace be upon him. Many of the scholars in the field of Jurisprudence and Principles classify this narration as acceptable which indicates that the chain of evidence of this narration is not valid so that it cannot be called correct or at least reliable. However, there are many clues and indications showing that it is correct or reliable and, therefore, it can be used in the above mentioned discussions with certainty and without any hesitation.

Haydar Ibn Ali Ibn Haydar, known as Sayyid Haydar Amoli, is the philosopherand mystic of the eighth century AH and is the author of Tafsir al-Mohit al-Azam. He wrote this exegesis toward the end of his life in which he referred to many traditions narrated by the Immaculate. Hadiths have been reported in Al-Mohit al-Azamin different forms and ways. Most of these hadiths have been reported by paraphrasing and transmitting the meaning and sometimes they have been reported in the form of verse. Often these hadiths have been quoted in the confirmation of the views of the author and sometimes in interpreting the verses of the holy Quran. Moreover, they are often quoted without giving evidence. Amolithe mystic has also explained and elaborated on the narrations. His approach to explaining hadiths has a mystical tinge. Amoli in explaining narrations follows different methods, including explaining the meaning of the words, paying attention to diction and syntax and referring to verses and narrations. In reporting the narrations he employs both Shii and Sunni hadith sources. Besides a glimpse at the life of Amoli and introducing his exegesis Al-Mohit al-Azam, this article discusses in detail and analyses the traditions referred to in Al-Mohit al-Azam.

One of the widely spread and frequently practiced rituals in the Islamic society is consulting Allah or asking favour, a varied behavior in different forms with a long history in Islamic culture. The main forms of this ritual are transmitted but some of them are not. Accordingly, each of them has an origin and in the passage of time has changed. The variety of the forms of consulting Allah and their associated manner is so high that it is difficult to identify their common elements or find out the true nature of consulting Allah by referring to their shared constituents. Therefore, the main kinds of consulting Allah are presented in the form of narrations attributed to the Immaculate, peace be upon them, narrations which cannot be dated historically by the old method of the science of hadith. The present research by knowing the different forms of the ritual and evaluating the extant evidences of each form and defining criteria for classifying these forms has concluded a theory for the history of consulting Allah and its development throughout the history of Islamic culture and civilization. On the basis of this theory we will be able to determine the history of many narrations on consulting Allah. It seems that the different forms of consulting Allah in along period of time has developed from its simplest form, i.e. a simple prayer to request something to a complex behavior using different skills and various instruments.

The hadith «Loving Ali is a good deed by which no evil action may harm» is a famous and diffused hadith that is of great importance due to the ties with Shia ideas and theology. This research is aimed atidentifying the chain of its transmission among the traditional sources and then, by access to documents and different ways of narration, studying its validation of the chain of transmission. The final section of the article is about the analysis of the purpose of the hadith. It studies different arguments, acceptable or unacceptable interpretation and impression regarding the hadith.

The present study is an attempt to investigate the first sermon of NahjulBalagheh in the light of the formalistic criticism. It deals with the issue that the religious meaning and content of the creation sermon should be considered as a foundation, and how much the form and integration have been regarded, and to what amount the literary text has been observed by the author. Ignoring the non-textual questions like the personality and position of the author, social, historical and psychological issues that have no place in formalistic criticism, the writers concentrate only on the text and try to discover the beauties of the mentioned sermon according to the principles of this criticism. Regardless of its content and meaning, the text is entirely integrated and the words, terms, phrases and sentences are in a great harmony, making a wonderful arrangement. Using metaphors and figurative language, concentrating on inspiring sounds, observing the phonetic, syntactic and morphological balance, applying different kinds of literary defamiliarisation, making relation with other texts, all causes the text to own a magnificent superstructure and infrastructure. This leads to the conclusion that the beauty and poetry of the text are not sacrificed for the content and the meaning; rather, they help one another and the language is as important as the content.

Many narrations have been reported in the writings of the Shiites and Sunnis on the beginning and motivations of creation by Allah. In some of these narrations the motivation of creation is defined as the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him and his household. One of these narrations is a statement of such a fame which has been quoted in different Islamic sciences and countless exegetic, jurisprudential, theological, mystical and literary writings, that is, "Were it not for you I would have not created the spheres." Despite all these writings and reports, this statement was not told by the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him and his household. Nevertheless, there are many narrations with the same content and sometimes with the same words reported in Shii and Sunni hadith sources, which may lead us to think this statement is repeated in Islamic writings to transmit a concept and a meaning. Moreover, it is clear that fabrication in making this hadith is out of question and those who have thought this is a fabricated hadith are mistaken.