A study on traditions in which Zurārah b. A yan was cursed, taking the theological currents of the Twelver Shi a into account

Zurārah b. A‘yan is among very honorable hadith transmitters that on the one hand has collectively been praised and authenticated in certain traditions within a group of transmitters under the title of “Aṣḥāb al-Ijmā” (People of Consensus), and on the other hand has severely been cursed in certain traditions. In the Rijālī works (evaluating the reliability of transmitters) different reasons and justifications have been presented concerning those traditions in which imprecation of Zurārah is contained. Some scholars have abandoned them due to the weakness of their isnād (transmission chain) while some others hold that those traditions were stated because of practicing prudent dissimulation. It was mentioned in Rijāl books that Zurārah had believed in a heretical idea called “istiṭā‘ah” (lit. capability). Scrutinizing the isnād and text of the traditions denoting imprecation of Zurārah, this article has indicated that those traditions in which Zurārah was cursed have in fact been stated (and disseminated) by the adherents of the opposite intellectual current in the field of theological issue of istiṭā‘ah.