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
·
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.
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
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.
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