The Four Books
The Four Books (ٱلْكُتُب ٱلْأَرْبَعَة, al-Kutub al-ʾArbaʿah), or The Four Principles (al-Uṣūl al-Arbaʿah), is a Twelver Shia term referring to their four best-known hadith collections:
| Name | Collector | No. of hadith |
|---|---|---|
| Kitab al-Kafi | Muhammad ibn Ya’qub al-Kulayni al-Razi (329 AH) | 16,199 |
| Man La Yahduruhu al-Faqih | Muhammad ibn Babawayh | 9,044 |
| Tahdhib al-Ahkam | Shaykh Muhammad Tusi | 13,590 |
| Al-Istibsar | Shaykh Muhammad Tusi | 5,511 |
The Four Books
Most Shi’a Muslims use different books of hadith from those used by other Muslims, who prize the six major hadith collections. In particular, Twelver Shi’a considers many Sunni transmitters of hadith to be unreliable because many of them took the side of Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, and Ali instead of only Ali (and the rest of Muhammad’s family), and the majority of them were narrated through certain personalities that waged war against Ahlul Bayt or sided with their enemies such as Aisha that fought Ali at Jamal, or Muawiya who did so at Siffin. Hussain (grandson of Muhammad and son of Ali ibn Abi Talib) was martyred at the Battle of Karbala. Shia trust traditions transmitted through the Imams, Muhammad’s descendants through Fatima Zahra.
Adapted from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia