Jump to content
In the Name of God بسم الله

Recommended Posts

Posted

Salamun 'Alaykum

Thanks for the great post.

Could you demonstrate the process with an example or two, preferably one at least comparing matn preservation and how to spot idhtirab in the matn, hence weakening it. Could the idhtirab possibly occur because of the companions weakness in relating the meaning passed to him by the Imam (as) or is it always a sign of tampering/fabrication etc. What possibilities are there for idhtirab?

I'm about to reach this section in the book im reading regarding ahadith, but maybe you might mention something that's not in the book, since it is introductory.

Also, i'v seen an article published by Dar al-Hadith* about Rijjal and some of the contributions of Sayed Burujerdi, it is by Sheikh Ja'far Subhani. Inshallah if i can find it, i will translate the necessary parts and add them to the discussion.

*Institute run by Sheikh Muhammad Rayshahri

Posted

Bismillah

Just read through the article i mentioned and a few more, it seems that those concentrate more to his contribution as a whole to 'ilm rijjal, not focusing directly on his manhaj per-say. They were very informative, and some kulliyat (general/univeral) points can be taken that would eventually help when looking at studies in rijjal or practicing yourself.

The main point which is stressed is that he (Burujerdi), took rijjal studies from their taqleedi stage (following the verdicts and gradings of najashi and shaykh) and brought it into a ijtehadi stage, allowing for people to become mujtahids in 'ilm rijjal. The articles go on to show how he did this.

There is also some interesting stuff on his work on the tabaqaat and how he made life a lot easier when recognizing people with the same names, who appear in the hadith but are from different eras (some times amongst these asami mushtarak, one is thiqa whilst the other is not) and cause confusion when trying to analyse isnaads.

So, as it is not directly related, and owing to my laziness (because of how much there is to translate) i will just copy the links here for those who understand farsi to benefit from, and save myself the trouble of translating.

http://gallery.muhammadi.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=302:----------3-&catid=74:1391-01-29-13-51-46&Itemid=6

http://www.hawzah.net/fa/magazine/magart/4518/4546/32781

  • Veteran Member
Posted (edited)

Salamun 'Alaykum

Thanks for the great post.

Could you demonstrate the process with an example or two, preferably one at least comparing matn preservation and how to spot idhtirab in the matn, hence weakening it. Could the idhtirab possibly occur because of the companions weakness in relating the meaning passed to him by the Imam (as) or is it always a sign of tampering/fabrication etc. What possibilities are there for idhtirab?

Thank you for your insightful input.

Idhtirab definitely occurs due to the weakness of the narrator in Dhabt, and not always due to tampering and/or fabrication.

And this is why Sayyid al-Burujerdi differentiates between the Mukathirun and Fuqaha of the Ashab from those who have a lesser number of narrations, because it is known that the former stayed for a longer period of time with the Aimmah and became highly specialized in the art of narrating their Ahadith, something that cannot be said for the latter.

I have been looking at some examples, and this is what I have obtained so far [taken from Sayyid al-Jalaliy's work]

Sayyid al-Burujerdi says about some Riwayat that have real contradiction with other Riwayat.

[a]

إنّها صحيحة من حيث السند، ولكنْ في متنها نحوُ اضطرابٍ

It is Sahih as far as Sanad is concerned, but in its Matn there is a form of Idhtirab. [al-Badr al-Zahir Pg. 137]

NOTE: He mentions the fact that the Sanad is Sahih, but since the second phase in his resolution process is to look at the Matn, he ignores the Sihha of the Sanad.

هذه الروايةُ - وإن كانتْ اظهرَ من سابقتها في الدلالة ..- لكنّها مغشوشة

من حيث العبارة، وكانّ الراوي لم يكن بصيراً باُسلوب كلام العرب

This narration - and even though it is clearer than the first one in terms of its purport, but it is jumbled up in terms of its phrasing, and it is as though the narrator was not fully proficient in the speech of the arabs. [Zubdah al-Maqal Pg. 80]

NOTE: He finds a strangeness in the Arabic of the Riwayah.

[c]

إنّ الروايةَ في كمال الاضطراب من حيث المتن، بحيث ربّما يحصل الوُثوقُ

والاطمئنانُ بعدم كونها صادرةً عن المعصوم عليه السلام

The narration has total Idhtirab in it as far as its Matn is concerned, to the extent that it could be said that one can achieve faith in it NOT having originated from the Ma'sum [as]. [Nihaya al-Taqrir Pg. 237]

From this it is understood that comparison with the quality and the form of Arabic that was appropriate for that period, together with a consideration of the Aimmah's eloquence [and general speech pattern] plays a role to discover the Mutun that have Idhtirab in them - in the Sayyid's Manhaj.

Edited by Islamic Salvation
  • Veteran Member
Posted

Salaam brother. Can you give a summary in layman terms, or those who are not even close to beginners in terms of rijal please? I really wanna understand this article but I cant.

Wa salaam

  • Veteran Member
Posted (edited)

As an example about the different types of companion-narrators in the view of the Sayyid, and the possible causes of Idhtirab in Matn due to the weaker understanding and Dhabt of a less professional Hadith narrator, we can look at what the Sayyid says about Bashir al-Nabbal -

إنّه قليلُ الرواية جدّاً، فيُعلمُ من ذلك عدم كونه من فقهاء الأصحاب من قبيل ابن مسلم وابن جابر، فإنّ ضبط العاميّ - وإن كانَ وَرِعاً جدّاً لايُقاسُ بضبط الفقيه المطّلع، كيفَ واشتباهُ العوام، وخطؤُهم في فهم ما يسمعونه، وضبطه، اكثرُ من ان يُحصى وبَشير بن مَيْمُون، واخوه شَجَرَة، من اُسَراء العَجَم، ولم يكونا من اهل اللغة العربيّة العارفين باساليبها -

He has very few narrations, so it is understood from this that he was not from the Fuqaha of the companions such as Ibn Muslim and Ibn Jabir, and the Dhabt of the commoner, and even though he is very pious cannot be compared to the Dhabt of the aware Faqih, and how can they be compared! while the mistakes of the commoner and their errors in understanding what they hear, and preserving it, is more than can be counted, and this Bashir bin Maymun and his brother Shajara, are from the persian prisoners, and they were not from the people of the Arabic language, well cognizant with its different veins. [al-Badr al-Zahir Pg. 288]

Edited by Islamic Salvation
Posted

Jazak Allah khair al-Jaza' for your efforts brother IslamicSalvation. Its members like you, and threads/posts like this that make it worth staying on shiachat, even after years.

I greatly benefited from the posts.

Salaam brother. Can you give a summary in layman terms, or those who are not even close to beginners in terms of rijal please? I really wanna understand this article but I cant.

Wa salaam

As i'm sure any of the experienced brothers would advice; you need to start by becoming familiar with rijjal terminology. There is not really anyway of explaining it in complete layman's terms, since some of the arabic words don't even have proper english equivalents.

http://www.shiachat.com/forum/index.php?/topic/235005232-technical-terminology-for-rijal-criticism/

Also, a nice and simple introductory book in english is "Introduction to Hadith"- 'Abdal-Hadi al-Fadhli - translated by Nazmina Virjee.

Join the conversation

You are posting as a guest. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...