Muharram 1445 H - Night 1
Delivered by Sayid Jafar alHasany

In the name of God, most merciful, ever merciful.

Respected sisters, dear brothers, assalamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.

Continuing our discussion that we began last night around the theme of being the ones who distinguish for ourselves between truth and falsehood

And looking at this theme from various angles, we want to begin by talking about 1 of the most significant, most emblematic, most symbolic rituals associated with Muharram and with the first 10 days of Muharram.

A ritual that we all perform every year in pretty much every mosque, every center, every Hussainiyah that we have as followers of Ahlulbayt in the world, and that is none other than the recitation of Ziyarat Ashura.

Over the last little while, there has been a lot of debate and discussion and opinions about the recitation of Ziyarat Ashura from different angles.

And really it comes down to 2 dimensions that are most discussed.

The first dimension has to do with the authenticity of this ziyarah and how reliable is it as a source of religious knowledge that we can attribute directly to the Imams.

The second dimension has to do with the content of Ziyarat Ashura and how appropriate and how timely and how relevant and how suitable is it for the world in which we live and the teachings that it contains and so on and so forth.

Given the time and the effort and the energy that we all spend reciting this Dua, this Ziyarah, we have to make sure that we're not doing this because it's a mechanical blind ritual that we perform.

We want to take a position and to know our truth in this.

If there are shortcomings and misgivings, we want to be able to adjust them.

And if not, then we want to know that we're standing on firm ground.

That what we're doing is based on solid evidence.

And so insha'Allah today we begin by looking at the Ziyarah.

We may have to talk about it again in another night.

But we will start from the beginning when it comes to looking and assessing scriptures.

In Islam when we look at scriptures, if the scripture is not the Holy Quran, around which there is unanimity around all Muslims, all schools of thought within Islam, that there's absolutely no question and no doubt about the authenticity of the Holy Qur'an.

There are different tools and angles that are applied.

1 of these dominates the scholarly discussions around scriptures.

This is a field of knowledge that does not exist in any other tradition, in any other culture, in any other civilization or religion in the world, and that is called ilm ar-rajal.

We will begin by ilm ar-rajal, because that's generally where the study of narrations and scriptures begins.

And I don't want to make this into a theoretical, dry, boring discussion.

I will avoid a lot of the technicalities.

But we need to know a little bit about this field.

This special field that Islam has created as a tradition and a culture to be able to assess its own narrations.

In other fields, in other cultures, in other religions, they look at the content of what is being discussed and perhaps the history of how it was done.

In addition to doing this to a great deal of extent and a great deal of detail, it adds another layer, an entire field, an entire science called ilm ar-rajal.

This is a science that simply aims to look at the trustworthiness of those who transmit the narrations from generation to generation.

Sometimes people translate it as being a science of biographies.

Because we're not studying in Ilm al-Rajal the entire biography of someone.

We're only studying those aspects of their lives that have to do with how reliable are they as a transmitter of hadith.

Are they someone who wrote down their ahadith?

Did they start to become forgetful later in life?

So that when we look at a hadith, we don't look only at the content of the hadith, but we also look at how do we get back from the hadith that we currently have today in our hands, all the way back to a ma'soom, all the way back to an infallible, an imam or the Holy Prophet ﷺ.

Because otherwise we can't call this religion.

We need to establish that this was actually taught by an infallible.

So without, as we said, going into too much detail about ilm al-hadith, if we take the principles and the teachings of ilm al-hadith and we apply them as is by looking at the chains of transmission of Ziyarat Ashura, where do we end up?

The most, a few introductory remarks, the most famous version of Ziyarat Ashura that exists today and keep in mind that there are multiple versions of it.

The most famous version of Ziyarat Ashura that exists today, and keep in mind that there are multiple versions of it.

The most famous version of Ziyarat Ashura that exists today come to us from Shaykh Al-Tusi, which he narrates himself through his own pathways to the Imams, through his own transmissions and teachers, all the way back to the Imams directly, and through another chain from a very important book in our sources called Kamil al-Ziyarat.

In the past it simply was called al-Ziyarat.

Which means that we are talking 11 and more hundred years ago, 11 centuries and more ago.

We're going back to the original sources, when all of this was being written down as original sources that were passed down to the generations.

When we apply the principles and the conclusions of Ilm al-Rajal to the transmission of Shaykh al-Tusi of Ziyarat Ashura, where do we end up?

