() is a comprehensive collection of

hadith Hadith is the Arabic word for a 'report' or an 'account f an event and refers to the Islamic oral tradition of anecdotes containing the purported words, actions, and the silent approvals of the Islamic prophet Muhammad or his immediate circle ...

(''pl.'' ahadith) compiled by

Shia Shia Islam is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that Muhammad designated Ali ibn Abi Talib () as both his political successor (caliph) and as the spiritual leader of the Muslim community (imam). However, his right is understood ...

scholar

Mohammad-Baqer Majlesi Mohammad Baqer Majlesi ( – 29 March 1699; ), also known as Allamah Majlesi or Majlesi Al-Thani (Majlesi the Second), was an influential Iranian Akhbari Twelver Shia scholar and thinker during the Safavid era. He has been described as "one of t ...

(). It is the secondary Shi'ite hadith verification source after

the Four Books The Four Books () are the four canonical hadith collections of Shia Islam. The term is used mostly by Twelver Shias. Shi'a Muslims use different books of hadith from those used by Sunni Muslims, who prize the six major hadith collections. I ...

Overview

''Bihar al-Anwar'' is the most comprehensive hadith collections, documenting over 100,000 items of

Twelver Shia Twelver Shi'ism (), also known as Imamism () or Ithna Ashari, is the largest branch of Shi'a Islam, comprising about 90% of all Shi'a Muslims. The term ''Twelver'' refers to its adherents' belief in twelve divinely ordained leaders, known as th ...

hadith along with Majlisi's commentary on these narrations. He used about 400 sources written by such Sunni and Shia scholars as Shaykh al-Saduq, Shaykh Tusi,

Al-Shaykh Al-Mufid Abu 'Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn al-Nu'man al-'Ukbari al-Baghdadi, known as al-Shaykh al-Mufid () and Ibn al-Mu'allim (c.9481022 CE), was a prominent Iraqi Twelver Shia theologian. His father was a teacher (''mu'allim''), hence the n ...

, Sharif al-Murtaza, Muhammad Jamaluddin al-Makki al-Amili, Sayyed Ibn Tawus, Al-Hilli,

Zayn al-Din al-Juba'i al'Amili Zayn al-Dīn al-Juba'ī al-Ṭalluṣī al'Amilī (; 1506-1559), also known as ash-Shahīd ath-Thanī (, ', ) was a Twelver Shia Muslim scholar. Early life He was born ''Zayn al-Dīn bin Nur al-Dīn 'Alī bin Aḥmad bin Muḥammad bin 'Alī bi ...

. The full title of the book is:

''Biḥār al-ʾAnwār al-Jāmiʿah li-Durar ʾAkhbār al-ʾAʾimmah al-Aṭhār'' () (lit. ''Oceans of Lights: The Compendium for Pearls of Traditions of the Pure Imams'')

This lengthy title indicates Majlisi collected anything he had access to in the book. His primary goal was to preserve the knowledge for future generations and prevent forgery. Majlisi has acknowledged the forgery issue in the preface of ''Bihar al-Anwar'', emphasizing that the traditions collected were not included without extensive scrutiny, although a consequence of his approach was that he has gathered both "pearls" and "pebbles". The compilation of ''Bihar al-Anwar'' took 36 years, during which Majlisi received aid from other scholars and his students.

Author

was born in 1617 in

Isfahan Isfahan or Esfahan ( ) is a city in the Central District (Isfahan County), Central District of Isfahan County, Isfahan province, Iran. It is the capital of the province, the county, and the district. It is located south of Tehran. The city ...

, the capital city of the

Persian Empire The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire, also known as the Persian Empire or First Persian Empire (; , , ), was an Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great of the Achaemenid dynasty in 550 BC. Based in modern-day Iran, it was the larg ...

. A student of

Mulla Sadra Ṣadr ad-Dīn Muḥammad Shīrāzī, more commonly known as Mullā Ṣadrā (; ; c. 1571/2 – c. 1635/40 CE / 980 – 1050 AH), was a Persians, Persian Twelver Shi'a, Shi'i Islamic philosophy, Islamic mystic, philosopher, Kalam, theologian, a ...

, he was described in the journal ''Orient'' as "an unprecedentedly influential author in the world of Imami Shi'ism". On 1687, he was appointed as Sheikh ul-Islam of Isfahan by the emperor Sultan Husayn. He developed the Twelver doctrine by investigating Shia and Sunni hadith. He wrote over 100 books in

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

and Persian.

Editions

* Majlisī, Muḥammad Bāqir al-, ''Biḥār al-nwār al-Jāmiʿahli-Durar Akhbār al-Aʾimmat al-Aṭhār'' he Oceans of Lights: A Compendium of the Pearls of the Narrations of the Pure Imāms 110 vols (Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Wafāʾ, 1983).

Commentaries

* ''Mashra'a bihar al-anwar'' by Muhammad Asif Mohseni

References

External links