Al-ISTIBSAR

Author:
Sheikh
al-Tayefah, known as Sheikh Toosi [Abu Ja'far, Muhammad son of Hasan Toosi], one
of the most distinguished Shiite Ulema/Jurisprudents of the fifth century Hegira
(385-460 A.H)

Subject:
This
book is a collection of those Narrations/Hadiths of the Ahl-ul-Bayt [the
Infallible Household of the Holy Prophet of Islam (s.a.)] that are seemingly "at
variance with each other" or "show discrepancies" in their contents.
By compilation of this book, Sheikh Toosi has successfully tried to prove the
authenticity of the correct Narrations or Hadiths among the undocumented ones.

In this
book, Sheikh Toosi collected any Narration/Hadith, a "contrary Narration"
of which, too, had been on hand.

All of
the Narrations/Hadiths quoted in this book revolve around the subject of Fiqh
(Islamic Jurisprudence and Religious Decrees).

Credibility of the Book:

This
book has been considered to be one of the most authentic and credible
collections of Shiite Narrations/Hadiths, to which every Islamic Jurisprudent,
Scholar, and exegete of the Holy Koran has to refer as an obligatory
requirement.

It is
among the four most important Shiite reference books called "Kutub Arba'ah"
[i.e. The Four Books]. The other three are: Sheikh Toosi's other outstanding
book entitled "Tahzib al-Ahkam", Sheikh Kuleini's "Al-Kafi", and Sheikh
Sadooq's "Man la Yahzarahul-Faqih".

Motivation of Writing the Book:

Sheikh
Toosi's Al-Istibsar was written subsequent to the request of Ulema [Islamic
Scholars] and readers of his other famous book entitled "Tahzib al-Ahkam". They
had asked the Sheikh to compile a book including all seemingly contradictory
Narrations/Hadiths, conduct a research on them to investigate their
authenticity, and finally distinguish correct Narrations from the incorrect
ones.

In the
preface of the book, Sheikh Toosi writes about this matter as follows:

"A
group of Shiite Ulema (Scholars) studied my extensive book entitled "Tahzib
al-Ahkam" and noted that it contained the largest part of Narrations and Hadiths
on the lawful (Halal) and unlawful (Haram) acts as well as religious laws,
precepts, and decrees on Fiqh [Islamic Jurisprudence]. They further noticed that
there is no Narration or Hadith on Shiite fundamentals and precepts overlooked
or missing in this book except a few rare ones. They opined that "Tahzib
al-Ahkam" deserved to become a great treasure for the seekers after the science
of Fiqh, especially for the Ulema to recollect their past learning, and for
other less learned scholars to gain expertise in inference of religious decrees.
They went on to suggest that I write another book after gathering together "the
contrary Narrations/Hadiths" for examining and determining their credibility..."

Methodology:

In this
book, Sheikh Toosi places Narrations/Hadiths considered by him as authentic and
correct in the beginning. Then they are followed by his mention of the contrary
narrations; and indeed, he has tried his best not to omit any of them. Then he
proceeds to examine the contrary narrations, which constitutes the special
feature of the book.

1-
This book is
unique among others of its kind, being the first one to write about the contrary
Narrations/Hadiths and evaluate their authenticity.

2-
Comprehensiveness of Al-Istibsar is so impressive that Ibne Tavoos commented
that if there was any contrary Narration on a particular topic, a mention of it
could be surely found in Al-Istibsar.

3-
Sheikh
Toosi, as stated earlier, quotes first the authentic and acceptable
Narrations/Hadiths and then deals with the other ones.

Arrangement of the Topics:

Al-Istibsar does not include all
chapters of Fiqh, but only those narrations that are subject to some contrary
ones. However, it follows the same usual sequence of the chapters as in the Fiqh
books, i.e. with the topics beginning from Taharat (cleanliness) and ending with
Diyat (blood money).

Chapters of the Book:

The book is divided into three
parts. The first and the second deal with Ibadat [ritual acts, e.g. daily
prayers, fasting, etc.] The third chapter addresses other subjects of Fiqh such
as contracts, transactions, Islamic laws for financial or social affairs, up to
the matters of "penal laws" and "blood money".

Total Narrations/Hadiths:

The
Narrations in the book total 5511 Hadiths, which is the number fixed by Sheikh
Toosi himself to prevent any later manipulation of others.

Ijazat [Authorizations]:

Due to
the significance and value of this book, its name has constantly been among the
list of the important books; and Islamic scholars frequently issued
"authorizations" for their pupils to narrate Hadiths from this outstanding book.
Texts of many of such Authorizations are presently available at the end of some
copies of Al-Istibsar.

Sources for Writing the Book:

In
compiling this book, Sheikh Toosi has taken advantages from two famous
libraries, both located at that time in the city of Baghdad. Both libraries were
complete with copious numbers of the best authentic books and original
manuscripts. Many of the copies were transcribed by the disciples of the
Infallible Imams (a.s.).

The
first library he used belonged to his distinguished teacher, Sayyed Mortaza, and
contained 80,000 books.

The
other one was the bigger library called Shapoor library, established for the
Shiite Ulema in the locality of Karkh, Baghdad.

Unfortunately, the Shapoor Library was set on fire during brutal attack of some
of the enemies of the Ahl-ul Bayt (A.S.), and the Islamic world lost a great
treasure of books. Some of the manuscripts exclusively belonged to the Shapoor
Library.

