1. Ask A Question About Islam And Muslims
  2. Ask A Question About Islam And Muslims

Ask A Question About Islam And Muslims

9 Questions

Some Shia folks claim that not all the Hadith mentioned in Biharul Anwar by Allama Baqir Majlisi are authentic. Is this true? If so, what proportion is inauthentic?
Zaid Alsalami

Bismihi ta'ala

Other than the holy Quran, we do not have a book that is completely authentic, from cover to cover. Even our early hadith books like al-Kafi, etc, are to be individually evaluated and scrutinised by experts of hadith grading. 

The great book Bihar al-Anwar, by al-'Allamah al-Majlisi (q.s.) is no exemption as well. As for percentage or proportion, that cannot be defined as a whole, because each scholar could have different methodology of grading authenticity, and other related issues to hadith grading.

And Allah knows best
I can see only very few Shia Hadith books that are available online in English translation. Are books such as al-Kafi, al-Istibsar, Bihar al-Anwar not yet translated?
Sayyed Mohammad Al-Musawi

Many Shia books of Hadeeth are already translated including all-Kafi. Many books are under translation. You can check on www.shiasearch.org

Wassalam.
Are there traditions in Shia books such as Bihar Al Anwar that suggest that the Quran is distorted? If so, how can their presence in those books be explained?
Amina Inloes

There are some hadith along those lines. It has been suggested that these are forged hadith. In some cases, when the ayah is presented differently, with insertions, it has been suggested that this may have been an explanation or gloss by the speaker which was later misunderstood as a quotation of the entire ayah.

It is true that there are a few hadith along these lines both in Sunni and Shi'i texts.
Are there traditions in Shia books such as Bihar Al Anwar that suggest that the Quran is distorted? If so, how can their presence in those books be explained?
Sayyed Mohammad Al-Musawi

Quran is intact with out any distortion whatsoever. There are narrations in Sunni books like Bukhari, Muslim, Al-Tirmithi, Al-Nasaa'ee, Ibn Maajah, Muwatta' Malik, Musnad Ibn Hanbal  and other well known books claiming stories about distortion in some Suras of Quran. Our authentic evidence that Quran is intact, made our  leading Ulama reject any narration contradicts with the fact that Quran is intact even if it the narration is mentioned in a Shia book. Such narrations in Shia books are much less than in Sunni books and some of them were copied from Sunni books. Such narrations are either fabricated or misunderstood. 
 Bukhari in Hadeeth number 4608 narrated from Umar ibn al-Khattab different words in Quran which never recited by the Prophet Muhammad (SAWA). Bukhari narrated in Hadeeth number 6327 and 6328 from Umar ibn al-Khattab a claimed verse on stoning the old man and old woman. Such verse is not in Quran but Umar said it is. These are just few examples of long list of such rejected Sunni narrations on this matter.

'The fact which we believe in according to most authentic evidence from Ahlul Bayt (AS) is: Quran is intact and preserved and protected by Allah (SWT) from distortion.

Wassalam.