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Aba Salih (teknonym)

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Engraving of "Aghithnī yā Abā Ṣāliḥ" (Help me, O Aba Salih) on a ring gem

Abā Ṣāliḥ (Arabic: أباصالح) is a teknonym attributed to Imam al-Mahdi (a) which has been used to refer to him since the 11th/17th century. This word and similar terms, such as "Salih" and "Ba Salih", appear in several hadiths advising those who have lost their way to call upon "Salih" and "Aba Salih" or "Ba Salih" for help. However, these titles are not listed among the teknonym of Imam al-Mahdi (a) in early sources, and hadith scholars and commentators do not consider them to be teknonyms of the Imam.

Aba Salih: A Teknonym Attributed to Imam al-Mahdi (a)

Aba Salih is a famous teknonym used for Imam al-Mahdi (a).[1] This teknonym is not mentioned for the Imam in hadiths or early historical texts.[2] It is only in later sources that it is reported that some have called upon the Imam using the call of "Aba Salih". For instance, Mirza Husayn Nuri, a Shi'a scholar of the 13th/19th and 14th/20th centuries, wrote that Arab speakers invoke Imam al-Mahdi (a) with the name "Aba Salih" in their elegies and poetry.[3]

History of Usage

According to the book Danishnama-yi Imam Mahdi, the teknonym "Aba Salih" has been used for the Imam since the 11th/17th century, and there are no reports of this term being applied to Imam al-Mahdi (a) prior to that time.[4]

Muhammad Baqir al-Majlisi (d. 1110/1698) quotes a story from his father in which a person named Amir Ishaq Astarabadi got lost on the way to Mecca. By saying "O Ṣāliḥ, O Abā Ṣāliḥ, guide us to the way"[5], he found a person who helped him and brought him to Mecca, whom he believed to be Imam al-Mahdi (a).[6] Mirza Husayn Nuri also posits that the usage of the teknonym AbaSalih for Imam al-Mahdi (a) likely originates from a story reporting that a person lost on the path to Hajj was saved by saying "O Aba Salih".[7]

The Danishnama-yi Imam Mahdi states that there is no proof for attributing "Aba Salih" to Imam al-Mahdi (a), and what led to the prevalence of this attribution are stories that do not necessarily indicate such a meaning.[8]

Usage in Hadiths

A flag inscribed with "Ya Aba Salih al-Mahdi" at Jamkaran Mosque

The terms "Ba Salih" and "Aba Salih" appear in some Shi'a hadiths; however, no hadith scholars or commentators have interpreted these terms as referring to Imam al-Mahdi (a).

For example, in a narration that al-Barqi (d. 280/893) quoted from Imam al-Sadiq (a), it is stated: "Whenever you lose your way, call out: 'O Salih and O Ba Salih, guide us to the way, may Allah have mercy on you both'"[9].[10]

Also, al-Shaykh al-Saduq (d. 381/991) narrated with a slight difference: "O Salih or O Aba Salih, guide us to the way, may Allah have mercy on you"[11] He then narrates another hadith according to which the dry land is entrusted to "Salih" and the sea is entrusted to "Hamza".[12]

It is said that neither al-Shaykh al-Saduq nor any of the commentators of Man la yahduruh al-faqih have applied this title to Imam al-Mahdi (a).[13] Furthermore, in a narration from the book al-Mahasin by al-Barqi, Salih is introduced as a Jinn who has the duty of assisting those who have lost their way.[14]

Notes

  1. ↑ Rayshahrī, Dānishnāma-yi Imām Mahdī, vol. 2, p. 322.
  2. ↑ Rayshahrī, Dānishnāma-yi Imām Mahdī, vol. 2, p. 322.
  3. ↑ Nūrī, Jannat al-maʾwā, p. 136; Nūrī, al-Najm al-thāqib, p. 45.
  4. ↑ Rayshahrī, Dānishnāma-yi Imām Mahdī, vol. 2, p. 322.
  5. ↑ (Arabic: یا صالح یا اباصالح ارشدونا إلی الطریق)
  6. ↑ Majlisī, Biḥār al-anwār, vol. 52, pp. 175-176.
  7. ↑ Nūrī, al-Najm al-thāqib, p. 571.
  8. ↑ Rayshahrī, Dānishnāma-yi Imām Mahdī, vol. 2, pp. 322-323.
  9. ↑ (Arabic: یا صالح و یا باصالح ارشدانا إلی الطریق، رحمکما الله)
  10. ↑ Barqī, al-Maḥāsin, vol. 2, pp. 362-363.
  11. ↑ Ṣadūq, Man lā yaḥḍuruh al-faqīh, vol. 2, p. 298.
  12. ↑ Ṣadūq, Man lā yaḥḍuruh al-faqīh, vol. 2, p. 298.
  13. ↑ Rayshahrī, Dānishnāma-yi Imām Mahdī, vol. 2, p. 322.
  14. ↑ Barqī, al-Maḥāsin, vol. 2, p. 380.

References

  • Barqī, Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. Khālid al-. Al-Maḥāsin. Edited by Muḥaddith Urmawī. Qom, Dār al-Kutub al-Islāmiyya, 1371 AH.
  • Majlisī, Muḥammad Bāqir al-. Biḥār al-anwār al-jāmiʿa li-durar akhbār al-aʾimmat al-aṭhār. Beirut, Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, 2nd ed., 1403 AH.
  • Nūrī, Mīrzā Ḥusayn. Al-Najm al-thāqib. Qom, Intishārāt-i Masjid-i Jamkarān, 1410 AH.
  • Nūrī, Mīrzā Ḥusayn. Jannat al-maʾwā fī dhikr man fāz bi-liqāʾ al-Ḥujja. Markaz al-Dirāsāt al-Takhaṣṣuṣiyya fī l-Imām al-Mahdī ʿajjal Allāh taʿālā farajah al-sharīf. Qom, Muʾassasat al-Sayyida al-Maʿṣūma ʿalayhā al-salām, 1427 AH.
  • Rayshahrī, Muḥammad Muḥammadī Nīk, et al. Dānishnāma-yi Imām Mahdī bar pāya-yi Qurʾān, ḥadīth wa tārīkh. Qom, Nashr-i Dār al-Ḥadīth, 1393 Sh.
  • Ṣadūq, Muḥammad b. ʿAlī al-. Man lā yaḥḍuruh al-faqīh. Qom, Jāmiʿa-yi Mudarrisīn, 2nd ed., 1413 AH.
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