Why Are Ahl al-Bayt Narrations Rare in al-Bukhari? A Zaydi Answer

5 months ago
6 minutes

Questions:

How do you view al-Bukhari’s neglect of the hadiths of Ahl al-Bayt and their scarcity in his work?

What are the authentic hadiths concerning Ahl al-Bayt according to the Zaydi school?

We see persistent attempts to weaken and ignore the hadiths related to Ahl al-Bayt — how do you view this issue?

Answers:

The question is divided into three implicit sub-questions, so we will answer them according to the order given by the questioner.

First implicit question: How do you view al-Bukhari’s neglect of the hadiths of Ahl al-Bayt and their scarcity in his book?

This is a natural result that the hadith collection of al-Bukhari, as well as the rest of the Sunni canonical collections, contains little narration — or narration lacking weight — from the Imams of the Prophet’s family (may God’s blessings be upon them). That is because those scholars followed a distinct intellectual and activist approach that differed from and opposed the Imams of the Ahl al-Bayt.

As for the intellectual direction, the creed of the Ahl al-Bayt emphasized (divine unity, justice, and the doctrines of promise and threat). As for the activist dimension, the Imams of the Ahl al-Bayt rose up against the unjust rulers of the Umayyads and Abbasids. All of this — both doctrinally and politically — was not approved by the majority of the Sunni community among hadith scholars and others, though we do not claim this applies to all of them, since some supported the Zaydi Imams, such as Abu Hanifa, Malik ibn Anas, al-Shafi‘i, and others.

Therefore, the scarcity of narrations from the Imams of the Ahl al-Bayt in al-Bukhari’s book is a natural outcome of that disagreement. What deserves attention is that the sword of criticism and evaluation (al-jarḥ wa-l-taʿdīl), through weakening and disparagement, extended to Imams and scholars from the descendants of al-Hasan and al-Husayn — such as Imam al-Sadiq and al-Husayn ibn Zayd — and even to loyal Shi‘i transmitters who narrated the hadiths of Ahl al-Bayt.

Thus, the hadith scholars neither transmitted the narrations of the Ahl al-Bayt with the same care in matters of creed and law as they did from others, nor did they accept the narrations of Shi‘a from Ahl al-Bayt. Hardly is any book attributed to one of the Imams of Ahl al-Bayt — such as the Musnad of Imam Zayd ibn ‘Ali, the Sahifa of Imam al-Ridā, Nahj al-Balāgha, and similar works — mentioned without critics rushing to weaken and disparage them, as if the Imams of Ahl al-Bayt were not worthy of having narrations transmitted from them or preserved works attributed to them. Meanwhile, the works of others among early and later scholars are often accepted without such criticism.

This, in our view, explains the scarcity of narrations from the Ahl al-Bayt in al-Bukhari and other hadith collections. Since the Ahl al-Bayt did not hold a central weight within Sunni theology, those noble figures from the descendants of al-Hasan and al-Husayn did not hold the same status as the four Sunni legal Imams — and any fair observer sees this clearly.

With this, the answer to the first question is complete.

Second implicit question: What are the authentic hadiths concerning Ahl al-Bayt according to the Zaydi school?

Authentic hadiths depend on the criteria for accepting reports generally used in the books of Muslims. Regarding the Zaydi school specifically, the Zaydis paid close attention to Prophetic hadiths within their own compilations and musnads, working according to conditions established by the Imams of the Ahl al-Bayt for accepting or rejecting narrations.

Among the authentic hadith sources are those contained in:

  • Musnad Imam Zayd ibn ‘Ali
  • Sahifa of Imam ‘Ali ibn Musa al-Ridā
  • Kitāb al-Manāhī by Imam al-Murtada Muhammad ibn al-Hadi ila’l-Haqq Yahya ibn al-Husayn
  • Various hadith collections including the Amālī works, such as:
    • Amālī of Imam al-Nāṭiq bi’l-Haqq Yahya ibn al-Husayn al-Haruni
    • Amālī of Imam al-Murshid Billah Yahya ibn al-Husayn al-Shajari
    • Monday Amālī and Thursday Amālī
    • Amālī of Imam Ahmad ibn ‘Isa ibn Zayd
  • Manāqib Amīr al-Mu’minīn by al-Hafiz Muhammad ibn Sulayman al-Kufi
  • What is included in Sharḥ al-Tajrīd in Zaydi jurisprudence by Imam al-Mu’ayyad Billah Ahmad ibn al-Husayn al-Haruni

Most Zaydi works were authored and preserved by Imams of Ahl al-Bayt themselves, such as Imam al-Qasim ibn Ibrahim al-Rassi, Imam al-Hadi ila’l-Haqq Yahya ibn al-Husayn, Imam al-Nasir al-Utrush al-Hasan ibn ‘Ali, the Haruni Imams, and al-Hafiz Abu ‘Abdullah Muhammad ibn ‘Ali al-Bathani al-Hasani, among many others whose names are omitted here for brevity. They authored works following a unified Zaydi methodology.

Thus concludes the answer to this issue.

Third implicit question: We see persistent attempts to weaken and ignore hadiths related to Ahl al-Bayt — how do you view this problem?

In our view, this neglect of Ahl al-Bayt is itself a result of neglecting the Shariah and the divine selection by which God favored the Ahl al-Bayt. God says:

“Thus We have tested some of them by others so that they say: ‘Are these the ones God has favored among us?’ Is not God most knowing of the grateful?” (Qur’an 6:53)

God and His Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) guided people toward this divine selection of Ahl al-Bayt — in the Qur’an, where the family of Muhammad is described as the remainder of the family of Abraham, and in the Prophetic Sunnah through widely transmitted hadiths such as the Hadith of Ghadir, the Hadith of the Two Weighty Things (al-Thaqalayn), and authentic reports like the Hadith of the Ark and the Hadith of the Stars.

Even the Hadith of al-Thaqalayn alone would suffice — which Ibn Hajar stated in al-Ṣawāʿiq was narrated by more than twenty Companions — where the Messenger of God (Peace and Blessings be upon Him and his Family) said:

“I leave among you that which, if you hold fast to it, you will never go astray after me: the Book of God and my progeny, the people of my house. The All-Gentle, the All-Aware informed me that they will never separate until they return to me at the Pond.”

This is an authentic, widely transmitted hadith in meaning, and no fair researcher can ignore it without acknowledging the necessity of following both the Book and the Ahl al-Bayt.

People of various schools turned away from the method of the Imams of the Ahl al-Bayt, weakening hadiths praising them in order to validate their own positions and those of their teachers. Some even showed intense hostility toward the Ahl al-Bayt. The root of the problem, therefore, is departing from the Prophet’s instruction in the Hadith of al-Thaqalayn, following others instead of those meant to be followed, and becoming self-sufficient from those who should be followed.

With this and what preceded it, the answers to the three implicit questions are complete.

May God grant you success.

Answered by: al-Ustadh al-Kazim al-Zaydi, may God grant him success.

O God, send prayers and peace upon Muhammad and upon the family of Muhammad.

Translation of al-Ustadh al-Kazim al-Zaydi (May Allah reward him)