Imam Abu Talib (D. 424AH)
Imam Abū Ṭālib al-Nāṭiq bi-l-Ḥaqq
Yaḥyā ibn al-Ḥusayn — Peace Be Upon Him
Imam al-Nāṭiq bi-l-Ḥaqq, Abū Ṭālib Yaḥyā ibn al-Ḥusayn (peace be upon him). He rose after the death of his brother Imam al-Muʾayyad Billāh. Al-Ḥākim said, in describing some of his writings: “Upon it is a touch of the divine light and a glowing brand of the prophetic speech.”
Some of his followers said when allegiance was pledged to him:
It has gladdened prophethood and the Prophet —
and adorned the legateeship and the Legatee:
That the Daylamites have pledged allegiance —
to Yaḥyā ibn Hārūn, the approved.
- Al-Mujzī — on the principles of jurisprudence (uṣūl al-fiqh), two volumes; among the foundational works
- Kitāb Jāmiʿ al-Adilla — also on the principles of jurisprudence
- Kitāb al-Taḥrīr — and its commentary in twelve volumes
- Kitāb Mabādiʾ al-Adilla — on theology
- Kitāb al-Daʿāma
- Kitāb al-Ifāda fī Tārīkh al-Aʾimma al-Sāda — The Benefit, on the History of the Lordly Imams
- Al-Amālī — well-known Dictations on ḥadīth
- Sharḥ Kitāb al-Bāligh al-Mudrik — commentary on the work of Imam al-Hādī ilā al-Ḥaqq
- And others
In his commentary on the words of Imam al-Hādī — “It is obligatory upon the adult of sound perception” — after clarifying the meanings of obligation in the Arabic language, Imam Abū Ṭālib said: the definite article entered the word “adult” to denote the comprehensiveness of the genus (istighrāq al-jins). He then divided what occurs in the Arabic language into the declarative (al-khabar) and the performative/constructive (al-inshāʾ).
Imam al-Hādī (peace be upon him) said: “Among these reports is that which, in its origin, is abrogated; among them is that which, in its formulation, is general, while in its meaning it is particular; and among them is that which was related as mursal without proof or clarification for those who ponder it; and among them is that which was misrepresented upon the transmitters in their books.”
Imam Abū Ṭālib commented: As for the mursal without proof — it is what the people of ḥadīth mentioned in their books and selected in what they named the two Ṣaḥīḥs: the Ṣaḥīḥ of al-Bukhārī (Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl al-Juʿfī) and the Ṣaḥīḥ of Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj al-Qushayrī. He did not intend by mursal the technical term agreed upon by the ḥadīth scholars; rather he intended that which is not established by proof — as the Author (peace be upon him) notes.
Imam Abū Ṭālib said: We have, in our time, known and seen — and more than one of the Shāfiʿīs and Ḥanafīs has transmitted to us — minute probing into the branches of law, deep delving into the deductions concerning them, and rigorousness in that. They held, concerning one who buys twenty eggs and finds among them one rotten egg, a whole elaborate discourse; and concerning one who buys a ewe whose milk has been left unmilked to deceive the buyer, they brought forth questions that filled the pages and exceeded the limit of prolixity. Yet when they came to the questions of the fundamentals, and mentioned their proofs and the clarification of what God had made clear — I found them dumb, uttering nothing but a whisper.
Imam Abū Ṭālib said: Know that what called us to mention these reports by the transmission of the generality — even though they have been transmitted, with us, by those whom we trust among our Imams tracing back to the Messenger ﷺ — is the denial by their jurists of the proofs of the intellects and their recourse to them in interpreting the ambiguous of the Qurʾān and the reports.
In commenting on Imam al-Hādī’s words about the interval between prophets (al-fatra) — “And in it there remain His books and His proofs, and remnants from the people of knowledge” — Imam Abū Ṭālib said: They are the people of the Sacred Law from among the jurists of the nation, the successors of the imams, and the polishers of the darknesses.
He then said, urging toward knowledge — and especially the Arabic language, for it is the most worthy of being known, on account of what is connected with knowing it: all the rulings, obligations, and sunnahs; the placing-before and the placing-after; prolixity and amplification; the full realities and the concise in informing and seeking information, command and prohibition, sermons and eloquent communications; the proverbs, supplication and questioning, wishing and disputation, the allusions and the narrations — and other than that of the sciences.
Then he brought forth the words of the Legatee ʿAlī (peace be upon him): “The scholars remain as long as time remains; their persons are absent, while their likes are present in the hearts.”
God took him in the year 424 AH, at over eighty years of age. May God’s mercy and peace be upon him.
- Abū Hāshim Muḥammad left no progeny