Al-Ihtijaj (book): Difference between revisions

'''Al-Iḥtijāj ʿalā ahl al-lijāj''' (Arabic:{{ia|الإحتجاج على أهل اللجاج}}), best known as '''al-Ihtijaj''' (الإحتجاج )is a book in Arabic written by Abu Mansur, [[Ahmad b. Ali b. Abi Talib al-Tabrisi]], the scholar of 6th/[[12th century]].

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 the 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.  

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.     

- Introduction: contains hadiths about prohibition of arguing and debating, and condemning them, and the cause of the writing the book.

- Arguments and debates from the Prophet (s) and the Imams (s) about the Principles and Ancillaries of the religion.

- The event of Ghadir al-Khumm and Fadak and the arguments presented by Imam Ali (a), lady Fatima (s), other Imams (a) and other Prophet Companions about these two event.

- 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.   

- The commentary written by Mirza Abu al-Hasan Bahrani (d. 1193) who was one of the great scholar in Shiraz during Zand dynasty.  

- The commentary written by Sayyid Ahmad b. Muhammad Husayni al-Mukhtari

- The manuscript kept in Astan Quds Razawi

- 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.

- Another Manuscript kept in Mulk Library, by the handwriting of Muhammad b. Muhammad Ali Khavari in Naskh, written in 1069.

- In 1268 in Iran

- In 1300 In Iran

- In 1354 in Najaf, Iraq

- In 1403 in Iran. This version is a copy of the version published by al-Jawad Institute in Beirut. 'Allama Sayyid Muhammad Bahr al-'Ulum has written a foreword on this version.

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.