Basa'ir al-darajat (book): Difference between revisions

Basa’ir al-darajat al-kubra fi fada’il al Muhammad, known as Basa’ir al-darajat, one of the early Shia hadith sources, produced by Abu Ja’far Muhammad b. al-Hasan al-Saffar (d. 290 AH), who was a companion of [[Imam al-Hasan al-‘Akari]] (a) and a renowned scholar of the third century AH.  

Muhammad b. al-Hasan b. Farrukh al-Saffar was a companion of Imam al-Hasan al-‘Askari (a) and one of the prominent hadith transmitters of the third century AH.  

Sa’d b. ‘Abd Allah al-Qummi, the great traditionist, who was a contemporary of al-Saffar, also had a book with the same title. Sa’d’s book, which, according to al-Shaykh al-Tusi, had four parts, was summarized by al-Hasan b. Salman al-Hilli and published with the title Mukhtasar Basa’ir al-darajat.  

Some scholars maintain that the Basa’ir attributed to al-Saffar is in fact a reproduction of Sa’d’s book. Other scholars believe that Basa’ir was originally written by al-Saffar, and then Sa’d b. ‘Abd Allah summarized and reproduced al-Saffar’s work.  

Basa’ir al-darajat contains 1,881 hadiths; it has ten main parts, and each part contains 10 to 24 sections. Most of the hadiths of this book are recorded in their complete form.  

Although it is an early hadith collection, Basa’ir has a well-organized outline, with relevant titles for each section. And when sometimes the author has not been able to find  a suitable title for, he has called the section “Nadir” (Rare).