Discourse Analysis of the Shiite Hadith Heritage with Respect to its Fundamentals and Consequences: a Case Study on Saffar Qummi's Baṣaʾir al-Darajāt

The diversity of the readings of the tradition has cuased conflicts among Shiite discourses over the proper representation of the tradition and has been a motive for re-thinking the Shiite heritage. Baṣaʾir al-Darajāt is one of the earliest Shiite works which has remained since the beginning of the absence of the twelveth Imam until now and compiled from the Imam’s Hadithes. This work shows the problematic of the Shiite community and the Shiite elites’ answers to it at this epoch-making change in the history of the Imami Shiia. Discourse analysis of Saffar Qummi’s Baṣaʾir al-Darajāt in this paper has been also determined by this kind of conditions and motives. For the lack of clarity in the mothodilogical foundations in discussing this problem is one of the cuases of the polemic nature of the readings of the Shiite heritage and the discredit of findings about their meaning and interpretation. The approach of this paper is social constructivism and its method is the discourse theory of Laclau and Mouffe. Applying this theoretical framework, we can find that “Imam’s knowledge” in the discoursive background governing the text becomes the discourse crossroad of the discoursive order of the Shiia. It is clear from the diversity of narratives in their content and number in Baṣaʾir al-Darajāt. The Moffavazeh and the Moqasereh, among others, were the most important Shiite discourses that were articulated around the Imam's knowledge. Due to the presence of full-fledged discourse elements, such as the transfer of world affairs to the Imams, and the immense abilities and knowledge of the Imams, it is argued that the Baṣaʾir al-darajāt has been adapted to the discipline's discursive features.