Al-Amālī
Two collections of ‘dictations’ under one name, and this page holds both: Shaykh al-Ṣadūq’s (d. 381/991), recorded across teaching sessions in Rayy, Nishapur and Baghdad, and Shaykh al-Mufīd’s (d. 413/1022), dictated in Baghdad over forty-two assemblies. Neither is a compiled reference; both are records of teaching. The material moves as a lesson moves, from ethics to the lives of the Prophet and the Imams to a point of doctrine, each assembly dated and placed, and several take their subject from the day they fell on, including those on Karbalā. Read straight through they show what a leading scholar chose to put in front of an audience, and in what order.
Parts
About this collection
Al-Amālī
Amālī means dictations, and the title names a genre rather than a single book: a scholar reads narrations aloud with their chains in a dated sitting, and his students write them down. Two such collections are gathered here. The larger is al-Shaykh al-Ṣadūq’s (d. 381/991), dictated across sessions held in Rayy, Nishapur and Baghdad; the second is al-Shaykh al-Mufīd’s (d. 413/1022), dictated in Baghdad over forty-two assemblies, largely in Ramaḍān. Together they run to 1,469 narrations in this edition.
Neither is a compiled reference, which is what makes them worth reading straight through. The material moves the way a lesson moves — a point of ethics, then a report from the life of the Prophet or an Imam, then a question of doctrine — and every assembly is dated and placed, so the books also record where a scholar was and whom he was teaching. Several sessions take their subject from the day they happened to fall on, including those held on the days of Karbalā.
Between them they preserve sermons, supplications, and a considerable body of material on ethics, the virtues of the Ahl al-Bayt and history, some of it not found in the more systematic collections. Read as a record of teaching, they show what two leading scholars chose to put in front of an audience, and in what order.