Muqtadab al-athar (book)
 Bibliographical Information | |
| Author | Ibn 'Ayyash al-Jawhari |
|---|---|
| Original title | مُقتَضَب الأثَر فی النَّص عَلَی الأئِمَّة الإثني عَشَر |
| Language | Arabic |
| Series | 1 vol |
| Subject | Imamate |
| Genre | Hadith |
Muqtaḍab al-athar fi l-naṣṣ ʿala l-aʾimma al-ithnā ʿashar (مُقتَضَب الأثَر فی النَّص عَلَی الأئِمَّة الإثني عَشَر) is written by Ahmad b. 'Ayyash al-Jawhari (d. 401/1010-1). This book is about al-nass (straightforward hadith) on Twelve Imams (a) and their Imamate. It includes thirty six hadiths which are organized in three chapters.
Author
Abu 'Abd Allah Ahmad b. Muhammad b. 'Abd Allah b. al-Hasan b. 'Ayyash al-Jawhari was a Twelver Shi'a hadith scholar. His lineage goes back to his ancestors who were goldsmiths; "al-Jawhari" in Arabic means valuable metals such as gold, silver, etc. Al-Najashi has mentioned the name of 'Ayyash al-Jawhari as his friend and he said that al-Jawhari has narrated numerous hadiths.
Motivations
Al-Jawhari wrote a brief introduction for this book: "In this book I have collected a concise collection of what enemies of Shi'a have said on al-nass narrations (straightforward hadith) about Imams (a) which are accepted by Shi'a narrations. In the second part, I collected the evidences from poems and historical reports on the names of Imams (a) and the number of them. Those narrations and historical reports were made when not all of the Twelve Imams (a) appeared; which is a clear evidence on Imamate of the Imam al-Mahdi (a). In the third part I have collected only Shi'a narrations."
Content
As the author stated al-Muqtadab consists of three chapters with thirty six hadiths overall.
The first chapter includes sixteen narrations from Ibn Mas'ud, Anas b. Malik, 'Amr b. al-'As, Salman al-Farsi, and Jabir b. 'Abd Allah al-Ansari.
The second chapter includes nine narrations. The difference between chapter one and two is that narrations from companions of Prophet Muhammad (s) are cited only in the first chapter while the second chapter includes narrations from companions of Prophet (s) and also non-companion.
The third chapter includes poems which mentioned the number of Imams twelve.
All the mentioned hadiths in this book are cited with complete chains of transmitters, even the poems are treated like hadiths.
References
- The material for this article is mainly taken from (مقتضب الاثر فی النص علی الائمة الاثنی عشر(کتاب in Farsi WikiShia.