ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Light On the Muhammadan Sunnah Or Defence of the Hadith Conclusion After finishing discussion of the Muhammadan hadith and its history, I found it proper to conclude my book with chapters containing researches related to hadith and comprehending it. And also which manner should be followed by the knowledge-seeker so as to realize the sahih of hadith, with rules and principles of Islam with which no one can dispense.

Certainly these chapters are essential and complementary to the book, for which I will prelude with a pleasant statement for the eminent historian Ibn Khaldun in his discussion of philosophy of history and sociology.

In his widely-known Muqaddimah he wrote: When depending upon oral tradition in reporting the akhbar, without following the prevalent principles and rules of politics, nature of populousness, and conditions in the human society, nor analogy (qiyas) was adopted everywhere, then they would not be immune against slips and deviation from truth path.

Mostly the historians, exegetes and leaders of transmission were liable to errors in tales and events due to reliance in citing them merely on oral tradition, whether be authentic or weak, without subjecting them to their foundations, nor comparing them to their identical ones, nor fathoming them with criterion of wisdom so as to be aware of the dispositions of mankind, nor investigating the akhbar, the fact caused them to wander from path of truth and go astray in the wilderness of illusion and error.

734 And since falsity naturally creeps into the khabar, with necessitating causes, of which being inclinations and bigotry toward opinions and madhahib, then if the self be moderate in approving the report, it will put it to the test and investigation till distinguishing its true aspect from the false one.

But if be overwhelmed by tashayy’ (partiality) to an opinion or some creed, it will easily approve of all the reports that suit it, as this inclination and partiality would curtain the mind’s eye from scrutiny and investigation, as a result of which the self would have no alternative but to accept and report the lies. Among the reasons prompting to falsification of akhbar we can refer to having confidence in the transmitters, the verification of which is owing to jarh and ta’dil.