Sheikh
Toosi spent nearly forty years of his lifetime in conducting research and
extracting or writing down Narrations/Hadiths, especially of the Holy Imams
(A.S.) from the books and manuscripts in the aforementioned libraries, and
gifted his collections to the posterity. This adds to the ever-increasing worth
of his extremely valuable writings.

Comments by Ulama:

Agha
Bozorg Tehrani, in his valuable book entitled "Al-Dhari'ah Ila Tasanif
al-Shi'a", comments on Al-Istibsar as follows: "The book Al-Istibsar is one of
the Four Reference Books of Narrations/Hadiths which has served as the means for
inference of Islamic decrees and laws by Shiite Jurisprudents/Scholars from the
time of its completion up until now."

Ibne
Edris, in his book [Sara'er], states: "This book was written by Sheikh Toosi for
incorporating and discussing the Narrations/Hadiths which seem to be at
variance. In this book, contrary narrations were brought together by the writer
who then produced a consensus of opinions gleaned from them."

As
mentioned earlier herein, Ibne Tavoos, too, in his book Fat-hul Abwab underlines
that "any contrary narration existing on a given topic is most likely to be
found in Al-Istibsar. No doubt, it is most useful to a researcher".

Commentaries on Al-Istibsar:

Many Shiite
Ulema have written explanations for Al-Istibsar, including the following:

1)
Sheikh
Abdul-Latif, son of Ahmad son of Abi Jam'e Harethi Shami Ameli (a pupil of
Sheikh Baha'ei) in his book entitled "Jame'ul-Akhbar Fi Eizah-il-Istibsar";

2)
Shahide
Awwal, Muhammad Ibne Makki, in his book Nukatul-Irshad;

3)
Sayyid
Mirza Hasan son of Abdul-Rasool Husseini Zonoozi Khu'ei (1172-1223 A.H.) in his
work Sharhe Istibsar;

4)
Amir
Muhammad son of Amir Abdul-Wassi' Khatoon Abadi (d.1116 A.H.), a son-in-law of
Allameh Majlesi, in his book Sharhe Istibsar;

5) Sheikh Abdul-Reza
Tufaili Najafi in Sharhe Istibsar;

6) Ibne Alwandi,
Faqihe Kazemi, Qasim son of Muhammad Jawad (d. some time later than 1100
A.H.), a contemporary of Sheikh Horr Ameli, in his work Sharhe Istibsar; and

7) Allamah Sayyid
Muhsin son of Hasan A'arji Kazemi (d.1127 A.H.), in his book Sharhe Istibsar.

Writers of Marginal Notes:

Many
marginal notes, too, were written by eminent Ulema, including the following:

1)
Sheikh
Hasan son of Zaynuddin [the author of Ma'alim],

2)
Mowla
Muhammad Amin son of Muhammad Sharif Astar Abadi (d. 1033 A.H),

3)
Mir
Muhammad Baqir son of Shamsuddin Muhammad Husseini, popularly known as Damad,
who passed away in 1041 A.H.

4)
Fazilah
Hamidah, daughter of Mowla Muhammad Sharif Rooydashti (d. 1087 A.H.),

5)
Mowla
Abdul-Rashid son of Mowla Nooruddin Shooshtari (d. approx. 1078 A.H.),

6)
Sayyid
Mirza Muhammad son of Ali son of Ibrahim Astar Abadi, the famous biographer (d.
1028 A.H),

7)
Sayyid
Muhammad son of Ali son of Hussein Moosawi Ameli, [the author of Madarek,
(d.1009 A.H.), and

8)
Sayyid Ne'matullah Jazayeri, son of
Abdullah Moosawi Shooshtari (d.1112 A.H.)

Mashikhah (The Chain of Narrators):

Narrations and Hadiths in the first and the second part of Al-Istibsar are fully
documented. But in the third part, only the names of the authors of the books
from which Sheikh Toosi has quoted are mentioned. At the end of the book,
however, he has given his own authentication of the named narrators by
mentioning the full chain of the intermediate ones. Thus, all quoted Narrations
and Hadiths turn into well-documented texts.

This
third part of the book has, in the parlance of Ulema, come to be known as
Mashikhah, and has been the focus of attention of proficient Ulema in the
science of Rijal. Some of the Ulema, who have written commentaries on this
section of Al-Istibsar, include:

(1)
Mowla Sharif
Ali son of Hasan [his commentary is entitled "Mashikhatul-Istibsar"]

(2)
Hasan son of
Ali son of Ibrahim Alawi [His commentary on Mashikhah is titled as
Asanidul-Istibsar';

(3)
Sheikh
Fakhruddin son of Muhammad-Ali son of Ahmad son of Turaih Najafi (d.1085 A.H.)
who wrote a book on Mashikhah entitled Awatiful-Istibsar'

The Manuscripts:

(1)
An old MS in
the beautiful Naskh' script, written in the year 1090 A.H.: this copy is
recited for and confirmed by the Late Allameh Majlesi, and his signature is
available at the end of the copy. It is now preserved in the Amir al-Mu'menin
(A.S.) Library;

(2)
A MS
beautifully written and illuminated by golden lines in 1078 A.H., which is kept
in the library of Sayyid Muhammad Baghdadi, with marginal writings of Muhaqqiq
Sayyid Muhammad Ameli, the author of Madarikul Ahkam'; and

(3)
A nice MS
decorated in gold for a personage in
India, written in the year 1072 A.H. by one, named Ali Reza.