Written by Shaykh al-Ṣadūq (d. 381/991) late in his life for a patron in Balkh who had no scholar nearby to consult, and named after a medical handbook made for the same predicament. The second of the Four Books, and the most opinionated: rather than record everything transmitted, al-Ṣadūq included only what he was prepared to rely on, saying he offered these reports as proof between himself and God. It is organised as a working legal reference, from purity and prayer through commerce, marriage and inheritance. Chains are shortened in the text, with the full paths collected in the mashyakha at the end.
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Man Lā Yaḥḍuruh al-Faqīh
The second of the Four Books, compiled by Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad b. ʿAlī b. Bābawayh al-Qummī, known as al-Shaykh al-Ṣadūq (d. 381/991). He wrote it late in life for a sayyid of Balkh who had no jurist near enough to consult, and named it after al-Rāzī’s medical handbook Man lā yaḥḍuruh al-ṭabīb, “for one who has no physician at hand”, because it was meant for the same predicament: a book a person could rely on with no scholar present.
That purpose shaped the method. Al-Ṣadūq did not set out to record everything transmitted to him — he included only what he held to be a proof between himself and God, and said so in his introduction. It is arranged as a working legal reference, from purity, prayer, zakāt, fasting and ḥajj through commerce, marriage, inheritance and judgments, and runs in this edition to 6,379 narrations across 1,039 chapters. Chains are abbreviated in the body, with the full paths to each authority collected in the mashyakha at the end.
Because the selection is itself a judgement, the book carries weight beyond its contents: a report al-Ṣadūq chose to include is one a major fourth-century authority was prepared to act on. Where he departs from al-Kulaynī or al-Ṭūsī, the departure is studied in its own right.