Preface:
The Messenger of Allah - may Allah bestow peace and benedictions upon him and his Progeny - said: "Verily, I am leaving behind two precious things (thaqalayn) among you: the Book of God and my kindred (`itrah), my household (Ahl alBayt), for indeed, the two will never separate until they come back to me by the Pond (of alKawthar on the Judgement's Day)."
Imam Khumayni - ridwan Allah `alayh - began
his wasiyyah or will with the mention of this tradition
of the Prophet (S), known as Hadith alThaqalayn.
In the prologue to his wasiyyah he pointed out that whatever
tragedies and disasters befell the Muslim world during the last
fourteen centuries have been mainly due to its estrangement from
the Thaqalayn, the twofold legacy of the Prophet (S) in
the form of the Qur'an and the Ahl alBayt (A).
The extent of the estrangement of the Qur'an
will be obvious to anyone who closely examines its teachings and
contrasts them with the popular religion of the masses and the
prevailing religious ethos, even among the scholars and the intelligentsia.
There is certainly a wide gulf that lies between the message and
spirit of the Glorious Qur'an and the way Islam has come to be
practised in Muslim society, a gulf which has never been so wide
as it became in recent centuries under the influence of the West
and the tyrannical regimes that have been ruling over Muslims.
The extent of the estrangement suffered by
the Prophet's Household will be obvious to anyone who studies
the history of the Imams of the Ahl alBayt (A), who were
isolated from the Muslim masses by despots and left without support
in their struggle against the tyrannical regimes of Banu Umayyah
and Banu `Abbas. The result was that the most authentic exponents
and defenders of the Qur'an - whom the tides of time will never
separate from the Qur'an until the Day of Judgement, as stated
by the Noble Prophet (S) - were put under severe surveillance,
exiled, imprisoned, poisoned and martyred, and the masses were
deprived of their guidance and leadership.
Having removed the Ahl alBayt (A) from
their way, the road was opened by the selfseeking tyrants
for making the Holy Qur'an itself an instrument for the justification
of their antiQur'anic rule. "They forced," as
Imam Khumayni says, "the true exponents of the Qur'an...
off the stage with various ploys and systematic plans. In this
way, they in fact, eliminated the Qur'an itself, the Qur'an which
was the greatest programme for organizing man's material and spiritual
life, and rejected its plan of government based on Divine justice,
which was and remains one of the ideals of this sacred scripture.
Thus they laid the foundations of deviation from the Din and
the Book of God, bringing things ultimately to an indescribable
extreme."
If today the custodians of American Islam with
their petrodollars conspire against the aspirations of the Muslim
masses inspired by the genuine Islam, so did once the Umayyad
and `Abbasid tyrants stand in the way of Islam and seek to isolate
and destroy its exponents, the Imams of the Ahl alBayt (A),
and promote a counterfeit version of Islam. But no matter how
much they tried they could not extirpate the Prophet's exhortations
regarding the Ahl alBayt and conceal the unbreakable link
between the Book of God and the Prophet's `Itrah, in the
form of Hadith alThaqalayn and scores of other traditions
similar to it.
This hadith has continued to be narrated by
each generation of authentic Shi`i and Sunni traditionists and
scholars throughout the last fourteen centuries. Reliable and
trustworthy narrators of each generation, from the days of the
Prophet's committed Companions - may God be pleased with them
- to the present, including many or rather most of the greatest
and leading figures in the history of Islamic scholarship have
narrated this hadith. It is in view of this undeniable fact that
Imam Khumayni declared in his wasiyyah:
It is essential to point out that Hadith alThaqalayn is a mutawatir tradition amongst all Muslims. It has been narrated in Sunni sources - including the Six Sihah as well as other books - from the Holy Prophet (S) in different wordings, and as having been spoken by him on repeated occasions. This tradition is a definite proof (hujjah) for all mankind, in particular for the Muslims, regardless of sect. And all Muslims are answerable (before God) concerning it. For it leaves no room for any excuse for any one. And should there be room for an excuse for the ignorant and the uninformed, there isn't any for the scholars of various schools.
As we know, the tradition or ahadith of the
Holy Prophet (S) recorded in the books of Muslim traditionists
begin with chains of transmitters on whose authority the traditionist
reports the Prophet's acts or statements. Experts of hadith amongst
Muslims have developed certain criteria for assessing the reliability
of different chains of transmission and ascertaining the authenticity
of the contents of traditions. They have developed a terminology
with terms denoting various classifications of hadith depending
on the character, strength or weakness of narrators and other
factors, such as mutawatir, ahad, sahih, hasan, qawi, da`if,
etc.
By tawatur is meant the multiplicity
of the sources of a certain report that leads to certitude in
the listener that the report is indeed true. One's knowledge of
the existence of distant countries and towns and such historical
figures as Cyrus or Napolean may be said to be based on the tawatur
of reports that one hears about them. So also is one's knowledge
of the contemporary events not witnessed by him.
A mutawatir hadith is one which has
been reported by so many different chains of transmission and
such a number of narrators in every generation as normally could
not agree to fabricate a tradition without the fact of its fabrication
becoming known. Although some jurisprudents have specified a particular
minimum for the number of narrators, such as five, seven, ten
or even hundred, it is generally held that no particular number
can be specified and the number capable of producing certitude
depends on the experience of the listener.
Islamic jurisprudents have set forth certain
conditions for a tradition to be mutawatir. AlGhazali
in alMustasfa min `ilm al'usul [1]
mentions the following conditions.
(1) That the transmitters should report on
the basis of knowledge (`ilm) and not conjecture (zann).
(2) Their knowledge should have been acquired
through the senses.
(3) That the number of narrators should be
sufficient to produce certitude.
(4) That all the links in the chains of transmission
of a report should fulfil the first two conditions and their number
in every stage of transmission must fulfil the third condition.
AlShaykh alHasan ibn Zayn alDin,
the Shi`i author of Ma`alim al'usul, mentions similar
conditions for a report to be mutawatir. As can be seen,
the legal condition of `adalah (justice) is not required
for the narrators nor are they required to be thiqah when
the conditions of tawatur are fulfilled. Rather, alGhazali
states explicitly that in such cases knowledge is attained even
if the narrators should be fasiq. The author of Ma`alim
states two conditions in order for a mutawatir report
to produce knowledge in the listener:
(1) The listener should not have previous knowledge
of the matter, for it is not possible to know something that one
already knows.
(2) The listener should not be inhibited by
doubt or imitation (taqlid) in his belief, for then the
report will fail to make any impression upon him.