They believed that if the AHADITH in those USUL were...

They believed that if the AHADITH in those USUL were collected in one book and divided subject-wise into parts, chapters and sections, it would fulfill a great need of the time since handling one book would be much easier than four hundred booklets. This would also ensure the preservation of that vast treasure of knowledge. It was, however, not an easy task: collecting the USUL from far and wide was an uphill task in itself; then editing and arranging them was another painstaking job.

All eyes turned to THIQATU 'L-ISLAM ABU JA'FAR MUHAMMAD IBN YA'QUB AL-KULAYNI AR-RAZI. When pressure mounted, he accepted the responsibility. This was during the Minor Occultation of our Twelfth Imam who was accessible to the people only through his special deputies who resided in Baghdad. ABU JA'FAR AL-KULAYNI was the religious head of the SHI'A in Ray (near Tehran) and had moved to Baghdad just two years before his death.

He spent twenty years of his life in collecting AHADITH, several times traveling to other places and obtaining as many USUL as he could. Thus, after twenty years of continuous backbreaking effort AL-KAFI came into being. AL-KAFI alone contains more AHADITH than all the six books (AS-SIHAHAS -SITTAH) of the SUNNIS put together. It is divided into three parts: AL-USUL (related to matters of belief) in 2 volumes; AL-FURU (related to SHARI'AH laws) in 5 volumes; and AR-RAWDAH, one volume.

Each volume is divided in sections, and in all there are thirty sections, containing 16199 traditions. AL-KULAYNI was born in 260 AH and died in 329 AH/941 CE. In other words, his life began and ended with the Minor Occultation. Other scholars also collected the AHADITH from other books and USUL. The most famous among them are: ABU JA'FAR MUHAMMAD IBN ALI IBN HUSAYN IBN MUSA IBN BABUWAYH AL-QUMMI, popularly known as SHAYKH AS-SADUQ (born cir.

306 AH; died 381 AH/991 CE) wrote MAN LA YAHDURUHU 'L-FAQIH. This book contains 5963 AHADITH divided into 666 chapters. ABU JA'FAR MUHAMMAD IBN HASAN IBN ALI AT-TUSI, popularly known as SHAYKHU 'T-TA'IFAH and SHAYKH AT-TUSI (born 385 AH; died 466 AH/1067 CE) wrote TAHDHIBU 'L-AHKAM and AL-ISTIBSAR. TAHDHIBU 'L-AHKAM has 393 chapters with 13590 AHADITH; and AL-ISTIBSAR has 925 (or 915) chapters containing 5511 AHADITH.

The later two books opened the way of critical study of AHADITH, and thus laid the foundation of IJTIHAD.