فصلنامه علوم حدیث
سال بیست و ششم شماره 2 (پیاپی 100، تابستان 1400)

Occurrence of fabricated hadiths among the traditions transmitted from Prophet Muhammad (s.‘a.w.) and the Infallible Imams (‘a.s.) is an undeniable fact about which the Infallibles have warned and pointed out the punishment of the fabricators in the hereafter. This writing deals with why and how these fabricated hadiths have crept into Shi‘a and Sunni hadith collections and mentions the method of the Shi‘a scholars [for distinguishing a fabricated hadith] when they confront a dubious case, in the form of six inquiries.

This writing has dealt with the semantics of the phrase “‘aqala ‘an Allāh” in traditions. For this reason, the literal meaning of the verb “‘aqala” has been presented and its applications when associated with the particle “‘an” has been collected and classified. Based on this, the phrase “‘aqala ‘an” in the traditions dealing with jurisprudence denotes “to undertake and to pay another person’s compensation for unintentional injury (diat all-khaṭa’). In non-jurisprudential traditions, however, “‘aqala” denotes: learning, receiving and keeping in mind. In this field, the above phrase has been associated with the blessed word of Allah, so it denotes learning and receiving from God. In most of these usages the indirect object is not mentioned, however, it exists and is implied, because the verb “‘aqala” is a transitive one and requires an object. Considering the object “amrah” in certain usages along with the context of the traditions, one can consider the object as the divine Command or Affair, and the above phrase as learning and receiving the divine commands from God or whatever relates to His affair, whether this receiving be through the messengers of God or through paying attention to the call of one’s natural disposition (fiṭra).

Hadith books that have been available from the time of official compilations, have enjoyed divisions into chapters (tabwīb). With an analytical external approach to these divisions into chapters, this article aims at introducing them and performing typology about them first, and then showing the effective factors for division into chapters which mostly refer to personal characteristics of the compiler and his time by making use of examples and instances. This article also carries out a pathology with regard to the existing instances of division into chapters and indicates their weak points. The last section of this article offers working procedures to remain immune from these damages constitutes the hast section of the article.

Among major problems mention can be made of production of knowledge and necessity of theorization on the basis of hadith sources, foundation of which is discovery of reality and not description nor prescription; the question of whether or not hadith comprehension (fiqh al-ḥadīth) can result in knowledge generation. The goal of this research is to study the possibility, foundation and method of producing knowledge from the hadiths. The method of this research is analyzing the interdisciplinary hadith-oriented studies and then experiencing it in hadith scholarship. The finding of this research is that firstly, there exists the possibility of producing knowledge from hadith (discovery of reality); because the words of the Infallibles are issued on the basis of realities, and that they conceal it (i. e. the reality) in their lower layers. Secondly, the approach of a researcher should be understanding the foundation and the lowest layer of hadith and not its appearance. Thirdly, to attain such a goal, in addition to the customary fiqh al-ḥadīth (hadith comprehension) one should make use of the third generation of fiqh al-ḥadīth which is based on the tactic of reverse-engineering, with the purpose of recognizing the foundation of constituents of each hadith and then discovering the basic rule through the investigation of relations of the foundations with one another. It is concluded that to produce knowledge and to Islamize the humanities, other phases should be completed after completion first generation’s phases. On this basis, the instruction of this method in the disciplines of hadith sciences (‘ulūm al-ḥadīth) and the sciences of the Qur’an and hadith (‘ulūm al-qur’ān wa al-ḥadīth) should be taken into consideration.

At the time of al-Kulaynī it was common to apply circumvention in the Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh) and that it had a serious presence nearly in most of the chapters of jurisprudence and that its reliability in the eyes of the majority of the jurisprudents was indisputable. One of the proofs for the advocates of the hypothesis of permissibility of circumvention in the ruling about a sick person who has committed fornication is that his fixed legal punishment of fornication (ḥadd al-zinā) has changed from flogging to striking with a fagot or a bunch of hundred dried sticks of date palm, on the strength of the verse “Take a fagot in your hand and then strike [your wife] with it, but do not break [your] oath.” (Q 38:44). Al-Kulaynī has reported the content of this proof with his isnads from Imam Ja‘far al-Ṣādiq (‘a.s.). The validity assessment of Kulaynī’s reports, as well as their differences and differentiations with other reports existing in the Twelver Shi‘a and the Sunni hadith collections is the main problem of this writing. The result of this research is to dispute one of al-Kulaynī’s reports. We have explained in some hypotheses the differentiations, and differences between it and other Shi‘a and Sunni reports. We have concluded that it is dubious to consider al-Kulaynī among the advocates of the paradigm of permissibility of circumvention in the ruling for the fixed legal punishment of fornication committed by a sick person by reasoning on the strength of the above verse.

