Introduction[1] I am often asked the question: How could the Rijālī authors like Ṭūsī and Najāshī pronounce verdicts on men who came much earlier than them – separated as they are by a chasm of a century or two? The answer lies in how we can speak of men who lived in the past in … Continue reading How Rijālīs Know: The Case of al-Ḥasan b. ʿAlī b. Faḍḍāl →

Introduction All praise belongs to Allah! I am immensely pleased to announce the publication of my booklet on the Faḍāʾil al-Qurʾān in which I have attempted to gather, translate and comment on the reliable reports having to do with the Qur'an from the Shīʿa Hadith corpus. It is my hope that this work will be … Continue reading The Qur’an – A Compendium of Reliable Shīʿa Hadiths →

Introduction The presence of contradictions between Ḥadīth (reports) attributed to the Imams within the Shīʿa corpus is an undeniable problem. One that requires explanation. This is especially so because the problem has a long back-history of being weaponised by detractors seeking to expose the inconsistency between it and the theological doctrine of the inerrancy of … Continue reading Sayyid Sīstānī on Why Shīʿa Ḥadīth Contradict (Pt. I) →

Introduction What follows is a translation of a small part of the notes of Sayyid ʿAlī al-Sīstānīʾs Baḥth al-Khārij (advance lessons) on Uṣūl al-Fiqh (legal theory) as transcribed by one of his students, Sayyid Hāshim al-Hāshimī, dating back to approximately fourty years ago[1]. The discussion concerns a major topic in Uṣūl al-Fiqh, which is, the … Continue reading Sayyid Sīstānī on Why Shīʿa and Sunni Ḥadīth Differ →

What is Fihrist? Why Fihrist? Most readers will possess a rudimentary understanding of Rijal (or Ilm al-Rijal), the discipline in which the status of a narrator is studied in order to evaluate whether his reports should be accepted or not. Much less is known about the Faharis (sing. Fihrist) - the name given to works … Continue reading A New Approach to Authenticating Shia Hadith – The Bahth al-Fihristi →