Grand Ayatollah Shirazi remarks on Mursal hadith attributed to Holy Prophet
The daily scholarly meeting of Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Sadiq al-Hosseini al-Shirazi was held on Thursday, the 18th of Sha’ban. In this session, just like the previous meetings, the Marja answered the questions of the attendees about various jurisprudence issues.
In relation to the narration attributed to the Holy Prophet: “My companions are like stars. Whichever of them you follow, you will be guided”, Grand Ayatullah Shirazi said: This narration is a Mursal hadith and Mursal hadiths should not be ascribed to Ma’sumeen, peace be upon them, because it is not clear whether these words were uttered by Ma’soom.
His Eminence continued: Assuming that this narration was issued by the Holy Prophet, there is evidence from other narrations that some of the companions, but not all of them, enjoyed such status.
The Marja also emphasized: The application of this narration as a general rule for all companions has not been stated by Ma’soom, peace be upon him, and what is certain is that this hadith is Mursal, with no solid chain of transmission.
In relation to the Hadith of Saqlain, Grand Ayatollah Shirazi said: The Holy Prophet has famously said: The Book of Allah and my Pure Family, the Ahlul-Bayt. This hadith does not mention the Companions, because the Companions of the Prophet were not all just, and some of them even betrayed and killed each other. So, our benchmark for guidance is the Qur’an and Ahlul-Bayt, because only these two sources have been emphasized by the Holy Prophet and there is no third.
His Eminence continued: If we want to examine this issue in a broader way, it is interesting to mention a point from the “al-Jame’ al-Ahadith al-Shia”, which was compiled by the order of the late Grand Ayatollah Borujerdi. At the beginning of this book, which includes various chapters on introduction of hadiths, it has been emphasized that the correct authority after the Messenger of God and the Qur’an is the pure Ahlul-Bayt. The reference to Ahlul-Bayt has been captured in dozens of sources, including those of the Sunni.
