Afzal al-Amal Intizar al-Faraj is a hadith which is mostly used in Shia school of thought under the title of the Promised Mahdi, peace be upon him. The question dealt with in the present paper is that why this hadith is not found in Sunni literature of Mahdaviyyat while it is found in numerous Sunni hadith collections and the majority of their intellectual groups believe in it. The authors of the present paper have attempted to identify three factors in construction of the interpretive discourse of this hadith among Sunnis: A) Reasons for Issuance, B) Traditions which guarantee the main structure of the hadith, C) Their applications in the Sunni hadith literature. Then we have shown that these factors have shaped the understanding (reading) of the hadith in a way that is different from that of the Shia. Thus, no link has been established between this hadith and the Sunni Mahdaviyyat discourse.

Key Words: Afzal al-Amal Intizar al-Faraj, Reasons for Issuance, Mahdaviyyat Discourse, Sunni People.

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Writing on Fabricated Hadiths among Shia: Description and Analysis

Mahdi Mehrizi
Sayyed Mohammad Reza Hosseini

The authors of the present paper first try to present an account of Shiite scholars and writers in the field of hadith fabrication and then describe and analyze them. On this basis, this paper introduces and describes fifteen works on hadith fabrication. To analyze them, the author tries to answer two questions in this regard. First question is that how these works are classified and who has compiled them? To answer this question, the author of the present paper has divided these books into three groups. He concludes that most of the works have been compiled by those who are of little acceptance among the traditional Shia community. Second question is that why works