Man la yahduruhu al-Faqih

Man lā yahduruhu al-Faqīh (Arabic: من لا يحضره الفقيه‎‎) is a hadith collection, by the famous Twelver Shi'a hadith scolar Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn 'Ali ibn Babawaih al-Qummi, commonly known as Ibn Babawayh or Al-Shaykh al-Saduq. This work is included among The Four Books of Twelver Shia Islam.

Name

The literal translation of the title Man la yahduruhu al-Faqih is For him not in the Presence of a Jurisprudent. Others translate the title as Every man his own lawyer.[1]

Compilation

In his introduction to the book the author explains the circumstances of its composition and the reason for its title. When he was at Ilaq near Balkh, he met Sharif al-Din Abu 'Abd Allah known as Ni'mah. He brought a book compiled by Muhammad b. Zakharia al-Razi entitled Man la yahduruhu al-Tabeeb or Every man his own doctor to the attention of Shaikh al-Saduq. He, then, asked him to compile a book on Fiqh (Islamic Jurisprudence), The Halal and the Haram (the permitted and prohibited) and al-shara-i' wa-'l-ahkam (revealed law and ordinary laws) which would draw on all the works which the Shaikh earlier had composed on the subject. This book would be called Man la yahduruh al-faqih and would function as a work of reference.[2]

Contents

Man la yahduruhu al-Faqih is mainly concerned with Furoo al-Din. The book is meant to be a reference book to help ordinary Shia Muslims in the practise of the legal requirements of Islam. Generally, the Isnad's (Chains of the narrations) is absent. Thus, the book is a summary of the study of legal traditions. Shaikh al-Saduq himself said about his work:

I compiled the book without Isnads so that the chains (of authority) should not be too many (-and make the book too long-) and so that the book's advantages might be abundant. I did not have the usual intention of compilers (of books of traditions) to put forward everything which they (could) narrate but my intention was to put forward those things by which I gave legal opinions and which I judged to be correct [3]

View

Shi'a regard this book as among the most reliable Hadith collections. Thus, the book is included in The Four Books of the Shi'a, together with Al-Kafi, Al-Istibsar and Tahdhib al-Ahkam. As with all Hadith collections, however, there is no guarantee of the authenticity of each individual hadith and the reliability of each must be separately assessed.

References

  1. ↑ Al-Islam.org
  2. ↑ Man la yahduruh al-faqih, Introduction, p.2-3 as cited at Al-Islam.org
  3. ↑ Man la yahduruh al-faqih, Introduction as cited by Al-Islam.org
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