Dating the Hadiths of Exerting Taqīya, Using the Text-Isnād Analytical Method

One of the most fundamental questions in Usūl al-Fiqh is if it is possible to exert taqīya in making religious laws from Infallible imams (AS). Usūlī scholars are different concerning this matter. Here, two hadiths that refer to the exertion of taqīya in making religious laws, which have been used as the most important documents by the advocates of such exertion from the Infallible Imams (AS), are analyzed while using the method of dating source and text. Dating the source and the text of these two hadiths and comparing them with a related detailed hadith indicate that the exaggerators (ghulāt) inserted their ideas into these hadiths for distributing libertinism (ibāhah). The historical etymology of the terms, 'iftā', taqīya, mustarshid and shakk proves that the interpolated (mudarraj) part of two hadiths are connected to the ideas of Iraqi exaggerators during the 3rd century AH. A qualitative and quantitative analysis of these two hadiths as well as a more detailed hadith, which in fact explains the interpolated part of two hadiths, indicate that the main purpose of these three hadiths was not to express a religious law, but to show the secret nature of the process, its contradiction with the appearance of religious laws, and instability of the religious laws as the very structure of libertinism in the 3rd century AH.