Muhammad Ya'qub Kulainy
Encyclopedia
Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn Ya'qub ibn Ishaq al-Kulayni Al-Razi (250 AH
/864 CE
- 329 AH
/941 CE
).
following into the footsteps and the traditions of Imam
s of Ahl al-Bayt
. Al-Kulayni is the author of Kitab al-Kafi
- source book of Shia ahadith (pl: of hadith-tradition/s). His full name was Abu Ja'far Muhammad b. Ya'qub b. Ishaq al-Kulayni al-Razi. Kulayni or also Kulini was born in a village named Kulayn or Kulin in Iran. His father Mulla Yaqub al-Kulayni’s grave is known to exist at Rey
, Iran
. Kulayn was a small town or village situated near Rey, present day Tehran
(Ray is now a suburb of Tehran). He belonged to the era of al-ghaibat al-sughra or period of lesser or minor occultation of Muhammad al-Mahdi
(last Shia Imam
who according Shia belief is in occultation and will appear near the Day of Judgment
, along with Jesus
) and is said to have greatly benefited from the living source of divine knowledge, by interacting through living Imams deputies and emissaries. For this reason he has highly exalted status among the scholars of successive generations.
Kulayni belonged to a family of muhaddithun (plural of muhaddith-traditionist) and fuqahā'
(Islamic jurists
). He spent the major part of his life in the 3rd century Hijri
and hence he is known as Mujaddid
(reviver) of the 3rd century. Kulayni received his early religious education in his native town and went to Rey for further education, where he attended the lectures of famous contemporary scholrs. There he received all his formal education and mastered Islamic sciences. Within a short time he acquired fame as an eminent scholar and received students from far and near.
He is counted among a muhaddithun of a special class known as Rihalah ye hadith. Rihlah in Arabic
means journey or travel and those who traveled in order to collect ahadith and meet the persons considered to be the authority on hadith. He also traveled to Baghdad
for this reason and lived there for twenty years till he died in 329 hijri/941 CE. There he was engaged in teaching and pursuing academic work.
ic hijri calendar. It is a Muslim
belief that God
chooses an alim (Islamic scholar) in every century for the task of reviving and strengthening Islam. Ibn Athir
in his book Jami al-usul in kitab al nabuwwah quotes the hadith:
"God sends a person in every century with the responsibility for spreading and strengthening His Din."
He lists the names of persons who are regarded as mujadidun among the Shia. According to him, Imam Muhammad al-Baqir
was the Mujadid of the 1st century AH, who preached and propagated Islam. Mujadid for the 2nd century was Imam Ali ar-Ridha (Imam Reza) and Mujadid for the 3rd century was Abu Jafar Muhammad ibne Yaqub al Kulayni. Shaykh Abbas al-Qummi in his book al-Kuna wa al-alqab has given the full list of the mujadidun of Shiism. He also list Kulayni as the Mujadid of 3rd century AH.
, in ilm ar-Rijal
means a narrator of the tradition who is reliable. The Shi'ah scholars Shaykh Tusi
, Muhammad Baqir Majlisi and Qazi Nurullah Shustari
are among those who remembered Kulayni by this name. Kulayni died in 328 A.H. or 329 A.H. (939 or 940 A.D.).
:
"Al-Kulayni took up the work of compilation of the traditions for the sake of arming the believers with sufficient body of hadith that could serve as a guide. He himself did not write any commentary on the traditions he compiled, but his preference for the traditions emphasizing the importance of reason and knowledge in placing them before all other traditions shows his own inclination towards rationalism."
And he brought balance between dogma
tism and rationalism
:
"He tried to save the faith from the arrogance of rationalism, which refused to accept any other authority except intellect. He aimed to strike a balance between dogmatism and extreme type of rationalism."
And on issues dealing with human problems:
"al-Kulayni's discourse on the duties and responsibilities of human beings prescribed by the law of Shari-ah
is based on his rationalist approach to the problem, underlying the principle that God does not saddle human beings with impossible duties. The lack of this realization has led Muslim Ummah
to accept many ideas and beliefs that are alien to Islam. Even in his brief introduction he emphasized the significance of knowledge and- reason."
