Shiblī’s Hadith on the Secrets of the Hajj: Shiites’ Narration or Sufis’ Story?

Some recent Shia texts narrate a conversation taken place between Imam Zein al-Abedin (AS) and a man named “Shiblī” through which the Imam interprets the rituals of the Hajj and its spiritual secrets in a mystical way. This narration has been cited by the contemporary Shia authors since Muḥammad Nūrī narrated it in Mustadrak al-wasāʾil. However, there are several ambiguities about the document and validity of this narration and the nature of the man addressed by the Imam (AS) about which Shia authors have not reached a definite and clear conclusion. The findings of this study show that in the ancient Sufis’ texts and sometimes other popular sources, there are different versions of this dialogue, but with a similar structure, in most of which, a mystical interpretation of the Hajj rites is narrated by one of the Sufi shaykhs in the format of a dialogue between Junaid Baghdadi and his disciple, Abū Bakr al-Shiblī, two prominent Sufis of the Baghdadi school of Sufism in the 3rd and 4th centuries AH, or between Shiblī and another Sufi. Also, a more detailed Shia version, probably in the later periods, was found its way into the Shia texts as a dialogue between Shiblī and Imam Zein al-Abedin (AS).