Twelver Shiite Scholars’ Position on Adopting Hadiths Transmitted by Sunnis and Non-Twelver Shiites

Abstract

This article deals with the positions taken by Twelver Shiite hadith scholars on the question of adopting hadiths narrated on the authority of al-ꜥāmma, that is, non-Shiites. The article begins by defining the terms al-ꜥāmma and al-khāșșa as employed by the Twelver Shiites and the evolution of their meanings, noting that the issue of adopting narratives passed down on the authority of al-ꜥāmma had not been resolved among Shiite scholars when the Shiite sect emerged in the first and second centuries AH, during which time numerous hadiths were being passed down by Shiites through al-ꜥāmma. However, once the idea of the minor occultation had crystallized, and following this, the major occultation, Shiite scholars began restricting the use of narratives passed down via al-ꜥāmma. Shiite scholars were divided into two groups over the question of adopting hadiths narrated on the authority of al-ꜥāmma (Sunnis) and non-Twelver Shiites, with the first group approving this practice, and the second group forbidding it on the grounds that Sunnis and non-Twelver Shiites were not believers in the twelve imams. Thus, a doctrinal debate arose over the qualifications of hadith narrators which had nothing to do with the status of the hadith, or whether the person who had transmitted the hadith had sat directly with the imam on whose authority he had narrated it.