According to Dr. M. Ismail Marcinkowski, "...the celebrated Abu Ja‘far Muhammad b. Ya‘qub al-Kulayni (d. 329/941) had compiled his Al-Kafi, a collection of Traditions which is counted
among the 'canonical' Four Books
of the Twelvers. Although Ibn Babawayh was not one of his direct disciples he seemed to have benefited to a high degree from al-Kulayni as a transmitter of Traditions. Ibn Babawayh himself was among the teachers of the celebrated Twelver scholar Muhammad b. Muhammad b. al-Nu‘man, known as al-Shaykh al-Mufid (336-413/948-1022), who is famous for his usuli-rationalist approach in legal theory. Interesting in this context is al-Mufid's controversy with his teacher in theological questions and in matters of procedure Al-Mufid gave Twelver Shi‘ite theological studies a new impetus and direction: he is said to have emphasized the role of discursive theology before or better side-byside with that of the science of Traditions.
His work and his approach in dealing with various problems in the light of al-Kafi paved the way for generations in varied fields of Islamic science and philosophy
. This is the reason why Shia contribution to Islamic science and philosophy has been so significant despite being always a minority.
, totaling fifteen people altogether were Kulayni's students. Others are among the category of eminent scholars. Also teachers of a great number of renowned scholars of the second half of the 4th century AH are considered as some of Kulayni’s students.
Islamic calendar
The Hijri calendar , also known as the Muslim calendar or Islamic calendar , is a lunar calendar consisting of 12 lunar months in a year of 354 or 355 days. It is used to date events in many Muslim countries , and used by Muslims everywhere to determine the proper day on which to celebrate Islamic...
/864 CE
Common Era
Common Era ,abbreviated as CE, is an alternative designation for the calendar era originally introduced by Dionysius Exiguus in the 6th century, traditionally identified with Anno Domini .Dates before the year 1 CE are indicated by the usage of BCE, short for Before the Common Era Common Era...
- 329 AH
Islamic calendar
The Hijri calendar , also known as the Muslim calendar or Islamic calendar , is a lunar calendar consisting of 12 lunar months in a year of 354 or 355 days. It is used to date events in many Muslim countries , and used by Muslims everywhere to determine the proper day on which to celebrate Islamic...
/941 CE
Common Era
Common Era ,abbreviated as CE, is an alternative designation for the calendar era originally introduced by Dionysius Exiguus in the 6th century, traditionally identified with Anno Domini .Dates before the year 1 CE are indicated by the usage of BCE, short for Before the Common Era Common Era...
).
Life
Details of Kulayni’s life are not available therefore his date of birth is not ascertained. He was the foremost Shia compiler of hadithHadith
The term Hadīth is used to denote a saying or an act or tacit approval or criticism ascribed either validly or invalidly to the Islamic prophet Muhammad....
following into the footsteps and the traditions of Imam
Imam
An imam is an Islamic leadership position, often the worship leader of a mosque and the Muslim community. Similar to spiritual leaders, the imam is the one who leads Islamic worship services. More often, the community turns to the mosque imam if they have a religious question...
s of Ahl al-Bayt
Ahl al-Bayt
Ahl al-Bayt is an Arabic phrase literally meaning People of the House, or family of the House. The phrase "ahl al-bayt" was used in Arabia before the advent of Islam to refer to one's clan, and would be adopted by the ruling family of a tribe. Within the Islamic tradition, the term refers to the...
. Al-Kulayni is the author of Kitab al-Kafi
Kitab al-Kafi
The Kitāb al-Kāfī is a Twelver Shī‘ah hadīth collection compiled by Muhammad Ya‘qūb Kulaynī. It is divided into three sections: Usūl al-Kāfī, which is concerned with the principle of religion, Furū al-Kāfī, which is concerned with the details of religious law, and Rawdat al-Kāfī, which is...
- source book of Shia ahadith (pl: of hadith-tradition/s). His full name was Abu Ja'far Muhammad b. Ya'qub b. Ishaq al-Kulayni al-Razi. Kulayni or also Kulini was born in a village named Kulayn or Kulin in Iran. His father Mulla Yaqub al-Kulayni’s grave is known to exist at Rey
Rey, Iran
Rey or Ray , also known as Rhages and formerly as Arsacia, is the capital of Rey County, Tehran Province, Iran, and is the oldest existing city in the province....
, Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
. Kulayn was a small town or village situated near Rey, present day Tehran
Tehran
Tehran , sometimes spelled Teheran, is the capital of Iran and Tehran Province. With an estimated population of 8,429,807; it is also Iran's largest urban area and city, one of the largest cities in Western Asia, and is the world's 19th largest city.In the 20th century, Tehran was subject to...
