Sheikh-e Sadūq

Birth

Mohammad, son of Ali, son of Husein son of Bābiwayh-e Qummī, known as Sheikh-e Sadūq, was born in 305 Hegira in Qum, in a family which was adorned by the brand of knowledge and piety.  

Sheikh-e Tūsī has described the story of Sadūq’s birth as follows: “Ali, son of Bābiwayh had married with his cousin, but she did not bear any child for him. In a letter to Sheikh Abul-Qāsim Husein Ibn-e Rūh (the incumbent representative of the occulted Imam, Mahdī Aj.F.) he asked him to submit his request to His Holiness Imam Mahdī (Aj.F) to pray to Allah to bestow him decent and knowledgeable children. After a while there was a respond, issued from His Holiness Imam Mahdī (Aj.F) stating that, “You will not have any child from your present wife, but you will soon possess a female slave who is from Deylam (northern Iran), and she will give birth to two knowledgeable sons for you.” 

Sheikh-e Sadūq himself has also stated the same story in form of a narration in his book “Kamāluddīn”, and further commented: “Whenever Abū Ja’far Muhammad, son of Alī Al-Aswad saw me going to my teacher, told me: “There is no wonder to see such enthusiasm in you for acquisition of knowledge, because you were born on the supplication and request of Imam Mahdī(Aj.F.).”

Family

His honorable father, Alī son of Husein son of Bābiwayh-e Qummī, was one of the most outstanding Islamic scholars and jurisprudents of his age.

Although there were many scholars and narrators living in Qum at that time, Alī son of Bābiwayh (the father of Sheikh-e Saduq), as a pious scholar who had exposed some miraculous deeds, was the torchbearer of guidance and religious authority for Islamic jurisprudence (Marja’īyyat). He had a stall in the bazaar of Qum, and piously earned his livelihood by trading and selling things. He assigned a part of day for teaching precepts of Islam and narrating Hadīths (Traditions).

Scientific position

Sheikh-e Sadūq is a great dignitary in the Islamic world and a brilliant luminary of science and virtue.

He lived close to the era of infallible Imams; therefore, collected Traditions and Narrations of AHL-UL-BAYT (the infallible household of the Holy Prophet of Islam A.S.) and compiled premium and precious works, and thus presented valuable services to Islam and Shi’a. 

Sheikh-e Sadūq had a chance to take advantage of the last twenty years of the blessing life of his father.  During this period he made the best use of the presence of his father and other scholars of Qum to acquire wisdom and knowledge. He was at the age of 22 or 23 when his father passed away. After that, he took the heavy burden of responsibility to promulgate the Hadīths (Traditions and Narrations) of the AHL-UL-BAYT  (A.S.) and guide the Islamic community to the right way. Thus, a new episode started in his life. 

Sayings of Great Men

         Sheikh-e Tūsī introduces Sadūq as follows: “He was a glorious sage who knew the Hadīths by heart. He was completely familiar with RIJĀL (study of biographies of the trustworthy narrators of Hadīths in the chain of documentations). He was a marvelous critic in the chain of Hadīths, and had no counterpart amongst Islamic Ulamā (sages) with regard to his knowledge of Hadīth and his good command of Islamic science. He has written about 300 books in different fields of Islamic science.”  

          Najāshī, the great scholar in the field of RIJĀL, writes about him: “Abū Ja’far (Sheikh-e Sadūq), an inhabitant of Rey, is a Faqīh (Islamic Jurisprudence) and brilliant figure of Shi’a in Khorāsān. He had a trip to Baghdād while he was quite young, nevertheless all great scholars went to learn Hadīths from him.”

          Allāmah Bahrānī states: “A number of our companions such as ‘Allāmah Hillī’ in his ‘Mukhtalaf-ush-Shi’a’, ‘Shahīd’ in his ‘Sharhe Irshād’, and ‘Sayyid Muhaqqiq-e Dāmād’ believe that even the ‘Loose Traditions’ (Hadīth-e Mursal) narrated by Sheikh-e Sadūq are correct and trustworthy; one can depend on them and put them into practice, because, for the same reason that the Loose Traditions cited by Ibn-e Abī Umayr were approved, the Loose Traditions by Sadūq are to be accepted as well.”         

Teachers

1-   His respectable father, Alī son of Husein son of Mūsā son of Bābiwauh Qummī

2-   Muhammad son of Hasan son of Ahmad son of Walīd

3-   Hamzah son of Muhammad son of Ahmad son of Ja’far son of Muhammad son of Zayd son of Imam Alī (A.S.)

4-   Abul-Hasan Muhammad son of Qāsim

5-   Abū Muhammad, Qāsim son of Muhammad Astar-Ābādī

6-   Abū Muhammad Abdūs son of Alī son of Abbās Gorgānī

7-   Muhammad son of Alī Astar-Ābādī

Pupils

1-   His brother Husein son of Alī son of Mūsā son of Bābiwayh Qummī

2-   Sheikh-e Mufīd

3-   Sheikh Thiqatuddīn Hasan son of Husein son of Alī son of Mūsā son of Bābiwayh Qummī (his nephew)

4-   Alī son of Ahmad son of Abbās (the father of Sheikh Najāshī)

5-   Abul-Qāsim Alī son of Muhammad son of Alī Khazzāz

6-   Ibn-e Ghadhā’erī Abū Abdullāh, Husein son of Ubaydullāh son of Ibrāhīm

7-   Sheikh-e Jalīl Abul-Hasan, Ja’far son of Husein Haskeh Qummī (the mentor of Sheikh-e Tūsī)

8-   Sheikh Abū Ja’far Muhammad son of Ahmad son of Abbās son of Fākhir Durīstī (contemporary to Sheikh-e Tūsī)

9-   Abū Zakarīyyā Muhammad son of Sulaymān Hamrānī

10-Sheikh Abul-Barakāt, Alī son of Hasan Khūzī

Compilations

Any of his numerous compilations in different branches of Islamic science is being accounted as an illuminating jewel and never-ending treasure, which, instead of decrease in importance or becoming paled in the course of more than a millennium, have gained more and more authenticity and value, and today are settled at the apogee of sublimity and placed on the top of bookshelves of libraries and within the hearts of Islamic scholars and sages. Some of his writings are as follows:        

1-   Man-Lā-Yahdharahul-Faqīh

2-   Madīnat-ul-‘Ilm

3-   Kamāluddīn Wa Tamām-un-Ni’mah

4-   At-Tawhīd

5-   Al-Khisāl

6-   Ma’ānī-ul-Akhbār

7-   Uyūn Akhbār-ur-Ridhā (A.S.)

8-   Al-Amālī

9-   Al-Muqanna’ Fil-Fiqh

10-Al-Hidāyatu Bil-Khayr

Death

          This great sage, as the last descendant of Sadūq family, after a long blessing life, passed away in 381 Hegira and traveled to the everlasting world.