^10 Ibn Nadim also regard the first account of writing among...

^10 Ibn Nadim also regard the first account of writing among the Shi‘ah as related to the first century AH.[^11] In view of the Shi‘ah’s lead in writing, composition and compiling the Prophetic works, Dhahabi in describing the status of Aban ibn Taghlib thus says: “If the reliability of persons such as Aban is not accepted because of his inclination to Shi‘ism, so many of the Prophetic works and hadith s will perish.”[^12] As such, the jurists and hadith scholars { muhaddithun } of the Ahl as-Sunnah, particularly the founders of the four schools of thought { madhahib }, in addition to utilizing intermediaries to Imam as-Sadiq ( ‘a ), had also learned from the Shi‘ah muhaddithun and received hadith s from them.[^13] Meanwhile, regarding the number of books written by Shi‘ah during the first three centuries AH, the author of Wasa’il ash-Shi‘ah has said: “The scholars and muhaddithun during the period of the pure Imams ( ‘a ), from the time of the Commander of the Faithful ( ‘a ) up to the time of Imam Hasan al-‘Askari ( ‘a ), have written six thousand and six hundred books.”[^14] The Shi‘ah during those periods made remarkable accomplishments in the various fields of knowledge of the day such as literature, lexicography, poetry, sciences of the Qur’an { ‘ulum al-qur’an }, exegesis { tafsir }, hadith , principles of jurisprudence { usul al-fiqh }, scholastic theology { ‘ilm al-kalam or simply kalam }, history, life conduct of the Prophet (S) { sirah }, rijal , and ethics.

They have made many writings and literary works while leading in most fields. Abu’l-Aswad Daw’ili, a Shi‘ah poet, was the founder of the science of Arabic syntax { nahw }.[^15] He was the first to put the dots in the copies of the Qur’an.[^16] The first book on lexicography among the Muslims is Kitab al-‘Ayn written by Khalil ibn Ahmad[^17] who has been one of the Shi‘ah scholars.[^18] In the field of the life conduct { sirah } and battles { maghazi } of the Prophet (S), the first book was written by Ibn Ishaq who, according to Ibn Hajr, was a Shi‘ah.[^19] After undertaking this cursory glance, we shall now explain a bit about the sciences of hadith , jurisprudence and scholastic theology that the Shi‘ah school has a particular disposition, keeping into account its fundamentals and principles in these fields.

Hadith Next to the Qur’an, the hadith or the sunnah which is the second source of Islamic jurisprudence, means the saying, action and tacit approval of the Infallibles ( ‘a ).