(Ray is now a suburb of Tehran). He belonged to the era of al-ghaibat al-sughra or period of lesser or minor occultation of Muhammad al-Mahdi
Muhammad al-Mahdi
Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan al-Mahdī is believed by Twelver Shī‘a Muslims to be the Mahdī, an ultimate savior of humankind and the final Imām of the Twelve Imams...
(last Shia Imam
Imamah (Shi'a doctrine)
Imāmah is the Shia doctrine of religious, spiritual and political leadership of the Ummah. The Shīa believe that the A'immah are the true Caliphs or rightful successors of Muḥammad, and further that Imams are possessed of divine knowledge and authority as well as being part of the Ahl al-Bayt,...
who according Shia belief is in occultation and will appear near the Day of Judgment
Last Judgment
The Last Judgment, Final Judgment, Day of Judgment, Judgment Day, or The Day of the Lord in Christian theology, is the final and eternal judgment by God of every nation. The concept is found in all the Canonical gospels, particularly the Gospel of Matthew. It will purportedly take place after the...
, along with Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
) and is said to have greatly benefited from the living source of divine knowledge, by interacting through living Imams deputies and emissaries. For this reason he has highly exalted status among the scholars of successive generations.
Kulayni belonged to a family of muhaddithun (plural of muhaddith-traditionist) and fuqahā'
Faqih
A Faqīh is an expert in fiqh, or, Islamic jurisprudence.A faqih is an expert in Islamic Law, and, as such, the word Faqih can literally be generally translated as Jurist.- The definition of Fiqh and its relation to the Faqih:...
(Islamic jurists
Ulema
Ulama , also spelt ulema, refers to the educated class of Muslim legal scholars engaged in the several fields of Islamic studies. They are best known as the arbiters of shari‘a law...
). He spent the major part of his life in the 3rd century Hijri
Hijra (Islam)
The Hijra is the migration or journey of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and his followers from Mecca to Medina in 622 CE. Alternate spellings of this Arabic word are Hijrah, Hijrat or Hegira, the latter following the spelling rules of Latin.- Hijra of Muhammad :In September 622, warned of a plot to...
and hence he is known as Mujaddid
Mujaddid
A Mujaddid , according to the popular Muslim tradition, refers to a person who appears at the turn of every century of the Islamic calendar to revive Islam, remove from it any extraneous elements and restore it to its pristine purity...
(reviver) of the 3rd century. Kulayni received his early religious education in his native town and went to Rey for further education, where he attended the lectures of famous contemporary scholrs. There he received all his formal education and mastered Islamic sciences. Within a short time he acquired fame as an eminent scholar and received students from far and near.
He is counted among a muhaddithun of a special class known as Rihalah ye hadith. Rihlah in Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
means journey or travel and those who traveled in order to collect ahadith and meet the persons considered to be the authority on hadith. He also traveled to Baghdad
Baghdad
Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...
for this reason and lived there for twenty years till he died in 329 hijri/941 CE. There he was engaged in teaching and pursuing academic work.
Mujadid of third century AH
He is acknowledged by the Twelver Shiites as Mujadid of the 3rd century of the IslamIslam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
ic hijri calendar. It is a Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
belief that God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
chooses an alim (Islamic scholar) in every century for the task of reviving and strengthening Islam. Ibn Athir
Ibn Athir
Ibn Athīr is the family name of three brothers, all famous in Arabian literature, born at Jazīrat ibn Umar in Cizre nowadays in south-eastern Turkey.-Majd ad-Dīn:...
in his book Jami al-usul in kitab al nabuwwah quotes the hadith:
"God sends a person in every century with the responsibility for spreading and strengthening His Din."
He lists the names of persons who are regarded as mujadidun among the Shia. According to him, Imam Muhammad al-Baqir
Muhammad al-Baqir
Muḥammad ibn ‘Alī al-Bāqir was the Fifth Imām to the Twelver Shi‘a and Fourth Imām to the Ismā‘īlī Shī‘a. His father was the previous Imām, ‘Alī ibn Ḥusayn, and his mother was Fatimah bint al-Hasan...
was the Mujadid of the 1st century AH, who preached and propagated Islam. Mujadid for the 2nd century was Imam Ali ar-Ridha (Imam Reza) and Mujadid for the 3rd century was Abu Jafar Muhammad ibne Yaqub al Kulayni. Shaykh Abbas al-Qummi in his book al-Kuna wa al-alqab has given the full list of the mujadidun of Shiism. He also list Kulayni as the Mujadid of 3rd century AH.
