Some of the most interesting anecdotes and descriptions of historical events, relationships between scholars, how books were transferred from one century to another, and so on, can be found in Ijāzāt given to one scholar by another. The Ijāzāt were a kind of licence permitting one to transmit certain texts or narrations on someone else’s authority. The Ijāzāt genre requires a lengthy explanation of its own and is better suited for another post at another time.
The last five to six volumes of Biḥār al-Anwār are a collection of various different Ijāzāt and are worthy of looking through during one’s free time. In fact, there is a very decent article titled Nukātī az Ijāzāt Biḥār al-Anwār written by Sayyid Abū al-Ḥasan ‘Alawī published 5 years ago in Kitāb Shī’eh regarding the Ijāzāt of Biḥar al-Anwār. The paper is worth reading and translating and if there is time in the near future, I will translate or share its content on this blog. On page 123 of volume 110 of Biḥār al-Anwār, ‘Allāmah Majlisī records a story which is rather interesting as it is his one of his chains of transmission to a Prophetic tradition that ends at a Jinn. Below is a complete translation of it.
I say: This is a strange report my father al-‘Allāmah – may Allah sanctify his soul – narrated to me from al-Sayyid Ḥusayn b. Ḥaydar al-Karakī from al-Mawla al-Jalīl Tāj al-Dīn Ḥasan al-Iṣfahānī al-Falawarjāni from al-Mawla al-Muḥaqqiq Khwāja Jamāl al-Dīn Maḥmūd al-Salmānī from Mawlana Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad b. As’ad al-Dawānī
And from al-Sayyid Ḥusayn from al-Sayyid al-Faqīh al-Sa’īd Shāh Abū al-Walī ibn Shāh Maḥmūd al-Anjū al-Ḥasanī al-Shīrāzī from Khwāja Jamāl al-Dīn Maḥmūd from al-Muḥaqqiq al-Dawānī
And from al-Sayyid Ḥusayn from al-Mawla al-Kāmil Mīrzā Tāj al-Dīn Ḥusayn b. Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad al-Ṣā’īdī from Shaykh Manṣūr famously known as Birāstgū – the commentator of Tahdhīb al-Uṣūl – from an individual from al-Muḥaqqiq al-Dawānī who said:
Al-Sayyid al-Imām Safī al-Dīn b. ‘Abdul Raḥmān al-Ḥusaynī al-Ījī orally narrated to me the following Prophetic tradition from a Jinn: Whoever clothes himself in a clothing other than his and is killed, then there is no retaliation for him nor blood-money.
I say: My father narrated to me from his teacher Shaykh al-Islām wa al-Muslimīn, the nation’s, truth’s and religion’s brilliant figure, Muḥammad al-‘Āmulī – may Allah sanctify his soul – from some of the students of al-Muḥaqqiq al-Dawāni who narrated from him:
We were with al-Sayyid Safī al-Dīn in one of our journeys and he went to the toilet, but he delayed us for a long time. When he returned, he informed us that when he sat down to relieve himself, a giant snake appeared in front of him and he killed it. Suddenly a large amount of dust rose from it and a number of Jinn came out from the dust and grabbed him and took him to their leader.
The leader was a disbeliever and the Jinns claimed that he (the Sayyid) killed one of their men. The leader asked me (the Sayyid) about my religion and I told him that I am upon the religion of Islam. The leader thus asked the Jinn to take him to a Muslim judge. They took him to an old gray-haired man, whose eyebrows were drooping onto his eyes. The Jinns made their claim against me to him, so he asked me about their claims against me. I said: I did not kill a man, rather I only killed a snake which appeared in front of me, out of fear of my life.
The Muslim judge said: Release him, as I have heard from the Messenger of Allah that whoever clothes himself in clothing other than his own, then his blood is spilled in vain. So, the Jinns brought me back to the place where they had taken me from, abandoned me and went away.
My (‘Allāmah Majlisī’s) father said: Our teacher Shaykh al-Bahāī would say, this hadith is ‘ālī al-sanad[1], and I have narrated it from the Prophet (p) through just four mediums.
[1] This is a technical term discussed in the science of Dirāyah. It refers to a narration whose chain to an infallible (a) is relatively short. For more information see: Buḥūth fī ‘Ilm al-Dirāyah wa al-Riwāyah – a commentary on Shaykh al-Bahāī’s al-Wajīzah by Shaykh Mālik Muṣṭafa Wahbī al-‘Āmulī
Sayyid Ali studied in the seminary of Qom from 2012 to 2021, while also concurrently obtaining a M.A in Islamic Studies from the Islamic College of London in 2018. In the seminary he engaged in the study of legal theory, jurisprudence and philosophy, eventually attending the advanced kharij of Usul and Fiqh in 2018. He is currently completing his Masters of Education at the University of Toronto and is the head of a private faith-based school in Toronto, as well as an instructor at the Mizan Institute and Mufid Seminary.
