The Preferences in Contradictions from Diversity to Unity of Function

What is known as murajjihat (lit. preferences) is apparently inharmonious and discordant since some of them corroborate the conflicting chain of narrations while some others strengthen the purpose for which they have been issued and the others simply strengthen the purport of those narrations. Based on late Wahid Behbahani’s approach, certain preferences such as concordance and agreement with the Quran and opposition to the Sunni views precede every preference. However, late Sheikh Ansari is of the view that when two preferences conflict with each other, those narrations which are stronger in their significations and purport and in consonance with the Quran and the decisive tradition of the Prophet (S) are preferred over other narrations. Moreover, the narrations which are more likely to have been issued from the Infallible (AS) are preferred over the narrations which aim to follow a particular direction (jihat). In this respect, the hypothesis that the functions are not different and that the preferences are characterized by such sequence was first raised by late Akhund Khurasani and it was later accepted by scholars of Ilm al-Usul such as Agha Zia Iraqi and, to some extent, by late Sayyid Yazdi .