Is there a valid chain, a chain of transmitters of Ziyarat Ashura where we can actually pinpoint every single transmitter and say this is a trustworthy, reliable person, this is a trustworthy, reliable person, all the way back to the Masumeen or not?

The short answer is yes, absolutely, there is a chain of transmission that goes back from Shaykh al-Tusi all the way to the Imams.

We could stop the discussion here, but we're not.

Does Shaykh Al-Tusi propose a single chain of transmission to Ziyarat Ashura or not?

Shaykh Al-Tusi gives us 5 different chains of transmission of Ziyarat Ashura.

Are they all valid and trustworthy and reliable?

But this is where we start to get into the details of ilm ar-rajal.

When we look at a weak chain of transmission of a hadith, do we right away dismiss the hadith or not?

If we want to follow ilm ar-rajal blindly, And this is the whole point of today's discussion.

There's a saying that goes, a little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing.

Sometimes in today's world, I feel like there's a lot of misunderstanding or misapplication of ilm ar-rajal.

So we know a little bit, and we want to apply it blindly to certain things, and we reach our own conclusions.

Is it the be all end all or is it just 1 more tool that we use to get to the truth?

Especially if the truth is scriptural, it's a textual truth.

Is ilm al-rajal the be all end all or not?

When we look at 5 chains of transmission from Shaykh Al-Tusi, if we were to look at a chain of transmission that is weak, where we may have people who are liars, We have people who are missing in the chain of transmission.

You go to the transmitters and you see suddenly there's 80 years missing, 150 years missing.

You can't consider that to be an authentic hadith.

You can't quickly dismiss the hadith because this is just 1 tool you have and there are other ones.

1 of the other tools is that you want to see whether there are other chains.

And now we just established that there are at least 3 valid chains.

This is an important word, to corroborate.

In today's world, in science for instance, can you prove anything in science?

Inshallah we're going to talk about science a little bit more.

So then how do we reach a scientific truth?

I notice things are falling to the ground when I leave them in the air.

I can't prove gravity Can I establish a proof many of you have studied math you've studied algebra you establish a mathematical proof in algebra That conclusion is 100% true It's a logical proof That is proof Can I prove gravity in the same way?

I take my theory of gravity, and I go to the world.

And I notice something falling, and another thing falling, and a third thing falling, and a tenth thing falling, and a hundred, and a millionth thing falling, and every case corroborates my theory a little bit more.

So the likelihood that I am right increases.

And it increases so much that at some point I'm going to dismiss the alternative.

Someone could come and have a better explanation than what I proposed.

But right now, my explanation is corroborated.

So when something is weak, or something is strong, it increases or decreases likelihood.

If something happens out in the street now, And someone comes and tells you, I just witnessed an accident.

Someone else comes and he says, I just saw an accident.

And a third person says, I just saw the accident.

I was in the balcony on the apartment building.

A third, a fourth person comes and says, I witnessed the accident.

I just saw it live on the camera, traffic camera on the street, on my phone.

This is corroborating evidence that the likelihood that this actually happened is very high.

The likelihood that all these people got together to create this lie when they are independent sources is so low that I dismiss that alternative and I say therefore

Always open to that likelihood increasing or decreasing.

That's what we mean when we say corroborating evidence.

When we look at different pathways, we say Shaykh At-Tusi had different pathways, this means that there is a lot of corroborating evidence now.

If I were to follow ilm ar-rajal blindly, I will surely miss out on the truth.

Without hesitation and without any doubt.

If I were to take ilm ar-rajal blindly, ilm ar-rajal says if I look at a chain of transmission and that chain is weak or it has liars and fabricators or people missing, then I dismiss that truth.

And if I look at a chain of transmission that is all good, full of people who are trustworthy and reliable, all of them, all the way back to a masoom, then I must accept that truth, whatever they say at the end.

Does the Qur'an say follow blindly Almarrajal?

Almarrajal says if you have a weak chain of transmission, dismiss.

The Qur'an says, if someone comes to you the piece of news and they are a known to you, they are a person who is known to be amoral.

They openly disobey Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

إِن جَاءَكُمْ فَاسِقٌ بِنَبَأٍ Ilm ar-Rajal says, dismiss.

The Qur'an says, فَتَبَيَّنُوا Go and look into it.