The approach of negation of Divine Attributes in the matter of Divine Essence is a doctrine that is deemed today odd (shādhdh), but the hypothesis of affirmation of the Divine Attributes and their being exactly as the Divine Essence, as an interpretation of Unity of Divine Attributes (al-tawḥīd al-ṣifātī), is ascribed to the Ahl al-Bayt (‘a.s.). This research aims at seeking the approach of negation of Divine Attributes in the traditions transmitted from the Ahl al-Bayt and has reached the conclusion that an enormous volume of the Shi‘a traditions denotes negation of Divine Attributes, however, affirming the Divine Attributes is the approach of the late philosophers. For this reason, wherever in the traditions the negation of Divine Attributes is mentioned, it is interpreted and justified. by these thinkers. The traditions denoting negation of the Divine Attributes can be classified in four categories:  1) traditions denoting negation of Divine Attributes; 2) traditions denoting negation of description; 3) traditions denoting the mediation of the Divine Attributes (for instance, Knower by virtue of His Essence (‘ālimun li dhātih) instead of Knower of His knowledge (‘ālimun bi ‘ilmih)); and finally, 4) traditions denoting the contingency of names (ḥudūth al-asmā’).

This article deals first with the definition of information literacy and its necessity and use in acceleration of the research process and knowledge propagation. Next, it follows up the goals of hadith scholarship in four groups: research and explanation, propagation and expansion, vindication and answering, and finally, education and practice. The information literacy has been indicated in each and every of these goals. After that it offers more than twenty suggestions for executing this process.

The science of mushkil al-ḥadīth is one of the major sciences pertaining to hadith. Comprehension of difficult hadiths and attaining what the Infallibles have meant, require a logic and academic mechanism the first phase of which is awareness of the grounds of emergence of the problem and then following up the solution for difficulties of hadith.  Having deeply investigated the difficult traditions in the collection of Shi‘a and Sunni hadith sources, this writing has sought twelve grounds for emergence of mushkil al-ḥadīth under the following titles and has referred to the relevant fields: 1) involving damages; 2) oddity (gharāba) of the word; 3) polysemy; 4) existence of terms or expressions; 5) complexity of the structure; 6) metaphorical statement; 7) separation from indications; 8) the causes of issuance of hadith; 9) exaltedness of the content; 10) the tradition being specialized; 11) intrinsic difference and discord; 12) extrinsic contradiction and discord.

Scholarly journals are deemed the most important tools for disseminating the research findings, and should be investigated and evaluated. Investigation of the condition of the journals with the approach of knowledge-assessment is considered among the most important methods for their scholarly performance evaluation. The present study aims at investigating – with a knowledge-assessment approach – the quarterly “‘Ulūm-i Ḥadīth” (lit. hadith sciences) as the first-ever and the most influential journal in the field of hadith sciences. This study has been carried out in the form of a survey and with the approach of knowledge-assessment. All articles of ‘Ulūm-i Ḥadīth quarterly journal including 460 articles, constitute the statistical population of this study. The data have been extracted from the website of Islamic World Science Citation Center (ISC) and have been analyzed by means of collocation and the network of being [the works of] the same author. The findings of data analysis indicate that the thematic network of this quarterly journal has been constituted from eleven clusters based on the technique of collocation. Similarly, the network of being the same author has been constituted from two major clusters and thirteen minor clusters. The biggest cluster has taken shape having Muhammad Kazem Rahman Setayesh as its pivot. The most voluminous pivot among the universities belonged to the University of Tehran, however, the role of the University of the Qur’an and Hadith, the University of Ferdowsi in Mashhad, and the University of Qum was also remarkable. Most of the articles, namely 396 articles (86%) were written by one author. The second rank with 13% belonged to articles written by two authors (an author and a co-author). The findings of this study can potentially provide information for the authorities to make decision about the Quarterly and to rethink about the future thematic trends. The authors and researchers can make use of the findings of this study to define research topics and to publish their works in this quarterly journal.

This article (al-Kibrīt-e Aḥmar lit. quest for the red Sulphur, Anqā’ Mughrib, lit. The Fabulous Gryphon, and Eslām-shenāsī lit. understanding Islam: Notes from Tahdhib al-Ahkam by Shaykh al-Ṭūsī) comprises a report from certain of the traditions contained in Tahdhīb al-Aḥkām by Shaykh al-Ṭūsī. These traditions have been transmitted in traditions sources; however, they are rarely mentioned. Some of these traditions have been discussed in some jurisprudential sources and otherwise, however, they do not possess a remarkable status in the eyes of our scholarly community. These traditions pertain to the three fields of theological traditions, jurisprudential traditions and historical traditions. Some of these traditions, despite the fact that they represent an ethics-oriented and justice-oriented spirit, they have scarcely been regarded. At times some approaches and behaviors in the Muslim communities contradict what has come in the traditions.

The early scholars – in addition to reading and collating the hadith books – have strived when transmitting the hadiths to indicate the valid spelling and vocalization of the words and to transmit them to others correctly.  In the modern age, however, despite the fact that we feel a great amount of attention to the editing of the works of early scholars, but in most of the cases of editing, enough attention is not paid to valid spelling and vocalization of the words.
On the other hand, one should regard – when editing a hadith book - the transmission of that hadith in other sources so that the difficulties that usually occur in comprehension of hadiths, would be minimized as much as possible. This writing has mentioned instances of the abovesaid difficulties.