فصلنامه علوم حدیث
سال بیستم شماره 2 (پیاپی 76، تابستان 1394)

Superiority of Prophet Muhammad (S) to other prophets, infallibility of the prophets, and recommendation of marriage are among the well-known Islamic teachings documented with numerous Qur’anic verses and the traditions approving their genuineness and reliability. In the same field there exist traditions with the context of superiority of Yūnus (Jonah) and Yaḥyā (John) [to other prophets] that are not in line with these teachings. The present study discusses about these traditions from the aspects of typology of the texts, evaluation of the resources, and being in contradiction with Islamic teachings, and tactics and finding methods to remove that contradiction; and presents a new tactic for their understanding and criticism. The results of this study showed that the contradiction among these traditions originates from certain premises, as well as application of a particular approach in explaining the concept, and lack of historical approach in understanding the circumstance in which the traditions were issued. Relying on the principle of standard text, semantics based on independent reasoning, and applying a historical approach, the new tactic presents a new explanation consistent with the likely circumstance in which the traditions were issued and removes the claimed contradiction of them in the light of Islamic teachings.

Upon the establishment of the Safavid dynasty and recognition of Shi‘ism as the official denomination, and subsequently, the request from the Shi‘a scholars to disseminate the Shi‘a knowledge, and even the most important, the change in the approach towards hadith and the spread of Akhbari thought, all these factors prepared the grounds for development of Shi‘a text scholarship in the tenth/sixteenth to twelfth/eighteenth centuries. Most of the Shi‘a text scholarship activities were carried out in this period and more than eighty per cent of the commentaries on the Four Books (from both quantitative and qualitative aspects) were compiled within this period. More than other hadith collections al-Kāfī drew the attentions, and this was because of the Akhbārī thought and to some extent the criticism on the rationalists. Ten per cent of the books in this regard were compiled in Persian. Another fact is that most of the works were compiled by the Akhbārīs.

Kitāb Sulaym (the book of Sulyam) is among the Shi‘a hadith works belonging to the first/seventh century. The traditions contained in this book compared with other resources of both Shi‘a and Sunni denominations have countless common and, at the same time, (numerous) exclusive matters. From a quantitative aspect when the common matters and exclusive ones are compared, majority of the traditions of the book are reports supported by numerous historical evidences. But a small per cent of the traditions include the exclusive ones that mostly pivot on doctrinal, historical and maṭā‘in (strong criticisms). Content researches of the mutafarridāt (exclusive reports) of Sulaym, based on the Shi‘a fundamentals show their content genuineness. An instance for this is the traditions introducing the Twelve Imams (A.S). However, the reliability of some subjects of this same mutafarridāt such as introducing the sect of Samarra among other Islamic sects, exaggeration in explaining some of the virtues and merits of Imam Ali (A.S) and Sulaym (himself), and maṭā‘in (strong criticisms) concerning the first two Caliphs and the wives of the Prophet (S), going astray in some its accounts with regard to historical events such as the Battle of Camel, and conversation of Muhammad b. Abu Bakr with his father Abu Bakr at the last moment of the latter’s life, cannot be proved.

Hadith literally means whatever is “new”. However, this term is usually used in speech. “Riwāya” literally means “current”, and “narration”, but is majorly used in the concept of “report” and “account”. Based on usages of “hadith” and “riwāya” by the early compilers of Fihrist and Rijal books this study has attempted to offer a better understanding of their purpose in reporting the biography of the traditionists and their evaluation. This article mainly puts emphasis on explaining the usages of “riwāya”, because the vastness of its usage with regard to written resources explicitly indicates that they are pivots around which narration of hadiths revolves. Studying the usages shows that “hadith” has been used in its literal meaning, as well as in the concepts of inserting the words of the Imams (A.S), choosing them out of other works and in the traditions quoted from a particular compiler in other works. “Riwāya” in its turn, was applied, in addition to its literal meaning, in the concepts of verbal reporting of the hadiths, reporting the books of the others and reporting a certain copy of a book.

The phenomenon of fabrication in the traditions is a plight causing every researcher to ask (first) about the veracity of issuance of a tradition. This issue becomes much more manifest when the tradition becomes ambiguous or is inconsistent with rational findings. Occurrence of such a phenomenon is an undeniable matter; however, it should always be noted that the final expression of opinion about a narration requires taking several research dimensions into consideration among which is the circumstance of the narration issuance. The hadith “dafn al-banāt min al-mukarramāt” (burial of daughters is counted among the honored manners) is judged by major scholars as a fabricated hadith because its content is not consistent with religious and rational findings. By taking the historical events and issuance circumstance of the hadith into account and considering the difference between the literal meaning of the words “dafn” (burying dead) and “wa’d” (burying alive) among the Arabic speaking, this research has suggested a new concept and this way has removed the doctrinal and rational improbability of the content of this narration.

Hadith center of Baghdad has always been important in the history of the Imamiyya’s thought. For this reason awareness of the history of the Imamiyya’s hadith in Baghdad will assist us in analyzing the history of the Imamiyya. It is shown in this article that upon migration of the Twelver Shi‘a personalities (aṣ-ḥāb al-Imāmiyah) from Kufa to Bahdad, along with the attempts of those Twelver Shi‘a personalities who had a Baghdadi origin, the hadith school of the Imāmiyya was established in the late second/eighth century and was active until the end of the first half of the third/ninth century. The hadith school of Baghdad was a major provider of hadith for other regions in which the Twelver Shi‘a Muslims dwelt. Numerous hadith works were compiled for the first time and were used in compilation of hadith collections in later periods. It was also indicated in this article that the Imāmiyya families in Baghdad who were involved in hadith (i.e. its reception, collection and tranmission) played (remarkable) roles in blossoming the hadith school of this city. Finally, it was indicated that the hadith school of Baghdad fell into a decline in the late first half of the third/ninth century due to political pressures of the Abbasid Caliphate

Maqtal al-Husayn (A.S) available within the book Maqātil al-Ṭālibiyyīn compiled by Abu ’l-Faraj Iṣfahānī is among the surviving early maqātil (martyrdom accounts) that have not remained secured against the distortions on the subject of ‘Āshūrā’, in a way that it makes us be suspicious about certain matters associated with the Event of ‘Āshūrā’. Comparing the maqtal (martyrdom account) of Iṣfahānī with the maqtal related by Abu Mikhnaf available within Tārīkh al-Ṭabarī one can find similarities in both resources. Abu ’l-Faraj’s narration is a combination of the narration of such hadith transmitters as Abu Mikhnaf, ‘Ammar al-Duhnī, and Jābir al-Ju‘fī. Therefore, his narration is a paraphrase (and not a verbatim report). For this reason, a double carefulness is required when one faces with narrations that seem to be paraphrases recorded in narrative historical books. In certain cases this maqtal contradicts indisputable events and or historical accounts. In some cases (in this book) the high status of the Infallible Imams (A.S) or their families were blemished and this account has become a base for citation by Shi‘a scholars in later centuries.