3 and 4...

3 and 4: Al Tahtheeb and Al Istibsaar The third and the fourth books of the Four Books are, 'Tahtheebul Ahkaam Fe Sharhil Moqniah' and 'Al-Istibsaar Fe Makhtolifa Minal Akhbar'. These two books are compiled by Muhammad Ibnil Hassan, known as Sheikh Tousi or Sheikhul Taefah. Died in 406 A.H. Like 'Man la yah dhor', 'Al-Tahtheeb' is a collection of jurisprudential Hadith, the number of its Ahadeeth according to the counting of Bahrani, are 12590 Hadith, in 93 chapters.

This book has been published in 10 volumes. One of the differences between 'Al-Tahtheeb' and 'Man la yah dhor' is in that Sheikh Sadooq compiled only Ahadith that he could give verdicts towards, whereas, Sheikh Tousi has compiled all the jurisprudential Hadith, regardless of whether he agrees with them or not. Sheikh Tousi compiled 'Al-Istibsaar' in reconciliation between the paradoxical Ahadith. 'Al-Istibsaar' consists of 5531 Hadith, in 915 chapters.

Nahjul Balagha Nahjul Balagha is the collection of the miraculous words of Imam Ali (a.s) It is compiled by one of the most noble Shia' scholars of the fourth century, known as Sayyed Al-Radhi (died in 406 A.H(.

Nahjul Balagha, consists of three main parts: 241 sermons, 79 letters and 480 words of wisdom, in addition to 9 Hadith that Sayyed Al-Radhi named them the 'amazing words of wisdom of Imam Ali (a.s) The eloquence of Nahjul Balagha is so miraculous and its meanings are so profound that it is said "it is lower than the words of the creator, and above the words of the creations." [^71] Al-Jahez, died 255 A.H, was a leading Arabic linguist.

His book 'Al-Bayaan Wal Tabyeen' is one of the four pillars of Arabic literature. In his book he quoted the saying of Imam Ali (as) "the value of every person is what he knows well" [^72]. He then praises the Hadith in few paragraphs and then asserts "had there been no sentence in my book other than this Hadith it would have been enough for the value of my book".

[^73] The influence of the words of Imam Ali (as) was so profound to his audience that when he delivered his sermon in description of the characteristics of the pious, Hammam who was listening to the sermon, was so captured by the words of Imam Ali (as), that he fainted and died! [^74] Different views on Nahjul Balagha Some Sunni scholars have denied that Nahjul Balagha is the words of Imam Ali (as).