The Ahl as-Sunnah confine the hadith to only the saying...

The Ahl as-Sunnah confine the hadith to only the saying, action and tacit approval of the Prophet (S).

The Shi‘ah, however, regard the saying, action and tacit approval of the infallible Imams ( ‘a ) as proof { hujjah } and part of the corpus of hadith .[^20] Now, we shall survey the works on hadith during the period of the presence of the Imams ( ‘a ) in four categories, which consist of four phases: First Category Based on the opinion of Najashi, the first category of the Shi‘ah hadith recorders were Abu Rafi‘ al-Qibti, ‘Ali ibn Abi Rafi‘, Rabi‘ah ibn Sumi‘, Sulaym ibn Qays Hilali, Asbagh ibn Nabatah Majashi‘i, and ‘Abd Allah ibn Hurr Ju‘fi.[^21] They were among the companions of the Commander of the Faithful, Imam al-Hasan and Imam al-Husayn ( ‘a ).

Second Category According to some scholars, there were twelve persons who had written books and treatises among the companions of Imam as-Sajjad and Imam al-Baqir ( ‘a ).[^22] One may mention Aban ibn Taghlib among them.

He occupied a special station in the eyes of the pure Imams ( ‘a ) so much so that Imam al-Baqir ( ‘a ) said to him: “In the mosque of Medina you give religious edicts { fatawa } to the people as I want individuals like you to be seen among my Shi‘ah.”[^23] Najashi says, “Aban ibn Taghlib, may Allah be pleased with him, was one of the forerunners in the various fields of knowledge such as the Qur’an,…