Aslam U Alakum Mubashar Sahab, Hope you in best state of faith and health. Today i came up with some more questions. These days i am studying number of books. More over my first semester with online islamic university have also been started. I will write questions one by one here
1- My question is: What is the authenticity of Shia Hadeeth books eg, Asool e kafi?
2- What is the authenticity of Naha jul Balagha?
3- Why we don’t take any Hadeeth from Shia scholars? I will be really thankful if you can reply.
A Brother
Doha, Qatar
Dear Brother
Wa alaikum us salaam wa Rahmatullah
We should free our minds from all sectarian biases and look at others in a positive way. We do have disagreement with Shia on certain basic issues but this disagreement should not be transformed into bigotry and hatred. The answers are as follows:
1 & 3. Ahadith from Shia narrators were accepted by our ancient Mohadisin with the condition that the person should not be biased and famous for fabrication of Hadith in favor of his school of thought. He should not be biased against certain companions of the Prophet صلی اللہ علیہ وسلم. Even in Bukhari & Muslim, various Ahadith are accepted from Shia narrators. Examples inlcude Al-A’mash etc.
The issue of Shia books is that some of their extremists are generally blamed for fabricating Ahadith in favor of their views and to portray a wrong picture of the companions of the Prophet صلی اللہ علیہ وسلم. Therefore, their books should not be accepted / rejected as a whole. Before acceptance / rejection, each narration should be evaluated on the principles of Hadith as we do for the books compiled by Sunni scholars. We should not be biased against some Shia / Sunni narrator merely on the grounds that he belongs to a particular group. The narration of everyone should be evaluated on merit in the light of available information of Rijaal.
As mentioned earlier, ancient Mohadisin accepted their narrations on merit provided that the Shia narrator is not biased against certain companions of the Prophet صلی اللہ علیہ وسلم. Certain sects of Shias like Zaidis, Alawis etc. are more liberal on this issue and respect all companions رضی اللہ عنہم of the Prophet. So their narrations can be accepted.
2. Nahjul-Balagha has the same status. It is a collection of sermons associated with Caliph Ali رضی اللہ عنہ who was martyred in 40H/661CE. It was compiled by Sharif Razi (d. 406H/1015CE). The book was compiled about 350 years after martyrdom of Ali رضی اللہ عنہ. No chain of narrators is available in it. If we evaluate the content by applying the principles of “Dirayah (logical evaluation)”, we can conclude that some of its content is correctly associated with Hazrat Ali رضی اللہ عنہ and some is not. There are certain points which are clearly beyond the moral level of such a great person like Ali. For example, at some points, profane words are used for Caliph Mu’awiya رضی اللہ عنہ. We should evaluate the content by keeping in mind the respect and affection of companions of the Holy Prophet صلی اللہ علیہ وآلہ وسلم to each other. Despite of political differences, Ali and Mu’awiya رضی اللہ عنہما had a great respect for each other.
The conclusion is that we should apply the principles of Rivayah (evaluation of chain of narrators) and Dirayah (evaluation of Hadith on logical grounds) without any bias.
wassalaam
Mubashir
Don’t hesitate to share your questions and comments. They will be highly appreciated. I’ll reply as soon as possible if I know the answer. Send at mubashirnazir100@gmail.com.