Al-Baqir was a Student of Jabir bin Abdullah Al-Ansari

 

The following is a list of reports from various sources in which Al-Baqir narrates a tradition from Jabir bin Abdullah Al-Ansari. The reports are not polemical nor reactionary in nature, but rather, they revolve around specific matters of Islamic jurisprudence. The purpose of the article to disprove the Shia claim that Al-Baqir’s knowledge was gained only from his forefathers. As we will see below, he narrated often from Jabir, who was not an infallible.

 

• Hadiths on Purification
• Hadiths on Prayer
• Hadiths on Hajj
• Random Hadiths
• Counter Argument to Possible Shia Responses
  

 

 

Hadiths on Purification

 

1- Abu Ishaaq Al-Sabee’ee narrated from Al-Baqir from Jabir that the Prophet – peace be upon him – used to bathe with only a saa’ (a unit of measurement) of water. (Al-Bukhari #252)

2- Ma’mar bin Yahya bin Saam narrated from Al-Baqir from Jabir from the Prophet – peace be upon him – used three handfuls for greater purification. (Al-Bukhari #256)

3- Mikhwal narrated the same tradition from Al-Baqir. (Musnad Ahmad #14188)

4- Yahya bin Sa’eed narrated the same hadith from Jafar from Al-Baqir (Musnad Ahmad #14430)

 5– The same narration was reported by Abdulwahab Al-Thaqafi from Jafar Al-Sadiq from Al-Baqir. (Saheeh Muslim #329)

 

 

Hadiths on Prayer

 

1- Hasan bin Ayyash narrated from Jafar Al-Sadiq from Al-Baqir that he asked Jabir about the timing of the Friday prayer. (Muslim #858)

2– Sulaiman bin Bilal narrated from Jafar Al-Sadiq from Al-Baqir the same hadith. (Muslim #858)

3– Sulaiman bin Bilal from Jafar Al-Sadiq from Al-Baqir from Jabir a short exceprt from a sermon by the Prophet – peace be upon him – . (Muslim #867)

4– Sufyan Al-Thawri from Jafar Al-Sadiq from Al-Baqir from Jabir the same narration. (Muslim #867)

Note: In the narrations of Hatim bin Ismaeel and Abu Ishaaq Al-Sabee’ee in Musanaf Ibn Abi Shaybah #3194 and #6063, we find Jafar narrating from Al-Baqir that he prayed behind Jabir, which is not a very Imam-like thing to do.

 

Hadiths on Hajj

 

1- Isma’eel bin Ja’afar from Al-Baqir from Jabir bin Abdullah narrated a lengthy narration on Hajj. (Saheeh Ibn Khuzaimah #2603)

2- Hafs bin Ghiyath narrated the same hadith from Jafar Al-Sadiq from Al-Baqir. (Muslim #1218)

3- Yahya bin Sa’eed bin Jafar Al-Sadiq from Al-Baqir from Jabir the same hadith. (Musnad Ahmad 14440)

4- Malik narrated the same hadith from Jafar from Al-Baqir from Jabir. (Muslim #1263)

5- Ibn Juraij narrated the same hadith from Jafar from Al-Baqir from Jabir (Muslim #1263)

6- Sufyan Al-Thawri from Jafar Al-Sadiq from Al-Baqir narrated how the Prophet – peace be upon him – approached the black stone and walked around the Ka’aba. (Muslim #1218)

7- Mohammad bin Maymoon narrated from Jafar from Al-Baqir from Jabir about the sacrifices of the Prophet – peace be upon him – during Eid. (Musnad Ahmad #14549)

 

 

Random Hadiths

 

1- Sufyan Al-Thawri from Jafar from Al-Baqir from Jabir a narration about debts. (Musnaf Abdulrazaq #15262)

2- Mus’ab bin Sallam from Jafar from Al-Baqir narrated a longer version of the same hadith (Musnad Ahmad #14334)

3- Amr bin Dinar narrated from Al-Baqir from Jabir that the meat of the domestic donkey was made forbidden on Khaybar. (Musnad Ahmad #14890)

4– Hatim bin Ismaeel from Jafar from Al-Baqir from Jabir that the Prophet – peace be upon him – dropped the usury of Al-Abbas. (Musnaf Ibn Abi Shaybah #35971)

5– Abdulwahab Al-Thaqafi from Jafar from Al-Baqir from Jabir a narration on testimonies. (Musnad Ahmad #14278)

 

 

Counter Arguments to Possible Shia Responses

 

Upon investigating the diversity of these above reports, there are only a few possible conclusions that the Shia reader may arrive to. Perhaps the most likely of these conclusions is that these narrations are fabrications.

 

In response, we remind the objective reader that the narrations do not include any polemical or reactionary material. These narrations are pretty uncontroversial for anyone to assume that they were fabrications.

 

The irrational Shia reader may argue that the students of Jafar and Al-Baqir were so diabolical, that they purposefully chose uncontroversial material in order to get the masses to accept that the two men took knowledge from fallible men. Our response is to simply point to the obvious, which is that the narrators that have done this are not few in number. Furthermore, we have only quoted the narrations of Al-Baqir from Jabir, and we did not include his narrations from his other teachers. Surely, the number of students would be multiplied if those narrations were added into the equation.

 

The most obvious answer is the most correct one: Al-Baqir learned aspects of his religion from Jabir.