“Reviewing Hadith against the Qur’an”: A Disputed Principle in Early Islam 🧵

When Shāfiʿī (d. 204) quotes numerous Prophetic reports to support his position in a debate with Shaybānī (d. 179), the latter rejects all of the reports citing a Hadith which has the Prophet state: “Whatever comes to you on my authority then review it against the Qur’an, so if it agrees with it (i.e. the Qur’an) then I said it, and if it opposes it than I never said it”

The Original Adhān🧵

The Kufan Zaydi Hadith master, Sharīf Abū ʿAbdillāh al-Shajarī (d. 445), authored a fascinating work containing 192 reports going back to the Prophet, different companions, and a wide range of authorities among the Āl al-Bayt in an attempt to demonstrate ... ... that the phrase ḥayya ʿalā khayr al-ʿamal was part of the original Adhān.

The Number of Units in the Prophet’s Tahajjud:
A Study of the Sunni and Shia Hadith Corpus 🧵

How many units of voluntary prayer would the Prophet offer by night? The famous narrator Zurāra b. Aʿyan (d. c. 148) quotes al-Bāqir (d. 114) as saying:
The Messenger of Allah would pray 13 units at night whether he was on a journey or not, this included the witr and the 2 units [sunna] of fajr

The Prohibition of Scaleless Fish in the Earliest Written Record of Hadith (The Ṣaḥīfa of ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib) 🧵

The only Madhhab to consider scaleless fish ‘prohibited’ is the Twelver Imāmiyya. This is in accordance to what they narrate from their Imams. Consider the following example:
A narrator called Ḥammād b. ʿUthmān (d. 190) asks Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq (d. 148), “What kind of fish can be eaten?” He responds, “That which has scales”

The Consequences of ‘Mild’ Shīʿism: The Case of Wakīʿ b. al-Jarrāḥ 🧵

The Kufan Hadith master, Wakīʿ b. al-Jarrāḥ (d. 197), came to be ranked among the greats in the Sunni canon. Acclaimed for his unmatched piety, prodigious memory, and copious transmission, there was only ... the small matter of his Shīʿism that could have potentially dented his reputation.

The Authenticity of Attributions to the Imams in the Shīʿī Hadith Corpus: A Case Study 🧵

There are thousands of reports attributed to the Imams, mainly al-Bāqir and al-Ṣādiq, in the Shīʿī Hadith corpus, and it is only someone unserious or fatally biased who would deem ... all these to be a product of cross-generational mass fabrication.

The Night of al-Juhanī 🧵

ʿAbdallāh b. Unays al-Juhanī was a companion of the prophet who lived far away in the desert surrounding Medina and could not normally pray behind the prophet in his Masjid ... ʿAbd al-Razzāq al-Ṣanʿānī (d. 211) reports via his chain that al-Juhanī came and beseeched the prophet to inform him the exact night of Laylat al-Qadr so that he could make extra effort and not miss the opportunity to worship with him on this most auspicious night of the year.

Which Night is Laylat al-Qadr? 🧵

ʿAbd al-Razzāq al-Ṣanʿānī reports in his Muṣannaf from Jaʿfar b. Muḥammad al-Ṣādiq from his father that ʿAlī used to seek Laylat al-Qadr on the 19th, 21st and 23rd of the month of Ramaḍān. This is corroborated in Twelver Shīʿī Hadith sources wherein al-Ṣādiq is quoted as specifying the same three nights as possible candidates.

Mālik b. Anas’s Attitude towards ʿAlī 🧵

We begin by noting that Mālik’s paternal grandfather was especially close to ʿUthmān such that he is said to be one of only four people who managed to procure ʿUthmān’s body which had been abandoned and bury it secretly by night. As for Mālik himself, it is recorded that he deemed ʿAlī’s departure from Medina and his relocation to Kufa in order to fight his opponents a ‘mistake’.

Ibn Jurayj’s Hidden Source on Mutʿa 🧵

When a companion called Ismāʿīl b. al-Faḍl al-Hāshimī asks Jaʿfar b. Muḥammad al-Ṣādiq (d. 148) about Mutʿa (temporary marriage) the latter instructs him to seek out Ibn Jurayj (d. 150) because ‘he has knowledge about it’. Ismāʿīl does seek out Ibn Jurayj and the latter dictates to him a number of Hadith affirming Mutʿa’s permissibility before providing specific rulings on how it is to be performed, for e.g. there is no restriction to the number of partners who can be contracted at the same time.

No Greater Affliction 🧵

A companion by the name of ʿAmr b. Saʿīd b. Hilāl once lamented to Imam al-Ṣādiq, ‘I do not get to meet you for many years at a time so bequeath me something that I can hold on to’ Imam al-Ṣādiq responded:

🔹 A Mosquito’s Wing 🔹

Fuḍayl b. Yasār reports: I visited Imam al-Ṣadiq {a} who was ill with such a severe illness that nothing was left (intact) from his body except his head (i.e. mental faculties). He (i.e. Imam) said, ‘O Fuḍayl, I many a time say that there is nothing (to fear) for a man to whom Allah has made this affair known (i.e. the Wilāya) if he were to be (living all alone) on the summit of a mountain until death comes to him.

🔹 A Description of ʿAlī 🔹

On the blessed anniversary of the birth of the Commander of the Faithful {as}, I present the following description of him given by a great-grandson of his ... A narrator by the name of al-Ḥasan al-Ṣayqal reports that he heard Imam al-Ṣādiq {a} say: