Bihar al-Anwar

Bihar al-Anwar (Arabic: بِحَار ٱلْأَنْوَار, romanized: Biḥār al-Anwār, lit. 'Seas of Lights') is a comprehensive collection of hadith (pl. ahadith) compiled by Shia scholar Mohammad-Baqer Majlesi (d. 1699 A.D.). It is the secondary Shi'ite hadith verification source after the Four Books.

Bihar al-Anwar
بِحَار ٱلْأَنْوَار

Author	Mohammad-Baqer Majlesi
Language	Arabic

Overview

Bihar al-Anwar is the most comprehensive hadith collections, documenting over 100,000 items of Twelver Shia hadith along with Majlisi's commentary on these narrations.^[1][2] He used about 400 sources written by such Sunni and Shia scholars as Shaykh al-Saduq, Shaykh Tusi, Al-Shaykh Al-Mufid, Sharif al-Murtaza, Muhammad Jamaluddin al-Makki al-Amili, Sayyed Ibn Tawus, Al-Hilli, Zayn al-Din al-Juba'i al'Amili.^[3]

The full title of the book is:

Biḥār al-ʾAnwār al-Jāmiʿah li-Durar ʾAkhbār al-ʾAʾimmah al-Aṭhār

(Arabic: بِحَار ٱلْأَنْوَار ٱلْجَامِعَة لِدُرَر أَخْبَار ٱلَأَئِمَّة ٱلْأَطْهَار)

(lit. Oceans of Lights: The Compendium for Pearls of Traditions of the Pure Imams)

This lengthy title indicates Majlisi collected anything he had access to in the book.^[2][1] His primary goal was to preserve the knowledge for future generations and prevent forgery.^[4] Majlisi has acknowledged the forgery issue in the preface of Bihar al-Anwar, emphasizing that the traditions collected were not included without extensive scrutiny, although a consequence of his approach was that he has gathered both "pearls" and "pebbles".

The compilation of Bihar al-Anwar took 36 years, during which Majlisi received aid from other scholars and his students.

Author

Mohammad-Baqer Majlesi was born in 1617 in Isfahan, the capital city of the Persian Empire. A student of Mulla Sadra, he was described in the journal Orient as "an unprecedentedly influential author in the world of Imami Shi'ism".^[5] On 1687, he was appointed as Sheikh ul-Islam of Isfahan by the emperor Sultan Husayn.^[6] He developed the Twelver doctrine by investigating Shia and Sunni hadith. He wrote over 100 books in Arabic and Persian.^[5][4]

Editions

• Majlisī, Muḥammad Bāqir al-, Biḥār al-nwār al-Jāmiʿahli-Durar Akhbār al-Aʾimmat al-Aṭhār [The Oceans of Lights: A Compendium of the Pearls of the Narrations of the Pure Imāms], 110 vols (Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Wafāʾ, 1983).

Commentaries

• Mashraʿa Biḥār al-Anwār – by Muḥammad Asif Mohseni
• Durrar al-Biḥār – by al-Mawlā Nūr al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Murtaḍā
• Commentary on Biḥār al-Anwār – by ʿAbd al-Aʿlā al-Mūsawī al-Sabzawārī
• Gharīb al-Ḥadīth fī Biḥār al-Anwār (“Strange Expressions in Biḥār al-Anwār”) – by Ḥusayn al-Ḥusaynī al-Bīrjandī
• Anwār al-Biḥār – by Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad Hādī al-Nāʾīnī
• Manāhil al-Abrār fī Talkhīṣ Biḥār al-Anwār – by Ḥusayn Dargāhī
• Talkhīṣ al-Biḥār – by al-Mīrzā Muḥammad Ṣādiq al-Shīrāzī
• Ḥadīqat al-Azhār fī Talkhīṣ al-Biḥār – by al-Mīrzā Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Nabī al-Nīshābūrī
• Talkhīṣ al-Anwār – by al-Mawlā Muḥammad Taqī, known as Āqā Najafī Iṣfahānī
• Mashrūʿ Biḥār al-Anwār (“Biḥār al-Anwār Project”) – by Muḥammad Āṣif Muḥsinī
• Talkhīṣ al-Biḥār – by al-Mīrzā Ibrāhīm ibn Ḥusayn ibn Ghafār al-Dunbulī al-Khūʾī
• Durrar al-Biḥār – by al-Mawlā Muḥammad Taqī ibn Muḥammad al-Khūʾī
• Banādir al-Biḥār – by Fayḍ al-Islām
• Muntakhab Biḥār al-Anwār – by Muḥammad Hādī ibn Murtaḍā al-Kāshānī

See also

• Al-Hurr al-Aamili
• Al-Sharif al-Radi
• Al-Shaykh Al-Mufid
• Amina Bint al-Majlisi
• Du'a al-Kumayl
• ibn Babawayh
• List of Shi'a books
• Muhammad ibn Ya'qub al-Kulayni
• Nahj al-Balagha
• Safavid conversion of Iran to Shia Islam
• Sharif al-Murtaza
• Shaykh Tusi
• Umdat al-Talib fi Ansabi Ale Abi Talib