Study and Criticism of Sayyid Abul-Fadl Burqa'i's Doubts on the "Hadith of the Tablet of Jabir" with a Theological Approach | ||
| پژوهشنامه کلام تطبیقی شیعه | ||
| Article 3, Volume 5, Issue 9, September 2024, Pages 27-103 PDF (1.1 M) | ||
| Document Type: Original Article | ||
| DOI: 10.22054/jcst.2025.81866.1181 | ||
| Author | ||
| esmail esbati* | ||
| Department of Islamic Philosophy and Kalam" Faculty of Theology and Islamic Studies | ||
| Abstract | ||
| 1-Introduction One of the most important reasons for the Imamiyyah to prove their beliefs about the Imamate is the Twelver hadiths. According to this group of hadiths, the number of Imams and their names were specified by God and announced to the Prophet (s). The Prophet (s) and each of the Imams have made references to the discussion of Imamate and succession. Sometimes they mentioned their number, sometimes the names of some of them, sometimes the end of the Imamate and Mahdism, and sometimes the names and characteristics of all the Imams were explicitly stated. In the meantime, given the conditions of the society, such narrations were usually narrated secretly, and taqiyyah prevented them from being made public. This issue, of course, paved the way for harm to be done to this group of narrations. These kinds of narrations, which naturally had many claims to be narrated and could have been narrated continuously if the conditions were favorable, were narrated in the form of individual narrations under taqiyyah conditions, although their content was narrated in spiritual tawatar. The fact that some narrators are unknown and others are accused has also given opponents an excuse to deny the origin of the narrations so that they can waste their time in this field and question the Twelver narrations in general. Sayyid Abul-Fadl Burqa'i Qummi (1287-1370) was a cleric affiliated with the Quranist intellectual spectrum. He believed that Shiite beliefs were mixed with superstitions, and therefore wrote several books criticizing Shiite beliefs and removing deviations from them. His views on criticizing Shiite recitation of khums, pilgrimage, intercession, interpretation of the Quran, imamate, tawasul, etc., were very close to Wahhabi beliefs and were constantly criticized and rejected by Shiites. One of Burqa'i's most important works is the book "Breaking the Idol or What Was In the Golden Books of Things That Are Contrary to the Holy Quran and Reason", which is also known as "Rejection of the Book of Sufficient Principles for the Cullinan." He believes that al-Kafi has become like an idol for Shiites that prevents them from thinking and understanding the truth. Therefore, he believes that he has attempted to break this idol and has tried to show the contradictions and oppositions of al-Kafi's narrations to the Quran and other narrations. The Hadith of the Tablet of Jabir is one of the Twelver Hadiths that has been narrated in three forms. A) Short version: Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Anṣārī says that he visited Hazrat Fāṭima ('a) and found a tablet with the names of the successors on it. There were twelve of them, and among the children of Hazrat, the names of Muhammad and ʿAlī were repeated three times. B) Medium version: Jabir saw the tablet with Hazrat and looked into it. In this report, the names of the Imams are recorded along with their mother's name. C) Long version: Jabir saw the tablet with Hazrat and reported the full text of the tablet. 2- The issue In addition to criticizing and examining the narrations of Usul al-Kafi, Burqa'i also criticized the Hadith of the Tablet (Hadith of Lawḥ) and wrote that it is of great importance to Shiites and Imamis. However, this description of the narration does not have any validity in terms of text and chain of transmission. 3-Literature Review In his article “Investigating the nature of Jabir’s hadith and its place in proving the names of the twelve Imams,” Mohammad Ghafoori has criticized Jabir’s narration. (Sir’eh Pajoohi Ahl al-Bayt (AS), No. 4, Spring and Summer 2017) These criticisms have not gone unanswered and have become the subject of writing “Criticism of the article Investigating the nature of Jabir’s hadith and its place in proving the names of the twelve Imams (‘a)” (Kirmani Kajur, Mohammad and Montazeri Moghadam, Hamed; pp. 94-95). M. Abdullahi has dedicated a chapter in his book “Investigating the Hadiths of the Mahdi” to criticizing the hadith of the tablet (Abdullahi, 2015, pp. 81-86), and Haidar Ali Qalmadaran has also criticized this hadith (Website of the Research Institute of the Holy Prophet (s), dated March 13, 2018). However, perhaps the most important criticism of this narration can be considered the criticism of Sayyid Abul-Fadl Burqai in his book Kasr al-Sanam. So far, no appropriate response has been provided to Burqai’s criticisms and statements. The main goal of this article is to answer these questions and criticisms. 4-Methodology A descriptive-analytical method and library resources have been used to answer these questions. 5-Conclusion The hadith of Jabir's Tablet is not a single narration but rather a collection of narrations that have been reported in different ways and with different expressions. Therefore, many of the problems raised are resolved and answered regarding the hadith family. Burqai considers the chain of narration weak, but the narration has been reported in various ways, some of which are sound. The incompatibility of the narration with historical data is due to a misunderstanding of the narration and the idea of Jabir's meeting with Imam Ṣādiq (‘a), which is carefully resolved in the text of the narration, just as the historical doubt of Jabir's meeting with Zayd Ibn-e ʿAlī (‘a) is addressed in another narration by Sheikh Saduq and the possibility of a tasheefa in the narration. Burqai is against limiting the Imams to a specific number, while this belief is based on abundant narrational evidence and is the subject of consensus among the Imamiyyah. Based on what has been said, most of the problems related to the text of the narration are minor issues that can be easily answered and cannot be considered serious criticism. Jabir's narration is not a single narration; it has been narrated in various ways, and there is no conflict between its narrations and other narrational texts and the principles of the Shiite school. Therefore, it is authentic and acceptable. This hadith has been narrated in various Shiite narrational sources since the first centuries and has been accepted by Shiite scholars. In addition to the hadith scholars, Shiite theologians in different periods, such as Al-Shaykh Al-Mufid, Karajoki, Abū l-Ṣalāh al-Ḥalabi, Muhaqqiq al-Hillī, and Allama al-Hillī, have relied on this narration and used it in their theological discussions. | ||
| Keywords | ||
| Hadith of the Tablet of Jabir (Hadith of Lawḥ); Jābir Ibn-e ʿAbd Allāh al-Anṣārī; Twelver; Sayyid Abu al-Fadl Burqaʻi | ||
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