Mustadrak al-wasa'il (book)

Mustadrak al-wasa'il

Author	Muhaddith Nuri
Original title	مُستَدرَكُ الوَسائل و مُستَنبَطُ المَسائل
Language	Arabic
Series	18 Vol.
Subject	fiqh
Genre	hadith
Published	1408/1987-8
Publisher	Mu'assisa Al al-Bayt li Ihya' al-Turath

Mustadrak al-wasāʾil wa mustanbaṭ al-masāʾil (Arabic: مُستَدرَكُ الوَسائل و مُستَنبَطُ المَسائل), known as Mustadrak ( مستدرك), is a collection of hadiths regarding fiqh (jurisprudence), written by Mirza Husayn Nuri, known as Muhaddith Nuri, a Shiite scholar (d. 1320/1902). The book is a supplementation (istidrak) of Wasa'il al-shi'a by al-Shaykh al-Hurr al-'Amili. It counts as the most important work of Mirza Nuri.

Significance

• In this book, Muhaddith Nuri collected over 23,000 hadiths that were not cited in Wasa'il al-shi'a.

• Mustadrak al-wasa'il counts as a reliable Shiite collection of hadiths written in the fourteenth/twentieth century.

• In order to derive the rulings of shari'a, a mujtahid refers to Wasa'il al-shi'a first, and then to Mustadrak in order to make sure that every hadith is taken into account.

• Muhaddith Nuri made a thorough search in order to find reliable sources of hadiths that are not cited in al-Shaykh al-Hurr al-'Amili's Wasa'il al-shi'a. These sources include 75 Shiite hadith books the reliability of which are argued for by Muhaddith Nuri in the epilogue of Mustadrak.

• The author collected many hadiths from reliable sources that were about to go into oblivion. Muhaddith Nuri revived and added those sources to reliable Shiite collections of hadiths.

Motivation for writing

Muhaddith Nuri chose the book, Wasa'il al-shi'a, for supplementation, because he believed that al-Hurr al-'Amili provided the most comprehensive collection of hadiths regarding fiqh that should be consulted by all people who seek to derive rulings of shari'a from hadiths.

The author classifies his "supplementation" to Wasa'il al-shi'a into three parts:

• Hadiths that are cited in old and reliable books, but were not available to al-Shaykh al-Hurr al-'Amili.

• Hadiths that are cited in books whose authors were unknown to al-Hurr al-'Amili and so were not cited by him, but Muhaddith Nuri could identify their authors with his research and show their reliability.

• Some hadiths are cited in reliable books that were available to al-Hurr al-'Amili but he just overlooked them.

In an illumination of his motivation for writing the book, Muhaddith Nuri said that supplementing the book, Wasa'il al-shi'a, is a worship. Moreover, it is very helpful to collect hadiths regarding the rulings of fiqh and make them available to scholars. With this, the Prophet's (s) shari'a will be more complete.

Style of writing

Muhaddith Nuri wrote the book in a style similar to Wasa'il al-shi'a.

• Titles of the sections of the book are the same as those in Wasa'il al-shi'a, and so the reader can easily find the relevant hadiths. And when his view about the titles of sections was different from that of the author of Wasa'il al-shi'a, he tried to keep it as similar as possible.

• In case he did not find new hadiths in a section, he eliminated that section from his book.

• The book refers to al-Shaykh al-Hurr al-'Amili as "Shaykh", and refers to Wasa'il al-shi'a as "Asl" (origin).

• At the end of most sections, there are important points about the issues of the section, such as rulings that can or cannot be derived from them, and other relevant issues.

• Sometimes a relevant hadith is not cited by al-Hurr al-'Amili under a section, though it is cited elsewhere. In such cases, Muhaddith Nuri cites such hadiths under the relevant section as well.

Date of writing

Muhaddith Nuri started writing the book around 1295/1878-9 in Samarra near the holy shrine of Imam al-Hadi (a) and Imam al-Hasan al-'Askari (a) when Mirza Shirazi was in charge of the Isalmic seminaries. The main part of the book was finished in 1313/1896, one year after the death of Mirza Shirazi, and its second part, that is its epilogue, was finished in 1319/1901 in Najaf on Rabi' II 10/July 27, the birthday of Imam al-Hasan al-'Askari (a).

Features

• Some hadiths that are cited in Wasa'il al-shi'a with unreliable chains of transmission are cited in this book with reliable chains.

• Some hadiths that count in Wasa'il al-shi'a as infrequent proved to be frequent in this book.

• Some al-mursal hadiths (that is, ones with incomplete chains of transmission) in Wasa'il al-shi'a are cited with complete chains of transmission in this book.

