An Analysis of the Delay in Composition of the Hadith Works of the Two Schools of Thought (Shia and Sunni)

Studying the commentaries and works related to the hadith corpus is considered part of the process that is necessary in order to understand the complexities of hadith. An overview of the commentaries on hadith written by the two schools of thought in Islam
brings to light substantial differences between the dates of commencement of these works between the Shīʿa and Ahl al-Sunnah. A study of texts related to the two primary Sunnī hadith compilations i.e. Ṣaḥīḥ Bukhārī and Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim on the one hand and [the Shīʿī compilations] al-Kāfī and Tahdhīb al-Aḥkām on the other hand reveals that Imami scholars commenced authoring commentaries on these important hadith works much later than their Sunnī counterparts. However, this is not the case when it comes to Nahj al-Balāgha. In this paper, we have attempted to study the factors that led to this difference and explain why the Imamiyya began writing commentaries later.