The Different Methods of Using Imam Al Sadiq's Traditions in Shahrestani's Interpretation

Abstract

Imam Al Sadiq as the founder of Jafarri School has left a great deal of hadiths which have influenced on shi'ite sources and also on sunni's interpretations books. One of the great sunni interpretations is Shahrestani who had used most of Imam Al Sadiq's hadiths in his interpretation and Imam influenced on his thoughts, so this subject makes the studying and analyzing of Imam Al Sadiq's hadiths which are used in Shahrestani's interpretation more important. This study has analyzed "Mafatih Al-Asrar and Masabih Al-Abrar of Shahrestani" by descriptive-documentary method and also extracting Imam Al Sadiq's traditions and their kinds concluded that Shahrestani had used Imam Al Sadiq's hadiths in different methods. Sometimes he used Imam Al Sadiq's hadiths in preferential method, it means that Imam's saying is preferred to other view, and sometimes his using is in confirmatory method which confirms either Imam's speech with other traditions or confirms his own speech and others with Imam's tradition, and sometimes his using is a fundamental and as a key for conception and interpreting of Quran. So in this way, the present study introduces most important of these methods.