فصلنامه علوم حدیث
سال بیستم شماره 4 (پیاپی 78، زمستان 1394)

Tawīl (interpretation) is a frequently used term which influences the religious realm. Its main function is to approach the reality of texts. When facing religious texts Ṣadr al-Dīn Shīrāzī (known as Mullā Ṣadrā) lays an emphasis on the source of revelation, and then he mentions the discussion of tawīl. Applying and ascription-based, descriptive and content analysis method, this article studies the concept recognition of tawīl in the thought of Mullā Ṣadrā and investigates the status of traditions and the way of their interpretation in the rational school of this scholar. The result of this study specifies that he has allocated some of his compilations to benefiting from traditions and that he emphasizes that one should maintain the outward meaning of words and avoid interpreting them; however, since he believes that the words of the Infallibles have an esoteric or inner meaning (bāṭin), he practices the tawīl of the traditions to shift from outward meaning to the inner one. His main standard in this task is edification of soul, inner purification of and intuitive wayfaring.

A prerequisite for scholarly evaluation of the orientalist's approach to the Imamī hadith is direct confrontation with their writings, a goal that will not be attained these writings are thoroughly researched and are studied case by case. This article that is the fruit of eight months of filed study and library research in the country and abroad, and is based on studies already published in Persian and Arabic, provides, in the first step, an exact and comprehensive bibliography about the Imamī hadith, and in the second step categorizes these studies and reports them in the form of a logic model. The results of this study can be fruitful in answering such questions as: what is the prominent written legacy of the orientalists about the Imamī hadith? And which issues of the Imamī hadith have been studied in these writings?

There exist in Persian language numerous loanwords borrowed from Arabic, but they have gained meanings new meanings. These words – called Persiarabic (alluding Persian-Arabic) words in this article – exist in both languages either identically or with similarity in shape and pronunciation. They do not necessarily have the same meanings; therefore, they may cause damage or misconception (in translations). It is for this reason that the Persian version of these word's meaning springs to the mind of certain translators of the Quran and hadith when they face them. Having categorized the types of Persian-struck-ness and having explained the statistics showing their prevalence, this study provides noteworthy evidences and examples of this phenomenon in the Persian translations of Nahj al-Balaghah. Taking advantage of genuine and reliable lexicological references the genuine Arabic meaning, along with the transformed Persian meaning have been specified for every given example. This study also indicates the existence of certain words in Nahj al-Balaghah that have unexpectedly been translated (into Persian) in an incorrect way even by famous translators of Nahj al-Balaghah.

Al-Jāmi' al-Ṣaghīr is one of famous Sunni hadith collections, sorted and compiled alphabetically (based on the initial letters of each hadith). This article investigates that to what extent the book has been methodical in paraphrasing the traditions. It was written with the quantitative content method and based on a sample prepared in a systematic and class-based way. The results indicate that it can be said with an error rate of 5% that al-Ṣuyūṭī has paraphrased 49% of the traditions contained in al-Jāmi' al-Ṣaghīr: 92% of which in a correct way, but 8% of which in an incorrect way. Along with this quantitative analysis, the kinds of incorrect paraphrasing, and the percentage of each have elaborately been studied in a qualitative way. Moreover, al-Ṣuyūṭī has acted contrary to his own opinion and the majority of the men of "Dirayah", denoting that after the hadith collections were compiled, it would absolutely be impermissible to paraphrase a hadith.

Hadith comprehension, as well as resolution of conceptual contradiction is gained when the purpose and circumstance of hadith issuance are correctly explained. At first Islamic governmental commands were issued during the rule of the Prophet (s.a.w) and Imam Ali (a.s), the Commander of the Faithful, proportioned with the needs and condition of the community , as well as the audience of that era. These commands (and ordinances) should, in the first step, be recognized. In the second step, and based on analyzing these hadiths, these command (and ordinances) can be applicable, under certain conditions, to other eras and audiences. Recognition of this kind of hadiths has a remarkable effect on comprehending certain traditions and also in resolving the contraction among many hadtihs that refer to the ordinances.

The present study aims distinguishing Ismā'īl ibn Marrār from his namesakes among other hadith authorities, and intends to discover whether or not he is reliable. This way it will become clear for the experts (in hadith sciences) whether the numerous hadiths quoted from him in the Four Books, which amount to 200 hadiths, are authentic or not. Having applied an analytical-comparative method and having benefited from existing evidences this article deals with the identifying individuals having the same name. Despite the fact that no special authentication (tawthīq khāṣṣ) is available, his reliability was proved in the light of three general authentications (tawthīq `āmm). Other than them, two evidences denoting that his traditions are authentic were found.