The Traditions of ‘Alī b. Abi Ḥamza Baṭā’inī between Acceptance and Rejection

علوم قرآن و حدیث

Article 5, Volume 40, Issue 2 - Serial Number 81, November 2008   

Document Type: Research Article

DOI: 10.22067/naqhs.v40i2.3198

Author

Muṣṭafā Salīmī Zāri^*

Abstract

‘Alī b. Abi Ḥamza b. Baṭā’inī, is among the heretic (fāsid al-madhhab) transmitters of ḥadīth, with the difference, however, that he has left behind two distinguishable periods in his life time. For some time he had been on the right path and during that period he had been regarded as among the transmitters of ḥadīth from Imam al-Ṣādiq (A.S.) and Imam al-Kāẓim (A.S.), but toward the end of his life he was deviated and denied the Imamate of Imam al-Riḍā (A.S.). During his upright period, he had related from the two noble Imams many traditions which have found their way into our collections of ḥadīth through reports of the compilers of ḥadīth sources, trustworthy transmitters of ḥadīth, and the people of consensus. Because of the denunciations made of him in biography books, our jurists and scholars have taken different stances in dealing with his related traditions. Their disagreement is rooted in that some of them regard the time of relating the traditions to be during his upright period and others believe it to be during his deviation. This has created a kind of ambivalence in acceptance or rejection of his traditions. According to some evidences, however, most of his traditions seem to belong to his upright period; thus, his traditions can be trusted and counted on, if they meet certain requirements, as it has been so with other famous jurists and scholars.