Studying and Criticizing the Views of Tahir ibn Ashur on the Issue of Mahdism with an Emphasis on the Sunni Sources

The principle of “Mahdism”, as one of the important teachings of Islam, has always been accepted by the Islamic scholars; however, in recent decades, some people have denied the principle of Mahdism, one of whom is “Tahir ibn Ashur”. This paper investigates and criticizes the views of ibn Ashur in the issue of Mahdism with an emphasis on the Sunni sources. In this regard, at first, we have analyzed his reasons with a descriptive-critical approach and then, criticized them according to the Sunni Sources. Like other deniers, ibn Ashur resorted to “not mentioning the Mahdism Hadiths in his Sahih”, but later, by misinterpretation of the principle of “Al-Jarh wa l-Ta'dil”[1], he weakened the narrators of Mahdism hadiths. The results of criticizing his reasons show that the Sunni scholars do not limit the authentic hadiths to the hadiths mentioned in the two Sahihs. Moreover, based on the rules of criticism and praise in the Sunni hadith sciences, ibn Ashur has made a mistake in understanding and applying the principle of “criticism and praise” and the praise of narrators.


[1]  criticism and praise