The extent of reliability of Sunni traditions from the perspective of Shia scholars

Some of Shia scholars do not stipulate that the hadith transmitter must profess the Shia faith so that one may accept the hadith or a report he quotes from Prophet Muhammad (s. a. w) or from the pure Infallible Imams (a.s). They consider it sufficient that the hadith transmitters would be trustworthy. What confirms this is the history of Shia scholars denoting that they dealt with this subject from different standpoints to the extent that they had at times contradictory opinions about the reliability or unreliability of Sunni hadith transmitters. By making use of ascription-orientated way of library method and using descriptive-analytical way, this research intends to analyze the standpoints of the Shia scholars about the reliability of Sunni narrators during a time span between early scholars’ era and modern days. Contemplating the books of early scholars, particular authentications (tawthīqāt khāṣṣah) as well as general authentications (tawthīqāt ‘āmmah) about the Sunni narrators will be achieved. Later scholars, who follow the example of early ones, have stated in their works both types of authentications about the certain Sunni narrators. Making use of indications and evidences, they have analyzed their reports and have declared the reason for soundness of them. The present research has achieved comprehensive indications by juxtaposing different aspects of the fundamentals of both groups of Shia scholars. By studying some of the most important Rijal-orientated and hadith-orientated sources this research has stated statistics of the number of trustworthy Sunni narrators.