Reviewing and Criticizing the Hadithi Techniques of Ahmad al-Hasan al-Basri

The Flaw of “Ahmad al-Hasan al-Basri” is one of the dangerous flaws in the subject of Mahdism, and due to some of its features, distinct from other claimants, at one hand, the promotional activities of this flaw have increased in various forms of advertising; on the other hand, the tendency some of the religious people have toward this flaw has increased the sensitivity toward this subject and thus it doubles the necessity of criticizing and investigating this flaw and showing its drawbacks. Ahmad al-Hasan al-Basri, who claims to be the first Mahdi and the promised Yamani, considers himself to have the Divine Knowledge like the other Imams and immune from all mistakes and faults; while his books are replete with Quranic, jurisprudential, theological and philosophical mistakes. The main issue in this paper is presenting the three techniques and traditional mistakes of Ahmad al-Hasan al-Basri which will be shown in a descriptive-analytic-critical approach. The current paper addresses these issues: faults and inconsistency in his approach toward authorities (of traditions), the fault related to his opposition toward the traditions concerning the way of sending prayers for the infallibles, and the five cases related to his wrong interpretation of traditions.