Examining the authenticity of the Prophetic Narration "The superiority of the Prophet Khatam and His Family over the Prophets"

The superiority of the Holy Prophet over the former prophets is one of the consensual beliefs of Muslims. According to several texts, the Imāmīs also believe in the superiority of the Ahl al-Bayt over other prophets. To explain the superiority of the Prophet and his family, some late Imāmī sources have cited a prophetic narration in Al-Amaali of Ibn Babiwayh, which informs of the conversation between the Messenger of God and a Jew about the superiority of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and Prophet Moses (AS). The present writing assesses the possibility of this narration being issued by the Holy Prophet by using textual criticism methods. The originality of the structure of the narration is based on the parallelization of the resolvable parts of the narration in the available Islamic herritage older than Al-Amali; and the resultant is the possibility of the two last parts of the narration being borrowed from former sources based on the similarity of lexical, semantic, and declarative technique. The originality of the content is investigated according to the frequency of the central concepts of the narration in the collection of narrations attributed to Prophet Mohammad (PBUH); and the result is the strengthening of the attribution of the content of the final part of the narration to the Holy Prophet. Therefore, the narration being issued in the current format as well as the attribution of some of the themes in the text to the Holy Prophet is questionable. However, the present article does not rule out the possibility of the presentation of these themes and the teachings based on them by other infallible Imams and Criticism of the mentioned narration does not mean denying the doctrine of the superiority of holy prophet and his progeny.