Introduction of the Book – Ma’anil Akhbar (Meaning of traditions)

The author of the book Ma’anil Akhbar is Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn 'Ali ibn Babawaih al-Qummi famous as Shaikh Saduq (a.r.) who was born in 305 A.H. He was one the extraordinary scholars of Ghaibat e Sughra. His book Man La Yahzarul Faqih is one of four revered books (Kutub e Arba’a) among Shias. Apart fom this he has written many other books through which the scholars and general masses have benefitted.

The book of Shaikh Saduq which is famous as Maanil Akhbar is unique in the sense that, in this book the traditions of Aimmah (a.s.) are clarified and understood through the narrations of Aimmah (a.s.). The statement of one infallible is explained by another infallible and if the earlier tradition of an infallible is altered or any false tradition is attributed to any of them, the latter Imams have clarified it. Shaikh Saduq (a.r.) has narrated traditions from almost all the infallibles.

There was scarcity of resources in those days, yet narrators of traditions traversed from village to village to amass traditions of Ahlil Bait (a.s.) so it is our responsibility to appreciate the hard work by reading and acting on these traditions.

The book is divided into two volumes. The book deals with meanings of various concepts, titles and statements. The only common thing between all of them is these traditions are related to Aqaed and not Ahkaam.

The first 60 pages deal with meanings of terminologies associated with Allah viz.

·         Meaning of Ism,

·         Allah,

·         Bismillah,

·         Waahid

·         Samad

·         SubhanAllah

·         Tawheed

·         Allahu Akbar

The next 25 pages talk about the meaning of

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·       Arsh

·       Lauh & Qalam

·       Mizaan

·       Siraat

·       Azaan

·       Hidden Alphabets

The rest of the book contains meanings of

·         Name of Prophets

·         Verses of Quran

·         Concepts of Quran e.g. Sharb ul Heem

·         Traditions

·         Titles and Agnomen of Aimmah

·         Miscellaneous

There are 429 such meanings (divided into equal number of chapters) – 183 in the first volume and 246 in the second volume. Most of the chapters consist of only one tradtion.

Chapter 1 – The reason for naming this book as Maanil Akhbar

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ُُوق ي اللّ دبْعَ ابأ تعْمس

ةملكلا نإ انملَك يناعم متفرعَ

اذإ سانلا ُهوفأ متنأ

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.بُذكق لَ و ءاش فَ

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ُهملَك فَ

رصل ناسنإ ءاش ُْلف هُجُو ىلعَ

فرصنتل

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(Ref. – Manial Akhbar – Chapter 1)

We (narrators) heard Imam Jafar Sadiq (as): “You will get the best of understanding amongst people when you understand the meaning of our words. Certainly, words can be given any meaning, thus a person can mean it as he wishes, while he will not be lying”

In another tradition Imam Mohammad Baqir (as) advises to his son Imam Jafar Sadiq

(a): “O my son! Recognise the position of our Shias through our traditions and recognition (Ma’arefat); certainly Ma’arefat is understanding the traditions and through understanding the traditions the grades of believers are elevated. Surely when I saw in the book of Ali (a) I found that, value of a man is through his Ma’arefat. Without doubt Allah will account the person based on the intellect He has granted them in this world”

One tradition from the book

Meaning of Abu Turab

Someone asked Abdullah ibn Abbas that why did the Holy Prophet (s.a.w.a.) kept the Kuniyat of Imam Ali (as) as Abu Turab. He said: Because Ali (as) is the owner of earth and the proof of Allah on the earth after the Messenger (s.a.w.a.) . The earth is remaining because of him and because of him it is calm and composed. I have heard from the Holy Prophet (s.a.w.a.) that when the Kaafir sees the position of Shia of Imam

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Ali (as) on the day of Judgement, he will say ‘’Ya Laytani kunto Turabaa’ (I wish I was mud) i.e. I wish I was Shia of Ali (as) - means earth/mud means Shia and Abu Turab means custodian of shia. This is the explaination of what Allah says in S. Nisa verse 40 (and the disbelievers would say. We wish that were mud)

The above book written originally in Arabic is translated into persian and urdu too. http://www.ziyaraat.net/books/ManneAlakhbar.pdf

May Allah give this taufeeq to someone from us to translate the index of this book in english. If we refer to atleast 1 chapter everyday (most of them are of a few lines), we

will finish reading the whole book in around one and half year but this  disciplined

َ ََْ سانلا ُهوفأ

approach will make us _ِ