Until the truth becomes clear and manifest to you.

It becomes a bayyan, فَتَبَيَّنُوا Very clear.

The person who transmitted this truth is a fasiq.

The Quran says no, there might be truth even though they are an amoral person.

They might be saying the truth in this case.

You're going to miss out on the truth here.

Make sure that you do your own investigation and reach your own conclusion, even though it may be a Fasiq coming to you with it.

A beautiful, trustworthy, reliable chain of transmitters.

All of them valid, reliable transmitters.

By the way, in the Sunni school of thought, there are books called Sahih.

Because every transmitter of every hadith is considered to be trustworthy and reliable.

Which means that I should take, blindly accept everything that they're telling me in those books, in each and every 1 of these ahadith.

I think we have probably all heard stories of people being brought to Imam Ali a.s.

During his time and we are told that those people out of love for Imam Ali a.s.

They started to worship the Imam And those stories go as Imam Ali a.s.

They said, no, we'll never stop worshipping you.

If you look at the chain of transmitters of that hadith, they are all authentic, reliable, trustworthy transmitters.

The easiest way to show that this is a fabrication.

We do not have in our religion teachings that say you are allowed to burn another human being alive.

Islam does not believe in burning people alive.

Much less from someone like Imam Ali a.s.

The mirror image, the personification of the Holy Prophet ﷺ.

All of them reliable, all of them trustworthy.

I should blindly follow ilm ar-rajal and accept this as truth.

InshaAllah 1 day we can talk a little bit more Ibn Abbas.

There are some controversial aspects to his personality but generally speaking extremely well respected figure in Islam by everyone.

The person who says Ibn Abbas said this is called Ikramah.

Ikramah was a man who was alive at the time of Imam Ali alayhi salam.

The books of tafsir and ahadith are filled with ahadith from Ikramah.

You dig into the life of Ikramah and you see that he is someone who hated, despised Imam Ali alayhi salam.

In fact he joined the Khawarij and he fought the Imam in Nahrawan.

Ikramah says, Ibn Abbas has said that there are people who were brought to Imam Ali, who loved him so much that they worshipped him.

And so the Imam told them, stop worshipping me, they said no, he burned them.

And Ikram continues with the hadith, that's not all.

He says, so Ibn Abbas says, if it were up to me, I would not have burned them alive.

Because I heard the Holy Prophet say, do not use the punishment of God upon anyone in this world.

Don't use it against anyone in this world.

So not only did Iqram create, fabricate a hadith, he attributed it to Ibn Abbas.

Because when he says Ibn Abbas said it, now there is a very strong, very reliable authority who is saying the hadith, even though Ibn Abbas never said the hadith.

And in fact he uses the hadith to jab at Imam Ali alayhi salam and show how Ibn Abbas knows the religion better than Imam Ali alayhi salam.

Where Ibn Abbas says I'm following the teachings of the Holy Prophet better than Imam Ali.

As knowledgeable and trustworthy as Ibn Abbas was, by the way, Ibn Abbas was 13 years old when the Holy Prophet passed away.

Ibn Abbas would be, I want to say, stay respectful and say he would be lucky to be a student of Imam Ali alayhis salaam.

Yet in this hadith he is presented as someone who is teaching the imam how to lead Islamically, how to rule Islamically, which does not make any sense.

And this is why we say, if we rely on ilm ar-rajal blindly on both sides.

When ilm ar-rajal says, the chain of transmission is valid, therefore accept, not in every case.

The chain of transmission is missing, reject, no, not in every case.

Because we may have corroborating evidence.

When we continue by looking at Ziyarat Ashura, we see that there are other aspects and other clues and other indications that can help us beyond Almarrajal itself.

1 of them is at looking at the content of the Ziyarah itself.

1 way to do this and many of our scholars have proposed a whole theory around this is to fragment, is to break down a text, a longer text, a narration, a du'a, a ziyarah into fragments, and then to analyze every fragment by itself on its own.

When I look at fragment 1, can I find corroborating evidence elsewhere that matches it, that supports it, either word for word or in very similar meaning?

When we perform this analysis on Ziyarat Ashura, we can find that every piece, every fragment has been stated, uttered elsewhere, and we consider it to be valid.

So it's just a matter of packaging it in this way.

More than this, when we look at this whole notion that we call Tawatur.

