wikishia:Featured articles/2024/21
Ḥadīth Silsilat al-Dhahab, or the Golden Chain Hadith is a qudsi hadith narrated by Imam al-Rida (a) on his way to Merv through Neyshabur, on the unity of God and one of its main conditions. Since all the narrators of this hadith are the infallible Imams (a), all the way to the Prophet (s), who has narrated it from Jabra'il (Gabriel) from God, thus it has been called "Silsilat al-Dhahab", which means Golden Chain. According to some reports, as Imam al-Rida (a) was saying the hadith, more than twenty thousand people were writing it.
Based on this hadith, the belief in Tawhid rescues the person from hell fire. However, Imam al-Rida (a) has introduced himself as a condition for this salvation. Shi'a scholars believe that by this condition, Imam al-Rida (a) has meant the belief in Imamate.
This hadith is narrated by prominent Shiite scholars such as al-Shaykh al-Saduq (d. 381/991-2) in a number of his books, including al-Tawhid, al-Amali, Ma'ani l-akhbar, 'Uyun akhbar al-Rida (a), al-Fattal al-Nayshaburi (d. 508/1114) in his Rawdat al-wa'izin, and al-Tabari Amuli (d. 533/1139) in his Bisharat al-Mustafa with various chains of transmitters and some verbal variance. Al-Shaykh al-Tusi (d. 460/1067) has narrated this hadith in two separate narrations in his al-Amali but without the concluding part...