The Issue of "Recommendation of Requesting a Male Child from God" in Jurisprudential Texts: An Example of Leniency in the Study of the Traditions about the Recommended Rulings

Despite numerous statements in the narrations of Shi'ite Imams (peace be upon them) which strongly deny socially institutionalized discriminations against girls, making quests for the son by his parents is recommended in Shi'ite jurisprudence. The validity of this rule in jurisprudential texts has not been examined by methodic meticulousness. Although there is no valid traditional reason for the child to be a son, requesting for son has been repeated in most jurisprudential texts. This inconsistency has been critically investigated in the present article by answering two questions: the question of how the word ‘son’ has been entered into these texts from the book Al-Nehayah by Sheikh Tusi, and the question of why this rule has not been examined by methodic meticulousness. Analyzing the narrations and jurisprudential texts, it becomes clear that this rule has penetrated into the jurisprudential texts since the time of Sheikh Tusi without any clear reason and has continued to exist until the time of Yazdi and afterwards. Finally, this issue has been examined by proposing three possible explanations, among which the effect of jurists’ subjective presuppositions during the study of narrations has been evaluated as a more appropriate explanation.