# Bihar al-Anwar

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ShiaAl-Kutub Al-Arb'ah ("The Four Books") Kitab al-Kafi الكتاب الكافي Man La Yahduruhu al-Faqih من لا يحضره الفقيه Tahdhib al-Ahkam تهذیب الاحکام Al-Istibsar الاستبصار
Others Al-Wafi Wasa'il al-Shia Mustadrak al-wasa'il Bihar al-Anwar Nahj al-Balagha The Book of Sulaym ibn Qays Al-Sahifa al-Sajjadiyya Risalah al-Huquq Sahifah of al-Ridha Al-Risalah al-Dhahabiah Da'a'im al-Islam Uyoun Akhbar Al-Ridha Haqq al-Yaqeen Ain Al-Hayat Al-Ghadir
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Bihar al-Anwar (Arabic: بِحَار ٱلْأَنْوَار, romanized: Biḥār al-Anwār, lit. 'Seas of Lights') is a comprehensive collection of hadith (pl. ahadith) compiled by Shia scholar Mohammad-Baqer Majlesi (d. 1699 A.D.). It is the secondary Shi'ite hadith verification source after the Four Books.

## Overview

Bihar al-Anwar is the most comprehensive hadith collections, documenting over 100,000 items of Twelver Shia hadith along with Majlisi's commentary on these narrations. He used about 400 sources written by such Sunni and Shia scholars as Shaykh al-Saduq, Shaykh Tusi, Al-Shaykh Al-Mufid, Sharif al-Murtaza, Muhammad Jamaluddin al-Makki al-Amili, Sayyed Ibn Tawus, Al-Hilli, Zayn al-Din al-Juba'i al'Amili.
The full title of the book is:
   Biḥār al-ʾAnwār al-Jāmiʿah li-Durar ʾAkhbār al-ʾAʾimmah al-Aṭhār
   (Arabic: بِحَار ٱلْأَنْوَار ٱلْجَامِعَة لِدُرَر أَخْبَار ٱلَأَئِمَّة ٱلْأَطْهَار)
   (lit. Oceans of Lights: The Compendium for Pearls of Traditions of the Pure Imams)
This lengthy title indicates Majlisi collected anything he had access to in the book. His primary goal was to preserve the knowledge for future generations and prevent forgery. Majlisi has acknowledged the forgery issue in the preface of Bihar al-Anwar, emphasizing that the traditions collected were not included without extensive scrutiny, although a consequence of his approach was that he has gathered both "pearls" and "pebbles".
The compilation of Bihar al-Anwar took 36 years, during which Majlisi received aid from other scholars and his students.

## Author

Mohammad-Baqer Majlesi was born in 1617 in Isfahan, the capital city of the Persian Empire. He was a student of Mulla Sadra. He has been described as the most influential Shia Ulems. On 1687, he was appointed as Sheikh ul-Islam of Isfahan by the emperor Sultan Husayn. He developed the Twelver doctrine by investigating Shia and Sunni hadith. He wrote over 100 books in Arabic and Persian.

## Editions

* Majlisī, Muḥammad Bāqir al-, Biḥār al-nwār al-Jāmiʿahli-Durar Akhbār al-Aʾimmat al-Aṭhār [The Oceans of Lights: A Compendium of the Pearls of the Narrations of the Pure Imāms], 110 vols (Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Wafāʾ, 1983).

## Commentaries

* Mashra'a bihar al-anwar by Muhammad Asif Mohseni