Four Books: Difference between revisions

==The Most Reliable Sources of Shiite Hadiths==

==The Historical Background of the Term, al-Kutub al-Arba'a==

The author of the Persian paper, "The four hadith books of the Imamiyya and the common use of the term, al-Kutub al-Arba'a", takes [[al-Shahid al-Thani]] to be the first scholar who referred to the four books as "al-Kutub al-Arba'a". In 950/1543, he wrote a [[permission for the transmission of hadiths]], in which he used the phrase, "Kutub al-Hadith al-Arba'a" (the Four Books of hadiths). He then used the same phrase as well as the phrase, "al-Kutub al-Arba'a", in a number of other permissions.<ref>Bāqirī, ''Chahār kitāb-i hadīthī Imāmīyya wa rawāj iṣtilāḥ al-kutub al-arbaʿa: naqdī bar dīdgāh Andrew Newman''</ref>

The first jurisprudential text in which the phrase, "al-Kutub al-Arba'a", was used is said to be [[al-Muhaqqiq al-Ardabili]]'s ''[[Majma' al-fa'ida]]'', the writing of which began in 977/1569 and was finished in 985/1577. Then it was respectively used in ''[[Zubdat al-bayan]]'' (written in 989/1581), ''[[Muntaqa l-juman]]'' (written in 1006/1597), and ''[[al-Wafiya fi usul al-fiqh|al-Wafiya]]'' (written in 1059/1649).<ref>Bāqirī, ''Chahār kitāb-i hadīthī Imāmīyya wa rawāj iṣtilāḥ al-kutub al-arbaʿa: naqdī bar dīdgāh Andrew Newman''</ref>

Shiite jurists have accepted the general reliability of the Four Books to the extent that [[al-Shaykh al-Ansari]] suggests that the belief in the reliability of well-known books, including the Four Books, might be an essential component of the religion.<ref>Anṣārī, ''Farā'id al-usūl'', vol. 1 p. 239</ref> However, there is a disagreement among Shiite scholars with regard to certainty or uncertainty about whether hadiths in these books were issued by [[Infallibles]] (a), and whether all hadiths in these books are reliable. There are three views in this regard:

== ''Al-Kafi'' ==

{{main|al-Kafi}}

[[File:The Four Books 1.jpg|thumbnail|200px|The Four Books ; the most important sources in [[Shiite]] [[hadith]] and [[jurisprudence]].]]

{{main|Man la yahduruh al-faqih}}

== ''Tahdhib al-ahkam'' ==

It contains 393 chapters and a total of 13,590 hadiths.

== ''Al-Istibsar'' ==

{{main|al-Istibsar}}

In this work he has collected only those hadiths relating to jurisprudence which apparently contradict each other. Like other jurisprudence references, the categorization of topics in this book begins with tahara and ends with diyat. Under each topic, he first mentions the hadiths he regards as authentic, then mentions the ones that apparently contradict them, and finally, attempts to harmonize them.

== References ==

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