Thiqat ul-Islam
Kulayni is also known by this title. This title has not been bestowed upon any other Shia scholar. ThiqahScience of hadith
Hadith studies are a number of religious disciplines used in the study and evaluation of the Islamic hadith by Muslim scholars. It has been described by one hadith specialist, Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti, as the science of the principles by which the conditions of both the sanad, the chain of...
, in ilm ar-Rijal
Ilm ar-Rijal
Biographical evaluation, , literally: "knowledge of men", refers to a discipline of Islamic religious studies within hadith terminology in which the narrators of hadith are evaluated. Its goal is to distinguish authentic hadith from hadith unacceptable in establishing sanctioned religious...
means a narrator of the tradition who is reliable. The Shi'ah scholars Shaykh Tusi
Shaykh Tusi
Shaykh Tusi , full name: Abu Jafar Muhammad Ibn Hassan Tusi , known as Shaykh al-Taʾifah was a prominent Persian scholar of the Shi'a Twelver Islamic belief.-Birth:...
, Muhammad Baqir Majlisi and Qazi Nurullah Shustari
Qazi Nurullah Shustari
Qazi Nurullah Shustari also known as Shaheed-e-Salis was an eminent jurist and scholar of his time, 1542 A.D.-1610/11. Qazi Nurullah Shustari also known as Shaheed-e-Salis (third martyr) was an eminent jurist (faqih) and scholar (alim) of his time, 1542 A.D.-1610/11. Qazi Nurullah Shustari ...
are among those who remembered Kulayni by this name. Kulayni died in 328 A.H. or 329 A.H. (939 or 940 A.D.).
Work and contribution
- Kitab al-Kafi / al-shafi (Usul al-Kafi al-shafi) - is the book of traditions.
- Kitab al-Rijal - is the assessment of persons as authorities on traditions.
- al-Radd 'ala 'l-Qaramata - "Refutation of the Carmatians",
- Rasa' il al-a'immata - "Letters of the Imams" and an anthology of poetry about the Shia Imams. Of these only Kitab al-Kafi has survived. It has eight chapters or kutubs (sing: kitab). Each kitab is divided into sections.
His legacy
The influence of Kulayni on his contemporaries and successive generations has been tremendous and among followers of Shia Imamia faith in particular. His influence has probably been single most important due to the number of reasons. The first being his importance as Mujadid of his age places him at the highest position among his contemporaries and therefore his influence. His contemporaries and generations that followed into his footsteps based on the foundations he laid down in the field of hadith are indebted to him. According to Waheed AkhtarWaheed Akhtar
Syed Waheed Akhtar was an Urdu poet, writer, critic, distinguished orator, and one of the leading Muslim scholars and philosophers of the 20th century.- Life :...
:
"Al-Kulayni took up the work of compilation of the traditions for the sake of arming the believers with sufficient body of hadith that could serve as a guide. He himself did not write any commentary on the traditions he compiled, but his preference for the traditions emphasizing the importance of reason and knowledge in placing them before all other traditions shows his own inclination towards rationalism."
And he brought balance between dogma
Dogma
Dogma is the established belief or doctrine held by a religion, or a particular group or organization. It is authoritative and not to be disputed, doubted, or diverged from, by the practitioners or believers...
tism and rationalism
Rationalism
In epistemology and in its modern sense, rationalism is "any view appealing to reason as a source of knowledge or justification" . In more technical terms, it is a method or a theory "in which the criterion of the truth is not sensory but intellectual and deductive"...
:
"He tried to save the faith from the arrogance of rationalism, which refused to accept any other authority except intellect. He aimed to strike a balance between dogmatism and extreme type of rationalism."
And on issues dealing with human problems:
"al-Kulayni's discourse on the duties and responsibilities of human beings prescribed by the law of Shari-ah
Sharia
Sharia law, is the moral code and religious law of Islam. Sharia is derived from two primary sources of Islamic law: the precepts set forth in the Quran, and the example set by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the Sunnah. Fiqh jurisprudence interprets and extends the application of sharia to...
is based on his rationalist approach to the problem, underlying the principle that God does not saddle human beings with impossible duties. The lack of this realization has led Muslim Ummah
Ummah
Ummah is an Arabic word meaning "community" or "nation." It is commonly used to mean either the collective nation of states, or the whole Arab world...
to accept many ideas and beliefs that are alien to Islam. Even in his brief introduction he emphasized the significance of knowledge and- reason."
