Imāmī Records of Divine Sayings: Some Thoughts on al-Ḥurr al-ʿĀmilī’s al-Jawāhir al-saniyya fī-l-aḥādīth al-qudsiyya

Abstract

This paper addresses the question of ḥadīth qudsī as an independent sub-category of ḥadīth within the Imāmī literary corpus. It focuses on al-Ḥurr al-ʿĀmilī’s (d. 1104/1693) al-Jawāhir al-saniyya fī-l-aḥādīth al-qudsiyya which appears to be the earliest extant Shīʿī compilation entirely devoted to this sort of material. Of the various forms of ḥadīth qudsī in al-ʿĀmilī’s work special attention is paid to traditions in which an Imam cites God directly, without an intermediary in the form of a prophet or an angel. I argue that such traditions represent a more flexible perception of the Imam-Divine relationship than the one familiar to us from theological treatises starting from the Buwayhid period (334/945-447/1055).