The authenticity of Al Ikhtisaas

In this article we will cover: - Spreading doubts about the Shia books in the West - Who are Kamal al Haydari & Asif Mohseni? - The Shia scholars about Kamal al Haydari & Asif Mohseni - The Shia scholars about Al Ikhtisaas

Spreading doubts about the Shia books in the West There are some people who try to discredit the Shia books. This is often done by the opponents of the Shia, and our scholars respond to their false claims. But unfortunately, there are also some people who pretend to be Shia scholars and spread doubts about the Shia books. These scholars are often harshly condemned and refuted by the real Shia scholars. But what when some ignorant people in the West start taking the doubts & false claims from the fake Shia scholars and start spreading them in the West? Some youths may then deviate from the path of truth because of those misleading claims & doubts. Recently some group of activists started a project to launch an application in which Shia books can be read. A lot of Shia Muslims were happy and they started donating money to this project. But what they didn't know is that there is some deviant person behind this application. This deviant person is adding false gradings to the narrations in this book application. The leader of this project has also a blog where he spreads disinformation about the Shia beliefs. But there is also another preacher who works on this app and holds lectures. Let's examine what he said in one of his videos.
In the following video he says:
“But the details… we don't know. And if you want to prove the details of it. It becomes a very lengthy discussion. Because you would have to prove the authenticity of books like Kitaab Sulaym, Al Ikthisaas, that's attributed to Shaykh al Mufid or Dalail al Imamah. And there is much discussion on the various different books and the sources and how it got to us and so on.”

There is almost no discussion about the authenticity of books like Kitaab Sulaym & Al Ikhtisaas among the normal Shia scholars. Here is a complete article about the authenticity of Kitaab Sulaym . As for the book Al Ikhtisaas, we saw that the doubts about it often come from deviant individuals such as Kamal al Haydari & Asif Mohseni.   Here is Kamal al Haydari's video in which he casts doubts about the attribution of the book Al Ikhtisaas to Shaykh al Mufid (From: Mafatih Amaliyat al Istinbaat al Fiqhi, lesson 384):

Asef Mohseni:
"The author of Al Ikhtisaas is also unknown to the strongest (degree), and as a whole these sources are not reliable, so their narrations cannot be trusted."

Who are Kamal al Haydari & Asif Mohseni?

Kamal al Haydari and Asif Mohseni are two controversial scholars who are rejected by the Shia scholars. They both (Kamal al Haydari & Asif Mohseni) admitted they are barely Shia. 

Asif Mohseni:
"Third point: “My opinion on authenticating the traditions in general differs with many of our scholars, and of course there are differences to be found between my fatawa and theirs (the scholars). And I'm afraid to issue those fatawa. And the difference (between me and the other scholars) that exists in the field of doctrine of the faith, the knowledge of reasoning and Ilm ur-Rijaal. And i don't dare to introduce to the people a new kind of jurisprudence (Fiqh) and doctrine (Aqaed) (from my own perspective), that can presumably lead to a new kind of school of thought (Madhhab) after my death, where in the case you assume it's wrong, it would lead to the deviation of the believers. But now that i have no Marji'iyah among the normal people, i have expressed my opinions with courage to a limited extent.''

Source: Ajaa'ib wa Mataalib, page 151

Comment: Here Asif Mohseni admits very clearly that if he expressed all his beliefs, even a new school of thought could emerge. This shows that he knew that his beliefs were completely different from those of the Shia school.

Kamal al Haydari says in the following video:
''Some could not bear that Sayed al-Haydari said it is permissible to worship according to (the rules of) all Muslim sects. It is now clear that it is not only allowed to worship according to (the rules of) all Islamic schools (sects), but also to worship according to (the rules of) all divine religions, it is also allowed through any faith! Whatever belief there is! But (it must) according to the requirements that I have set.''

The Shia scholars about Kamal al Haydari & Asif Mohseni

The Shia scholars have spoken out against both deviant individuals (Kamal al Haydari & Asif Mohseni), here are some examples:

Ayatollah Sayyid Sadiq al Rohani's reaction to one of the sayings of Kamal al Haydari:

Question: What is your position on Sayyid Kamal al Haydari's words & attack on Sayyid al Khoei?

