Journal of Hadith Studies
Year:2011 | Volume:2 | Issue:4|Papers Count:8

The narrations of the Immaculate, peace be upon them, in the process of transmission come in different manuscripts and various narrations. Sometimes one narration in one book or some books have been transmitted repeatedly and in some cases the different transmissions of one narration differ from each other in text or documents. Although the secondary sources of Shii hadith (unlike the primary sources) have tried much to find these united narrations, unfortunately they never discussed their theoretical principles or their problems and questions. This article is an attempt to introduce briefly questions such as the definition of unity and diversity in narrations, the benefits of knowing the united narrations, the criteria of knowing the united narrations and the problems that exist in this way. Moreover, the function of the two books, Wasail al-Shia and Jami Ahadith al-Shia in this regard have been discussed and compared with each other.

The transmitters and compilers of hadith attribute certain hadiths to the holy Prophet, peace be upon him and his household, which mainly refer to a kind of virtue and superiority of the Persians to the extent that it is said if knowledge were in Venus, the people of Persia would attain it. This superiority in narrations is mentioned at least three times in the words of “belief”, “knowledge”, and “religion”. These hadiths can be seen in the compendiums of hadiths, history books and Shii exegeses. In this article, first, the reflection of these hadiths in the narrations of the Sunnis which are more in number have been considered, and then the hadiths transmitted by the Imamis have been discussed. Afterward, their content is studied and the different views on their applications are presented. In the evaluation of these narrations a few major views have been offered, that is, some by their endorsement or silence have confirmed them, and some who are completely of recent date have denied them altogether and hold that all of them are fabricated. However, there are another view which is intermediary and calims that some of these hadiths are true and some others are corrupted. At the end by discussing the character of the transmitters and the documents of these hadiths we come to the conclusion that these hadiths from the viewpoint of the Sunnis are true but on the basis of the Shii science of hadith they are weak.

Tafsil Wasail al-Shiah fi Tahsil Masail al-Shariah by Sheikh Hor al-Amili is an Encyclopedia of the Shia jurisprudential narrations which since its composition has attracted the attention of the jurists and researchers of hadith. The author in this book by compiling those hadiths with the same content argues that understanding the tradition of the Immaculate, peace be upon them, is one of the most essential religious sources and texts. Sheikh Hor al-Amili by establishing the authenticity of the narrations of the Immaculate, peace be upon them, and their reliability, and employing different sources of hadith and consulting several manuscripts of each source, and also referring to the negligence of the transmitters and scribes of hadith, has made the understanding of hadith possible. Moreover, the author by explaining the meaning of the difficult words and terms and referring to the verbal and technical meaning has made the understanding of the narrations more convenient. He also considers the divisions made in the book a prerequisite for understanding hadith and in consequence its better appreciation. Sheikh by looking carefully into the verbal and nonverbal contexts has prepared the way for going beyond the apparent meaning of the narrations to reach the main intention of the immaculate, peace be upon him. By considering the nonverbal contexts, he reveals the metaphors and ironies in the speech of the immaculate, peace be upon him, and by concentrating on the disjunctive verbal contexts or the narrations with the same content of the main narrations, he explains the relations of restriction, explanation and modification among hadiths. Besides, he has not overlooked the implied indications of the imperative and prohibitive forms and has understood whether they are recommended or not from their implied meaning.

Robson, the English Orientalist, in the third volume of Encyclopedia of Islam, assigns a special entry to introducing hadith. In this entry he discusses such subject as the study of hadith as a word and as a technical term, the compilation of hadith, introducing the compendiums of hadith by the two sects, the critique of hadith, explaining the different kinds and degrees of true hadiths, defining the different technical terms of hadith in relation to the nature of the sources and the text of hadith, and finally the ways of transmitting hadith.This article is an attempt to study and critique his views in relation to the “compilation of hadith”. He writes that tradition at the beginning was not among the sources of religion but gradually it was counted among its sources and that in some of the Islamic countries at the beginning there was no text of hadith and the compilation of hadith along with its sources returns to subsequent centuries. The writers of this article in their historical search show that this claim is not true.

One of the most important aims in research on the sciences of hadith is offering methods for the study of the works done on hadith. One of these methods is the study and evaluation of the titles and entries of books on hadith. This article is an attempt to introduce and discuss the degree of the efficiency of this method in the sciences of hadith, and in order to fulfill this purpose the efficiency of this method has been studied in the two fields of external assessment (attributing and editing the text) and internal assessment (understanding and evaluating the text). Having proved the efficiency of this method the researcher discusses the way to give title to those texts which have been given wrong titles. In this relation he offers the two textual and metatextual methods in the designation of the titles of texts. In his discussion and explanation of the different aspects of this method the researcher mainly refers to the works of Muhammad Taqi Shushtari, one of the contemporary researchers on hadith.

Ahmad ibn Ali al-Najashi is one of the eminent experts in the science of hadith transmitters and bibliography, and his book on the transmitters of hadith is considered the most important among the four major books on the Shii science of transmission of hadith. He was the disciple of many Masters, some of whom were the most eminent scholars in the science of the transmitters of hadith and bibliography. Moreover, because he had access to many sources and books written by Shii and also Sunni scholars and had read them carefully he had gained deep knowledge in the field. The discussion on Najashi’s evaluation of his masters’ general reliability may be traced back to the time of Allamah al-Hilli, though this view was presented more seriously by Sayyid Bahr al-Ulum. Najashi committed himself to relate only from those Masters who were reliable, and this commitment can be seen in his expressions about some of his Masters. The meaning of these expressions is clear and in some cases explicit, but this assessment of reliability is limited to those Masters from who he heard. Some researchers hold that the meaning of these expressions is insufficient and imperfect and had denied the reliability of Najashi’s Masters on the ground of his commitment in relating from no weak Master without intermediaries and his insufficient knowledge on the character of a group of his Masters at a certain period of time and also the existence of the weak among his Masters. Nevertheless, considering Najashi’s close acquaintance and long companionship with his Masters it can be argued he directly or on the testimony of other Masters had sufficient knowledge of all Masters he had directly heard from and if he related from some of the weak Masters in his books of hadith transmitters, it was at the time when they were not weak.

The present article attempts to discuss the method the followers of the narration-oriented exegesis follow in their use of the narrations. From the viewpoint of the researcher the main defects of the interpretive approach of this movement insofar as method is concerned are two: avoiding the assessment of the sources of the narrations and refraining from analyzing their significance. The most important weakness of the latter is the improper application of the narrations to the verses, mixing the different domains of the language of the Quran and lack of depth in selecting the interpretive hadiths to the extent that it is reduced to mere verbal relationship. The new structure of the discussion, the kinds of analysis and the comparative specimens are some of the distinctive features of this article.

In some of the Sunni sources of narrations, such as Sahih Muslim, Musnad by Ibn Hanbal, Sunan by Ibn Majah, Sahih by Ibn Habban, and Majma al-Zawaid by Haythami, there is a narration known as the “pollination of the palm trees” which is considered as authentic by the Sunnis. The researcher in this article first traces the sources of this narration and shows that some of the transmitters of this hadith according to the Sunni scholars in the science of hadith transmission are weak. He then has an assessment of the content of the narration and its problems and shows that accepting personal judgment as one of the sources of the knowledge of the Prophet, peace be upon him and his household, would not only lead to the failure of the Prophetic mission and the reason of sending the Prophet but it is also its incompatible with the principles of reason. In this article a reference is also made to the difference between the Shiis and Sunnis on the infallibility and knowledge of the Prophet.