Tahdhib al-Ahkam

Part of a series on Hadith collections v - d - e

Most famous

Sunni six major collections (Al-Sihah al-Sittah): Sahih al-Bukhari Sahih Muslim Sunan an-Nasa'i al-Sughra Sunan Abu Dawood Sunan al-Tirmidhi Sunan Ibn Maja Shi'a Twelver collections: "The Four Books" (Al-Kutub Al-Arb'ah) Kitab al-Kafi of Kulainy Man la yahduruhu al-Faqih of Shaikh Saduq Tahdhib al-Ahkam by Shaikh Tusi al-Istibsar by Shaykh Tusi Ibadi collections: al-Jami' as-Sahih by al-Rabi' ibn Habib Tartib al-Musnad by al-Warijlani

Sunni collections

Al-Muwatta Musnad Ahmad ibn Hanbal - 780-855 Sunan al-Darimi - 868 Sahih Ibn Khuzaymah - 923 Sahih Ibn Hibbaan - 965 Al-Mustadrak alaa al-Sahihain - 1014 Mawdu'at al-Kubra- 1128-1217 Riyadh as-Saaliheen - 1233 - 1278 Mishkat al-Masabih - 1340 Talkhis al-Mustadrak - 1274-1348 Majma al-Zawa'id - 1335-1405 Bulugh al-Maram - 1372-1449 Kanz al-Ummal - 1500th

Shi'a Twelver collections

The book of Sulaym ibn Qays - 600th Al-Sahifa al-Sajjadiyya - 678-713 Wasael ush-Shia - 1600s Bihar al-Anwar - 1600s Haqq al-Yaqeen - 1600s Ain Al-Hayat - 1600s Sharh Usul al-Kafi - ?-1081

Shi'a Ismaili collections

Qalam-e-Mowla Daim al-Islam

Mu'tazili collections

Nahj with comments - ?-1258

Tahdhib al-Ahkam is a hadith collection, by the famous Twelver Shi'a hadith scholar Abu Jafar Muhammad Ibn Hassan Tusi, commonly known as Shaykh Tusi. This work is included among Twelver The Four Books of Shia Islam.

Name

Tahdhib al-Ahkam could be translated as "The Refinement of the Laws (as Discussed) in Terms of the Explanation of the Sufficiency".

Content

The original intention of al-Tusi had been to write a commentary on al-Muqni'a of al-Mufid. However, he makes it clear in his introduction that his work would only concern the practical regulations for carrying out the sharia, the holy law of Islam. He said: "I went first to the chapter which was connected with ritual purity (tahara), leaving aside the (chapters) which preceded it, which were about the Unity of God (tawhid), Justice (adl), Prophethood (nubuwwa) and the Imamah, because the explanation of these would be too lengthy, and also because it was not the intention of this book to elucidate the principles of religion (al-usul).

Introduction

In his introduction, al-Tusi makes it clear that the principal motive for writing this work and limiting it to the furu', was the great differences which were arising in Shia traditions. He mentions that these differences were being used against the Shia by their opponents as an argument against the truth of Shia beliefs. The situation had become so critical that al-Tusi reports al-Mufid's account of one Shia adherent who had left the community because of the contradictory traditions. Al-Tusi set himself the task of analysing the traditions concerned with furu', explaining which traditions were deficient and reconciling apparent contradictions in sound traditions. He used al-Mufid's al-Maqni'a as the basis for this task. However, he did not only deal with the traditions used in al-Muqni'a; he analysed many more traditions which he included at the end of various sections, appendices of traditions not mentioned by al-Mufid, which he also discusses.

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a Manuscript from Tahdhib al-Ahkam

Shi'a Muslims 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-Istibar and Tahdheeb al-Ahkam. However, all hadith must be individually examined and no book other than the Quran is considered sahih.