According to Dr. M. Ismail Marcinkowski, "...the celebrated Abu Ja‘far Muhammad b. Ya‘qub al-Kulayni (d. 329/941) had compiled his Al-Kafi, a collection of Traditions which is counted
among the 'canonical' Four Books
The Four Books
The Four Books is a Twelver Shiʿa term referring to their four best known hadith collections.The books are:Shi'a Muslims use different books of ahadith than Ahl al-Sunnah's Six major Hadith collections...
of the Twelvers. Although Ibn Babawayh was not one of his direct disciples he seemed to have benefited to a high degree from al-Kulayni as a transmitter of Traditions. Ibn Babawayh himself was among the teachers of the celebrated Twelver scholar Muhammad b. Muhammad b. al-Nu‘man, known as al-Shaykh al-Mufid (336-413/948-1022), who is famous for his usuli-rationalist approach in legal theory. Interesting in this context is al-Mufid's controversy with his teacher in theological questions and in matters of procedure Al-Mufid gave Twelver Shi‘ite theological studies a new impetus and direction: he is said to have emphasized the role of discursive theology before or better side-byside with that of the science of Traditions.
His work and his approach in dealing with various problems in the light of al-Kafi paved the way for generations in varied fields of Islamic science and philosophy
Islamic philosophy
Islamic philosophy is a branch of Islamic studies. It is the continuous search for Hekma in the light of Islamic view of life, universe, ethics, society, and so on...
. This is the reason why Shia contribution to Islamic science and philosophy has been so significant despite being always a minority.
His Students
A number of Shiite jurisprudents and scholars of hadith, who were among famous scholars in the first half of the 4th century AH in Iran and IraqIraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
, totaling fifteen people altogether were Kulayni's students. Others are among the category of eminent scholars. Also teachers of a great number of renowned scholars of the second half of the 4th century AH are considered as some of Kulayni’s students.
- Ahmad ibn Ibrahim, popularly known as Ibn Abi Rafi Simri
- Ahmad ibn Katib Kufi
- Ahmad ibn Ali ibn Saeed Kufi
- Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Ali Kufi
- Abu Ghalib Ahmad ibn Muhammad Zarari (285-364 AH)
- Ja’far ibn Muhammad ibn Quluwiya Qumi (368 AH)
- Abdul Karim Abdullah ibn Nasr Bazaz Tanisi
- Ali ibn Ahmad ibn Musa Diqan
- Muhammad ibn Ibrahim Ni’mani well known as Ibn Abi Zainab, who was one of his special students and copied his book al-Kafi in his own hand writing
- Muhammad ibn Ahmad Safwan, the resident of Baghdad, was one of his special students and copied his book al-Kafi line by line in his own handwriting and learned theoretical knowledge and ethics from him and was praised by Kulayni for his knowledge of the Hadith
- Muhammad ibn Ahmad Sanani Zahri the resident of Rey
- Abul Fazl Muhammad ibn Abdullah ibn Matlab Shibani
- Muhammad ibn Ali Majluwiya
- Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Asam Kulayni
- Harun ibn Musa Talakbari Shibbani (b 385 AH)
See also
- Sharif al-MurtazaSharif al-MurtazaAbu al-Qāsim ‘Alī ibn Husayn al-Sharīf al-Murtadhā was one of the greatest scholars of his time and was one of the students of Shaykh al-Mufīd...
- Al-Sharif al-Radi
- Shaykh Mufid
- Al-Shaykh Al-Mufid
- Al-Hurr al-Aamili
External links
- Classical Islam: A Sourcebook of Religious Literature by Norman Calder, J A Mojaddedi, Andrew Rippin
- The Formative Period of Twelver Shi'Ism: Hadith As Discourse Between Qum and Baghdad by Andrew J Newman
- Great Shiite Works: Al-Kafi by Al-Kulayni by I. K. A. Howard in al Serat Journal.
- 'Al-Kafi' by Al-Kulayni by Dr. I. K. A. Howard Al-Serat, Vol. 2 (1976), No. 1
- The Trustworthy of Islam Kulayni
- The Buyid Domination as the Historical Background for the Flourishing of Muslim Scholarship During the 4th/10th Century by Dr. M. Ismail Marcinkowski*
- Shaikh Mohammed bin Yaqoob bin Ishaq Kulaini. & Al Kafi