Segmentation of Traditions in "Kitāb Man lā Yaḥḍuruh al-Faqīh": Instances, Motivations and Harms

Segmentation (Taqṭī`) literally means to cut something into pieces. According to hadith terminology it means to transmit a part of a tradition and leave the other part. This phenomenon which existed within the early period of hadith transmission, and became more prevailing with the beginning of codifying thematic hadith collections, faced both positive and negative reactions. Some scholars considered it as permissible while some others opposed it. Among those who practiced segmentation in his hadith book, mention can be made of the renowned Shi'a traditionist Shaykh Ṣadūq in his work Kitāb Man lā Yaḥḍuruh al-Faqīh. The influence of this book upon the traditionists and jurists is obvious. Investigating the frequency range of the segmented traditions in this hadith work, as well as the compiler's reasons and motivations for segmenting the traditions and the surface of the results of these segmentations, are issues and questions addressed in this research. The research results, mostly achieved through the method of comparison of the uniform (muttaḥid) traditions with one another, indicate that out of 5920 traditions available in this book, at least 626 segmented ones exist that constitute 10.5 percent of its total traditions. Sufficing to the position of needed content (i.e. that piece of text which is required), thematic classification of the traditions, conciseness aim in this book, and the compiler's particular beliefs or fatwas, are some of the reasons and motivations for segmentation of traditions in this book. It has also been concluded that the segmentation of some 100 traditions that equal 15.8 percent of the whole segmented traditions has disturbed the correct or perfect meaning (of the tradition)