The Pathological Approach of Mulla Khalil al-Qazwini to Traditions in His Commentary of Usul al-Kafi

Hadiths of the infallibles (Ma‘sumin)) have been exposed to some distortions during the course of history. The methodological review of hadith with the aim of discovering these distortions and providing their solutions is one of the most important parts of Hadith sciences. This important issue becomes much more important in evaluating the commentaries attributed to Akhbaris and especially the ones written on the book Usul al-Kafi. Mulla Khalil al-Qazwini, one of the commentators of Usul al-Kafi in the Safavid era, has regarded a few of the hadiths in the book Safi as distorted. Although the number of distortions he has mentioned while interpreting hadiths are not much compared to those mentioned by some other commentators, they can be classified in a variety of types including distortions of research material, research methods, and the researcher; and they can include many kinds such as concealment (taqiyyah), fractionating (taq’ti), summarization, polysemy and dissociation of the document. This article seeks to analyze the Al-Qazwini’s method after examining his approach to pathology of traditions in Usul al-Kafi, and then criticize it.