Tawatur simply means that you have independent sources as the example we gave of the accident happening in the street and you're getting independent sources all of them telling you that this happened, where the likelihood is very low that they all conspired to lie together.

When we attribute this idea of tawatur, can we establish tawatur for ziyarat ashura?

So we already talked about the chain of transmission directly from ilm ar-rajal.

Ziyarat ashura first appears as a hadith, as a ziyarah that is taught by Imam Al-Baqir to 1 of his companions.

Then it is taught again by Imam As-Sadiq alayhi as-salam to some of his companions.

Then we have instances where Imam As-Sadiq performed the Ziyarah himself.

And we have instances, we can give 1 right now, where Imam As-Sadiq is not the 1 reciting the Ziyarah, but the Ziyarah is being recited in front of him.

Otherwise he has to object if there's anything wrong with it.

He can't accept things that are passing as religion when they are not religion.

We have 1 story, in 1 report where we are told there is this man, very well known, inshaAllah 1 day we can get to talk about him.

A man who had this business of having many camels, and he used those camels in the transportation business, where people would rent the camels for travel and transport.

Very close confidant of Imam al-Sadiq a.s.

Safwan says we were with Imam al-Sadiq alayhi salam traveling in Iraq.

Little known fact about the life of Imam al-Sadiq that he spent a while of his life in Iraq.

Imam al-Sadiq lived in Medina but he was summoned forcibly by the Khalifa of his time to Iraq and it's unknown how long or how many times he went to Iraq or how long he spent in Iraq.

There seems to be indications around this.

Safwan Jamal says we were traveling with the Imam in Iraq.

We stopped at a place where the Imam performed the full ziyarah of Imam Ali alayhi salam.

He was at the grave of Imam Ali alayhi salam along with his companions.

Safwan says, when we were done, we performed the ziyarah of Imam Ali alayhis salam, I asked the Imam, would you like us to also perform the full ziyarah of Imam Hussain alayhis salam from this location.

Or to be accurate, the hadith says, the Imam gestured by his hand, yes, perform it.

And so Safwan says, so I recited the ziyarah of Imam Al-Husayn and the dua' that is called or that was taught by Alqama.

If you go back the narration, Alqama is who?

Alqama is the original receiver of Ziyarat Ashura from Imam Al Baqir.

And so not only do we have the Ziyarah, we have the Dua of Al Qamatu.

Both of them recited at the time of Imam As-Sadiq, in front of Imam As-Sadiq.

And based on what Safwan is saying, by that time the Shia already knew Ziyarat Ashura by heart.

So that he asked the Imam, do you want me to perform it now?

This is an indication that this is a practice that was taking place at that time.

And when we look at other clues, internal and external to the text.

External to the text, this would be 1 clue.

That this Ziyarah has been repeatedly performed, uttered, recited by the Shia since the time of the Imams and until today, without interruption.

And there are histories of the recitation of Ziyarat Ashura.

If we look at the text itself, beyond Ilm Ar-Rajal once again, Unfortunately in our culture, in our communities, we don't spend time, enough time, I should say, studying dua and ziyarah.

We view them as things that we utter mechanically, instead of looking at them as texts that are filled with treasures to be studied and analyzed.

1 of the ways our scholars analyze texts to see whether they are transmitted or how likely they are transmitted from a masoom is by looking at the organization and the structure of a text.

And we don't have time to go through the details of Ziyarat Ashura now.

The structure of Ziyarat Ashura is not something that you and I can put together that easily.

The order, the sequencing of ideas and how they are presented is a genius way of putting things together.

Even what the imams say to do before and after the ziyarah, that you perform a wudu, that you prepare yourself mentally and psychologically.

The imams say in fact go to the open sky, be under the Sun or under the sky and find an elevation the imams say if you want to perform the ziyarah fully they say go on a little mountain go on a rooftop and point with your hand to the imam to salute him and then you say 100 times Allahu Akbar And then you ask permission to start the ziyarah.

And then you perform the ziyarah and you end with a sujood.

And then you perform the other dua that follows the ziyarah, dua al-qamah.

And you perform 2 rakaat of prayer as a gift, as a salute to the Imam to seal this whole Ziyarah.

This is not something that people just fabricate and put together.

See all assayidalhasany transcripts on Youtube

Night 2 - Is Ziyarat Ashura Authentic? Muharram 2023 | Dr. Sayid Jafar Al-Hasani