• Some al-mawquf hadiths (that is, ones that are not attributed to the Infallibles (a)) are cited with chains of transmission that attribute them to the Infallibles (a).

• The implications of some ambiguous hadiths are made clear.

• Nuri cited hadiths with regard to some rulings for which no hadith was cited in Wasa'il al-shi'a.

Comments of other Scholars

• Aqa Buzurg Tihrani, a student of Muhaddith Nuri, writes about the book that: "the book is as reliable as other well-known collections of hadiths, and every mujtahid is required to consult the book when deriving a ruling of shari'a in order to make sure that their search for relevant hadiths is complete and no contradictory hadith is present".

• Akhund Khurasani, the author of Kifayat al-usul, said in one of his lectures that "in our time, no mujtahid can make sure that they have explored all the relevant evidence unless they consult Mustadrak al-wasa'il by Muhaddith Nuri and learn about its hadiths."

Important Shi'i hadith collections	Author	Death	Number of hadiths	descriptions
al-Mahasin	Ahmad b. Muhammad al-Barqi	274/887-8	about 2604	Hadiths regarding different topics such as fiqh and ethics
al-Kafi	Muhammad b. Ya'qub al-Kulayni	329/941	about 16000	Variety of hadiths regarding the principles of beliefs, ethics, conducts, and fiqh
Man la yahduruh al-faqih	al-Shaykh al-Saduq	381/991-2	about 5500	Hadiths regarding fiqh
Tahdhib al-ahkam	al-Shaykh al-Tusi	460/1067	about 13600	Hadiths regarding fiqh
Al-Istibsar	al-Shaykh al-Tusi	460/1067	about 5500	Hadiths regarding fiqh
al-Wafi	al-Fayd al-Kashani	1091/1680	about 50,000	Collection of hadiths in the Four Books with eliminating repeated hadiths and explaining some hadiths
Wasa'il al-shi'a	al-Shaykh al-Hurr al-'Amili	1104/1693	35850	Hadiths regarding fiqh in the Four Books and over 70 other collections of hadiths
Bihar al-anwar	al-'Allama al-Majlisi	1110/1699	about 85,000	Hadiths from most of the Infallibles (a) regarding various issues
Mustadrak al-wasa'il	Mirza Husayn Nuri	1320/1902	23,514	Supplementation of hadiths regarding fiqh in Wasa'il al-shi'a
Safinat al-bihar	Shaykh 'Abbas Qummi	1359/1941	10 volumes	an alphabetically ordered index for Bihar al-anwar
Mustadrak safinat al-bihar	Shaykh 'Ali Namazi	1405/1984-5	10 volumes	Supplementation of Safinat al-bihar
Jami' ahadith al-Shi'a	Ayatollah Burujirdi	1380/1961	48,342	Including all Shiite hadiths regarding fiqh
Mizan al-hikma	Muhammad Muhammadi Reyshahri	2022	23,030	564 non-jurisprudential (not regarding fiqh) topics
al-Hayat	Muhammad Rida Hakimi	2021	12 volumes	40 chapters regarding theoretical and practical issues

Epilogue of the book

The epilogue of Mustadrak contains an essay by Muhaddith Nuri that, according to Aqa Buzurg Tihrani, is a precious work in dirayat al-hadith and principles of 'ilm al-rijal. The 12 issues discussed in this epilogue are as follows:

• Sources of the book,

• Introducing and showing the reliability of the authors of these sources,

• Muhaddith Nuri's chain of narrations of these sources,

• A description of al-Kafi by al-Kulayni,

• An exposition of the narrators of Man la yahduruh al-faqih by al-Shaykh al-Saduq,

• Some points about Tahdhib al-ahkam by al-Shaykh al-Tusi,

• People of Consensus and their numbers,

• Reliability of Imam al-Sadiq (a)'s companions,

• Terms that imply reliability, and in gerenal, evidence for reliability,

• Reliable hadiths that are not mentioned in the epilogue of Wasa'il al-shi'a,

• Akhbari views about the reliability of certainty,

• The place and value of the science of hadith.

Manuscripts

• A manuscript with the handwriting of the author in the library of Astan Quds Razavi, Mashhad. At the end of this manuscript, there is a hadnwriting of Aqa Buzurg Tihrani confirming the authenticity of the manuscript.

• A manuscript in the library of Sayyid 'Abd al-'Aziz Tabataba'i. This manuscript also contains Aqa Buzurg Tihrani's commentaries on Mustadrak al-wasa'il.

• A manuscript in the Nasiri library in Tehran.

Publication

The book was published in 18 volumes in Arabic by Mu'assisa Al al-Bayt li Ihya' al-Turath in Qom in 1408/1987-8.