نشریه امامت پژوهی
پیاپی 12 (زمستان 1392)

This article studies the hadiths analogizing the successors of the Holy Prophet to the naqībs (chieftains) of the Children of Israel, apostles of Christ, months, and eventually aims to highlight the possibility of a wider meaning beyond the mere numerical equality. The study is going to find an answer to the inquiry whether Number 12 bears the burden of Simile or there is another Simile between the Vehicle and the Tenor? To reply to this question, the position of Chiefs described in Torah and the etymology of the terms (indicating ‘naqīb’) in the Hebrew, Aramaic, Syriac, and Greek manuscripts have been studied. It is proposed that the semantic concept of naqīb appertains to "divinely chosen". In this way, it is shown that “being divinely chosen and appointed by God” can be regarded as the common characteristic of the two parallel groups. Due to this study, deeper understanding of numerical analogizing Hadiths is culminated and the concept of Imam as “being divinely chosen” in Shiite Thought is greatly strengthened. Furthermore, the fact underlines that the Hadith of twelve successors after Prophet Muḥammad (PBUH) is perfectly matched Shiite Imams.

During his farewell pilgrimage, Holy Prophet announced glad tidings about his twelve successors. This announcement is reported by Sunni scholars mainly through three narrators. However, they have paid attention mostly to one of these reports, which is narrated by Jābir b. Samura and has some ambiguity at the end. Narrating the glad tidings of the Twelve Imams, the author tries to challenge the approaches of Sunni traditionalists. Questionable brevity of Bukhārī and Muslim in narrating this hadith, preferring a child narrator to all other narrators, and dubious adaption of this Hadith to Umayyad and ‘Abbasid Caliphs are among these challenges.

There are plenty of hadiths, recorded in canonical Sunni sources, regarding the emergence of two groups of Imams. The first group are true or righteous Imams or Caliphs and, the second type are unjust Imams and rulers. Holy Prophet have described different characteristics of both groups, which helps to distinguish them from each other. The theme of prophetic hadiths concerning the first group is a promising one, whereas it turns to deterrent when it comes to the second group. This study tries to demonstrate that the characteristics of the righteous Imams described by the Prophet are historically applicable to the Twelve Imams of Shīʿite Islam and are clearly inconsistent with the known characteristics of most Umayyad and ‘Abbasid caliphs.

There are 20 hadiths narrated by Muhammad ibn Yaqub al-Kulayni (329 AH/ 941 CE) which indicate to the arrival of twelve Imams as the successors of the Holy Prophet, recorded in a chapter of al-Kāfī entitled as “What Have Been Narrated about Twelve Imams and Their Names”. The authenticity of these traditions, however, has been questioned by some contemporary writers. This study, first, examine the authenticity of authorship of the whole chapter, by comparing these 20 hadiths with the parallel narration in Kitab al- Ghayba by al-Nuʿmānī and then, tries to demonstrate that despite the alleged weakness of some narrators in the chain of these hadiths, most of these hadiths have been recorded before the beginning of Occultation period. As a result, even if the weakness of transmitters is accepted, the content of these narrations cannot be easily rejected or be taken as falsified or forged.

Some of the Shiite hadiths concerning the emergence of Twelve Imams are transmitted on the authority of non-Twelver Shīʿīs. Abu al-Jārūd (2nd/8th century), for instance, is one of the most important early Jārūdī-Zaydī figures who has related a report on the authority of Imam Bāqir (114 AH/ 732 CE), referring to the well-known Luḥ- tradition (the Tablet of Fātima in which indication to the twelve successors is made). This research, first, focuses on the early-Jārūdī doctrine in order to dissect the reasons behind the reliance upon Jārūdī narrators in the Shīʿī collections. In other words, why Imāmī traditionalists have trusted Jārūdī narrations. At the next step, Sociohistorical accounts of the emergence of the Jārūdī sect are considered to demonstrate that citation such as one by Abu al-Jārūd, not only are justifiable in Imamate tradition, but also narrations of such exemplify the early Jārūdī doctrine about hadiths related to Twelve Imams.

One of the ancient evidences posed by Imāmī scholars, concerning the number of Imams, is the testimony of Khiḍr to the twelve Imams with the names of all 12 Imams, which is narrated by Kulaynī and some other traditionalists on the authority of Ahmad b. Muḥammad b. Khalid al-Barqī (274 or 180 AH). Al-Barqī has narrated another version of the hadith in an extant Chapter (al-ʿilal) of his famous book, al-Maḥāsin, in which full names of Imams are not mentioned. This variation has casted doubt upon originality of the tradition. Through studying the chain of transmitters of the Khidr-tradition, this article aims to show that the origin of the hadith which contains full names of Imams is the book of the main narrator, Abū Hāshim al-Jaʿfarī (261 AH), from where it has been cited in later works such as al-Kāfī. Furthermore, by examining statistically all hadiths in the chapter of al- ʿilal, this study tries to find the roots behind the differences between the versions in al-Maḥāsin and other hadith collections. The study of the chains of hadiths in al-Maḥāsin shows that al-ʿilal was originally the book of al-Barqī’s father, Muḥammad b. Khālid, completed later by al-Barqī. Moreover, it is demonstrated that the textual differences, find their roots in the methods of hadith compilation of the father and his son.