Collection

Maʿānī al-ʾAkhbār

829 narrations 427 chapters

Shaykh al-Ṣadūq (d. 381/991) compiled this to solve a specific problem: reports whose wording is clear and whose sense is not. It collects narrations that explain difficult words, obscure phrases and statements that appear strange on their surface — several of them raised by opponents as objections. The method is what makes it unusual: the explanation is itself a transmitted narration, an Imam asked what something means, so the whole commentary is built from other reports rather than the compiler's own gloss. One of the earliest attempts in the tradition to treat interpretation as a transmitted science rather than individual judgement.

Chapters

About this collection

Maʿānī al-Akhbār

Al-Shaykh al-Ṣadūq (d. 381/991) compiled this against a specific difficulty: reports whose wording is plain and whose meaning is not. It collects narrations explaining rare words, obscure phrases and statements that appear strange or objectionable on their surface — several of which opponents had raised as evidence against the tradition. In this edition it runs to 829 narrations across 424 chapters.

What distinguishes it is the method. The explanation is itself a transmitted report: an Imam asked what a word or a saying means, and answering. The commentary is therefore built out of narration rather than out of the compiler’s own gloss, which makes the book an early attempt to treat interpretation as a transmitted science rather than a matter of individual judgement.

Its range is as wide as the problem. It explains terms from the Qurʾān and the Prophetic sunna, technical vocabulary of law and ritual, phrases from sermons and supplications, and the sense of names and titles. It is consulted less for rulings than as the place to look when a report in another book will not yield its meaning.