A Study of the Chain of Transmission and the Text of the Hadith "The Saved Men are little, and the Saved women are less and less"

Beside the Quranic verses that propound the same power of men and women to achieve perfection and virtues there are some narrations that express the women''s imperfection of talent to reach the high values or imply the existence of different values for men and women. Since the most important perfection in religious thought is closeness to God and to achieve a pure faith and deliverance، the texts that consider woman''s power and abilityas imperfect human in reaching the truth of faith، are important and should be studied. One of the hadiths in this regard، is the one which has been narrated from the Prophet in Al-Kafi، Man La Yahdorohu Al-Faqih and other Shi''ite sources، the content of which is: «The Saved Men are little، and the Saved women are less and less». According to this narration، women have less ability in acquiring the felicity than men. This article studies the text and the chain of transmission of this hadithand shows that the ways in which the hadith is narrated are weak. Its text is criticized too، and it will be said that if it is accepted its validity as genuine hadith from the Prophet، then it is as an actuality proposition which is considered for the time of its issuing and cannot be generalized for all men and women.