Answer: The Jurisprudent of the law school, our teacher and the teacher of most of the scholars, the teacher of all who have memorized knowledge from him in our time, Sayyid Abu al Qasim al Khoei, he was a scholar in all kinds of knowledge of the Hawzah such as in Usool, Fiqh (jurisprudence), Tafseer (exegesis), Hadith (narration), Rijaal (narrators), wisdom, Kalaam and manners. He was one of the best researchers for his accuracy. His Marja'iya didn't fall short of expressing what Halal and Haram are, it played a great role in spreading the knowledge of the Hawzah and educating hundreds of jurisprudences, scholars and thinkers. And he has protected the Hawzah in Najaf al Ashraf during the time of one of the worst governments and opened Islamic foundations all over the world, especially in European countries. Anything negative what has been said about him (Sayyid al Khoei), it has been done by a person who has no knowledge and that will be only done by either an ignorant or sick person. Source: Official website of Sayyid Sadiq al Rohani

 
Ayatollah Sayyid Sadiq al Rohani on the book of Asif Mohseni:

Question:
What is your opinion about the book (Mashra'at al-Bihar) of Asif Mohseni?
Answer:
In my opinion, the book (Mashra'at Al-Bihar) is a project that aims to drop hundreds or even thousands of noble traditions, instead i would like the author to have written a book in which he tried to authenticate the traditions by means of external references about their authenticity, instead of dropping them. If he had done that, he would have done a great service for Shia Islam that (the value of it) couldn't be estimated. Source: Official website of Sayyid Sadiq al Rohani

Ayatollah Sayyid Ali al Milani about the Shia scholars of the Hawzah regarding the book of Asif Mohseni:

What do you say about the book (Mashra'at Al-Bihar) of Muhammad Asif Mohseni? What is your assessment of his method? And what about the author and his scientific level?

Answer: No prominent scholar of the seminary has approved his work as far as we know.

Source: Official website of Sayyid Ali al Milani

Ayatollah Shaykh Sanad about the method & book of Asif Mohseni:

The Shia scholars about Al Ikhtisaas

If we read the books of the Shia scholars, we will see that they attributed the book Al Ikhtisaas to Shaykh al Mufid. 


Agha Buzurg Tehrani:

The book Al Ikhtisaas - Which means that it is extracted from the (book) "Al Ikhtisaas" - that was written by the aforementioned Sheikh Abu Ali - by Sheikh Abi Abdullah Muhammad bin Muhammad bin al Nu'man al-Mufid, who died in the year 413. He extracted it from the aforementioned "Al Ikhtisaas" and included it in his books Al-Uyoon and Al-Mahasin. As we have shown, there is a copy of it in the "Razawi" treasury, the date it was written is 1055.

Source: Al Dharie’ah, volume 1, page 358

Hurr al Aamili:

(49): Kitaab al Irshaad, by Shaykh al Mufid
(50): Kitaab al Majaalis, by him (Shaykh al Mufid)
(51): Kitaab al Muqni'ah, by him (Shaykh al Mufid)
(52): Kitaab Masaar al Shia, by him (Shaykh al Mufid)
(53): Kitaab al Ikhtisaas, by him (Shaykh al Mufid)

Source: Wasaa'il ush-Shia, volume 30, pages 157-158




Al Bahraani:

Muhammad bin al-Hussain al-Saffar in Basaa'ir al Darajaat, Saad bin Abdullah al-Qummi in Mukhtasar Basaa'ir al Darajaat, and Al Mufid in Al Ikhtisaas - and the wording by al Mufid - they all narrated on the authority of Yaqoub bin Yazid.....

Source: Madinat Ma'aajiz, volume 3, page 516




Al Majlisi:

As for the book "Al-Ihtisaas", it is a delicate book that includes the biographies of the companions of the Prophet and the Imams, and it contains Gharibah narrations. And i quoted it from an old copy. And it was written under the title: A book extracted from the book “Al Ikhtisaas” by Abi Ali Ahmad Bin Al Hussein Bin Ahmed bin Imraan. But after the sermon it was like this: Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn al-Nu'man said: Narrated by Abu Ghaleb Ahmad bin Muhammad al-Zarari and Jaafar bin Muhammad bin Qulawayh up to the end of the chain. And so it begins until the end of the book with the Shaykhs of Shaykh al Mufid. It seems that it is one of al Mufid’s books. And the rest of his books are well known and self explanatory. Source: Bihaar al Anwaar, volume 1, page 27

Conclusion

Shia scholars are clear about the attribution of the book Al Ikhtisaas to Shaykh al Mufid. So the preacher in the UK unnecessarily questioned the book of Al Ikhtisaas. We hope that he and his activist friends will not make more mistakes in the future or else we will write more articles or even make videos about their false claims.