SUNNĪ-SHĪʿĪ INTERACTION IN THE EARLY PERIOD – The Transition of the Chains of Ahl al-Sunna to the Shīʿa –

Abstract

The objective of this study is to examine when and by whom Sunnī narrations (isnāds) such as “companion > successor ” were incorporated within the Shīʿī ḥadīth canons, even though these references are rarely seen in the Shīʿī tradition. This study does not merely reveal how the mentioned chains/isnāds passed from Ahl alsunna to the Shīʿa but also provides significant ideas with regard to the historical journey of the Shīʿī ḥadīth narrative (riwāya). Thus, I hope to obtain clues about the origins of certain narratives that the Shīʿa consider critical of Ahl al-sunna but that cannot be proven by Sunnī sources. To remain loyal to the limits of this study, I will compare the chapters “Thawāb al-aʿmāl wa-ʿiqāb al-aʿmāl” within Kitāb al-maḥāsin by al-Barqī, who treats the era of the eleventh imām and al-Ghayba al-ṣughrā (The Lesser Occultation), and Thawāb alaʿmāl wa-ʿiqāb al-aʿmāl by al-Sheikh al-Ṣadūq, who conducted his scholarly life during al-Ghayba al-kubrā (The Greater Occultation) period, with regard to the use of Sunnī chains. These two works are especially important because they reflect tendencies both before and after the Greater Occultation