Saturday 19 February 2011

Imur rijal in its own light

Has ilmur rijal (the study of narrators of ahadith to determine their authenticity) been mentioned and recommended in hadith? And is that hadith itself authentic as per the standards of ilmur rijal? Here's a well known hadith often presented to justify extreme reliance on ilmur rijal.

Kafi

محمد بن يحيى، عن عبدالله بن محمد، عن علي بن الحكم، عن أبان بن عثمان عن عبدالله بن أبي يعفور، قال: وحدثني حسين بن أبي العلاء  أنه حضر ابن أبي يعفور في هذا المجلس قال: سألت أبا عبدالله (عليه السلام) عن اختلاف الحديث يرويه من نثق به ومنهم من لا تثق به؟ قال: إذا ورد عليكم حديث فوجدتم له شاهدا من كتاب الله أو من قول رسول الله (صلى الله عليه وآله)  وإلا فالذي جاء كم به أولى به

Muhammad b. Yahya, from Abdullah b. Muhammad, from Ali b. al Hakam, from Abaan b. Uthman, from Abdullah b. Abi Ya'foor, said: And told us Hussain b. Abi al 'Ala who was present in this gathering with ibn Abi Ya'foor said: I asked Aba Abdullah(as) about difference in the hadith being narrated by whom we trust and some of those from whom we don't trust? (Imam(as)) said: When you people come across hadith and you find support for it from testimony of book of Allah(swt) or from saying of Rasool Allah(as) and otherwise then go with the first one (i.e. the one that was narrated by trust worthy narrator).

Source

Kafi (By Shaikh Kulaini), vol 1, page 69, hadith number 2 

Grading 

    Majlisi (Miratul uqul, vol 1, page 228)
                      مجهول  Majhool (unknown) 

  
Posted by Bhooka_bhairiya at 08:49
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3 comments:

  1. Anonymous12 April 2011 at 23:38

    salam brother

    the narration is authentic
    and has been included by allama mohib ud deen mosvi in al-mo'tabar min ahadeeth al-kafi

    http://www.al-shia.org/html/ara/books/?mod=hadith&start=190&end=200

    however, this narration cannot be taken as a proof for ilm-ur-rijal as we see nowadays because it says:-

    ibn Abi Ya'foor said: I asked Aba Abdullah(as) about difference in the hadith being narrated by whom we trust and some of those from whom we don't trust?

    and in reply to that, imam asws did not say that you follow the one from thiqa narrators, rather see what imam asws replied

    (Imam(as)) said: When you people come across hadith and you find support for it from testimony of book of Allah(swt) or from saying of Rasool Allah(as)

    and then imam asws clarified that if this condition is not fulfilled, that is, we do not find supporting evidence from quran and sunnah; only then comes the role of rijal

    so, primarily, you pay attention to the khabar; search that, and rijal play secondary role; unlike what is prevalent nowadays where ilm ur rijal is used to negate anything which is not suited to the person's desires..........even if it is in accordance with quran

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bhooka_bhairiya13 April 2011 at 20:44

    @Anonymous: Salam,

    Thanks for the info. I'll also check out that book you linked to.

    w/s

    ReplyDelete
  3. Elmaddin al-Rafidhi27 January 2014 at 10:13

    this hadith is not sahih. narrator Abdallah b. Muhammad is majhool (unknown). see: Sayyed al-Khoei, "Mujam", 11/333, narrator 7140

    ReplyDelete

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