Thus, he asked al-Shaykh al-Tusi to write a well-argued...

Thus, he asked al-Shaykh al-Tusi to write a well-argued exposition for al-Shaykh al-Mufid’s al-Muqni’a, which contains the grounds of each problem in widely accepted hadiths as well as contradictory hadiths, showing how to resolve the contradiction or interpret them away or showing in what ways they should not be relied upon. In response to this request, Tahdhib al-ahkam was compiled and authored. Thus the book has an apological motivation.

The Date of Writing In the preface of the book and frequently in the first volume and twice at the beginning of the second, al-Shaykh al-Mufid has been mentioned together with the phrase “ayyada-ha Allah” (meaning: may God support him) which implies that al-Shaykh al-Mufid was alive then, but after this, he is mentioned with the phrase “rahima-ha Allah” (meaning: may God bless him) which implies that al-Shaykh al-Mufid was no longer alive.

Thus, it implies that the writing of the book started when al-Shaykh al-Mufid was still alive and went on after his death (Ramadan, 413 A.H./ December 1022).

The Methodology The book is basically organized in the same way as al-Muqni’a, elaborating all its problems by an appeal to reliable sources (the Quran, al-khabar al-mutawatir, hadiths with assuring evidence and consensus), referring to widely accepted hadiths among Imamiyya, where contradicting hadiths are interpreted away or dismissed as unreliable.

In this method, in terms of which most of the part on taharat (or cleanliness) is written, the author occasionally appeals to sources such as what later came to be called combined consensus (al-ijma’ al-murakkab), the views of senior scholars and some reasoning. It has also cited some hadiths from Sunni sources without mentioning their chains of narrators.

In this part of the book, there are various Quranic and literary issues (related to Arabic grammar and lexicology) as well as views in usul al-fiqh. However, the book would have been too lengthy and digressed from its main purpose (writing a work in hadith) had the rest of it been written with the same method. Therefore, the author changed his method in the rest of the book, resting content with citing Shiite hadiths and reconciling their conflicts.

He then decided to cite all or almost all hadiths regarding the laws of sharia regardless of issues raised in al-Muqni’a. This is why he added the sections on ziyara (pilgrimage) in the first three volumes of the book.