Al-Ihtijaj (book): Difference between revisions

Al-Ihtijaj ‘ala ahl al-lijaj, best known as al-Ihtijaj is a book in Arabic written by Abu Mansur, Ahmad b. Ali b. Abi Talib al-Tabrisi, the scholar of 6th century.

The book contains the arguments presented by prophet Muhammad (s) and the infallible Imams (a) and some of their follower against their opponents form various sects and religions.  

Some Shi’a scholars mistakenly ascribed the book to Fadl b. Hasan al-Tabrisi, the author of Majma’ al-bayan.  

During the history of Islam, great religious figures by the motivation of proving the right and refuting the wrong, wrote books under the title of “al-Ihtijaj” or dedicated some chapters of their books to this topic. There are about 20 books by the title of “al-Ihtijaj” among Shi’a early sources, the earliest of which is “al-Ihtijaj” written by Muhammad b. Abi ‘Umayr, the close companion of Imam al-Kazim (a).

The author of Lu’lu’at al-Bahrayn writes: “Some of the recent Shi’a scholars mistook in ascription of the book to Abu Ali al-Tabrisi, the author of Majma’ al-Bayan. Some of those who made this mistake are Muhaddith Amin Astar Abadi and before him, the author of Risalat Mashayikh al-Shi’a and before him, Muhammad b. Abi Jumhur al-Ahsa’i in ‘Awali al-la’ali and also Qadi Nur Allah al-Shushtari in Majalis al-mu’minin.”

In the introduction of the book, al-Tabrisi writes: “What made me to write such a book, was that some Shi’a have desisted from argument and debate with the opponents of Shi’a and say ‘we are not allowed to do this, because the Prophet (s) and the Imams (s) never debated and argued and did not allow Shi’a to do so’ therefore, I decided to collect the arguments of great Shi’a figures against their opponents in the Principles and Ancillaries of religion.” In the following, he mentions that the prohibition of Imams (s) form arguing and debating only meant those who are weak in defending the religion and Shi’a beliefs, not those eminent and strong one in proving the right and refuting the wrong.  

Al-Ihtijaj is one of the reliable books among Shi’a scholars. The only problem of the book is that most of the hadiths in it are narrated as al-hadith al-Mursal and there is no chain of transmitters for them in the book.

In the introduction of the book the author writes: “Except for those hadiths that I have narrated form Tafsir al-Imam al-‘Askari (a), I mentioned all hadiths in the book without their chain of transmitters, because whether they are unanimously accepted or agree with our beliefs or are narrated in our and the opponents’ books. I narrated the hadiths of the ascribed exegesis to Imam al-‘Askari (a) by its chain of narrators: because these hadiths are not as famous as the other hadiths in the book.” According to this paragraph, Shi’a scholars have relied on and accepted the hadiths in the book, although they do not have chain of narrators.  

==From Great Scholar’s Perspective==

Many of great Shi’a scholars, such as Shaykh Hurr al-‘Amili in Amal al-Amil, Khwansari in Rawdat al-jannat and Khu’i in Mu’jam Rijal al-Hadith, regarded this book as precious, good and very useful.     

- Imam Ali’s arguments with Mu’awiya, the people of Levant, Khawarij and Nakithin (those who violated the allegiance to Imam Ali (a)).

- and in the last chapter, the arguments of Imam al-Mahdi, his correspondence with his four deputies during the Minor Occultation and his Tawqi’s during the Major Occultation.   

- A manuscript by the handwriting of Karam Ali b. Muhammad Baqir Kirmani Parizi Sirjani Mashhadi. This manuscript is written in Naskh and in 1318 and there are writings on its margins in Nasta’liq. This manuscript is kept in Mulk Library.

The book is researched by Muhammad Baqir Musawi Kharsan. In addition to providing the address of the verses of the Qur’an and explaining the difficult words, he has written many useful comments including the biography of many figures mentioned in the text and hadiths of the book; also there are an index of the content of the book and an index of the glosses and comments.