The Eighteen-Fold Reward of Giving Loans
Is the hadith about the eighteen-fold reward of loans authentic?
The eighteen-fold reward of giving loans is the content of hadiths found in the books of Al-Kafi and Tahdhib al-Ahkam. One of these narrations, reported from Imam Sadiq (AS), is authentic in terms of its chain of narration. According to this narration, the reward for charity is tenfold while the reward for giving loans is eighteen-fold.
First Hadith
«عَنْ أَبِي عَبْدِ اللَّهِ(ع): مَكْتُوبٌ عَلى بَابِ الْجَنَّةِ: الصَّدَقَةُ بِعَشَرَةٍ، وَ الْقَرْضُ بِثَمَانِيَةَ عَشَرَ؛ From Imam Abu Abdullah [AS]: It is written on the gate of Paradise: charity is rewarded tenfold, and loans are rewarded eighteen-fold.»[1]
Analysis of the Chain of Narration
This narration has been reported by Sheikh Kulayni in the book Al-Kafi, from Imam Sadiq (AS).[1] The narrators of this hadith are Ali ibn Ibrahim, his father, Ibn Abi Umayr, Mansur ibn Yunus, and Ishaq ibn Ammar.[1]
Allamah Majlisi in the book Mir'at al-Uqul has considered the chain of narration as Hasan (good) or Muwaththaq (reliable).[2] According to Sheikh Tusi, the Shia scholar of narrator evaluation, Mansur ibn Yunus, one of the narrators of this hadith, was a Waqifi in terms of his school of thought[3], but he is considered trustworthy and reliable.[4] Therefore, this narration is reliable and authentic.
This narration has also been reported by Sheikh Saduq in the book Man La Yahduruhu al-Faqih.[5]
Second Hadith
«عَنْ أَبِي عَبْدِ اللَّهِ(ع)، قَالَ: «قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ(ص): الصَّدَقَةُ بِعَشَرَةٍ، وَ الْقَرْضُ بِثَمَانِيَةَ عَشَر…؛ From Imam Abu Abdullah [AS], who narrated from the Prophet [PBUH]: "Charity is rewarded tenfold, and loans are rewarded eighteen-fold..."».[6]
Analysis of the Chain of Narration
This narration has been reported by Sheikh Kulayni in Al-Kafi, from Imam Sadiq (AS) who narrated it from the Prophet (PBUH).[6]
Nawfali, one of the narrators of this hadith, was neither authenticated nor weakened in early biographical sources.[7] According to Abdullah Mamaqani, the 14th century Hijri scholar of narrator evaluation, while some have considered him weak, he regarded him as Hasan (good).[8]
According to Allamah Hilli, Sakuni, another narrator of this hadith, was a Sunni.[9] Some have considered Sakuni reliable and have acted upon his narrations.[10] Therefore, the authenticity or lack thereof of this narration's chain depends on one's methodological approach to narrator evaluation. Allamah Majlisi in both Mir'at al-Uqul[11] and Maladh al-Akhyar[12] has considered this hadith's chain as weak. Sheikh Tusi has also reported this narration in Tahdhib al-Ahkam with the same chain of narrators from Sheikh Kulayni.[13]
References
- ↑ Jump up to: 1.0 1.1 1.2 Kulaynī, Muḥammad, al-Kāfī, Tehrān, Dār al-Kutub al-Islāmiyya, chāp-e chahārum, 1407 q, j 4, Bāb al-Qarḍ, ṣ 33.
- ↑ Majlisī, Muḥammad Bāqir, Mir’āt al-‘Uqūl fī Sharḥ Akhbār Āl al-Rasūl, Tehrān, Dār al-Kutub al-Islāmiyya, chāp-e dovvom, j 16, ṣ 162.
- ↑ Ṭūsī, Muḥammad ibn Ḥasan, Rijāl al-Ṭūsī, ba taḥqīq Javād Qayyūmī Iṣfahānī, Qom, Jamā‘at al-Mudarrisīn, 1373 sh, ṣ 343.
- ↑ Najāshī, Rijāl al-Najāshī, ba taḥqīq Mūsā Shubayrī Zanjānī, Qom, Jamā‘at al-Mudarrisīn, 1365 sh, ṣ 412.
- ↑ Ibn Bābūya, Muḥammad, Man Lā Yaḥḍuruhu al-Faqīh, Qom, Jāmi‘a-ye Mudarrisīn, chāp-e dovvom, 1413 q, j 2, Bāb Thawāb al-Qarḍ, ṣ 58, ḥadīth 1697 wa j 2, Bāb Faḍl al-Ṣadaqa, ṣ 67, ḥadīth 1738.
- ↑ Jump up to: 6.0 6.1 Kulaynī, Muḥammad, al-Kāfī, Tehrān, Dār al-Kutub al-Islāmiyya, chāp-e chahārum, 1407 q, j 4, Bāb al-Ṣadaqa ‘alā al-Qarāba, ṣ 10.
- ↑ Najāshī, Rijāl al-Najāshī, ba taḥqīq Mūsā Shubayrī Zanjānī, Qom, Jamā‘at al-Mudarrisīn, 1365 sh, ṣ 38; Ṭūsī, Muḥammad ibn Ḥasan, Rijāl al-Ṭūsī, ba taḥqīq Javād Qayyūmī Iṣfahānī, Qom, Jamā‘at al-Mudarrisīn, 1373 sh, ṣ 490.
- ↑ Māmaqānī, ‘Abdullāh, Tanqīḥ al-Maqāl fī ‘Ilm al-Rijāl, ba taḥqīq Muḥyī al-Dīn Māmaqānī wa Muḥammad Riḍā Māmaqānī, Qom, Mu’assasa-ye Āl al-Bayt (‘a) li-Iḥyā’ al-Turāth, 1431 q, ṣ 155.
- ↑ ‘Allāma Ḥillī, Ḥasan ibn Yūsuf, Rijāl al-‘Allāma al-Ḥillī, ba taṣḥīḥ Muḥammad Ṣādiq Baḥr al-‘Ulūm, Qom, al-Sharīf al-Raḍī, 1402 q, ṣ 199.
- ↑ Istarābādī, Muḥammad ibn ‘Alī, Minhāj al-Maqāl fī Taḥqīq Aḥwāl al-Rijāl, Qom, Mu’assasa-ye Āl al-Bayt (‘a) li-Iḥyā’ al-Turāth, 1422 q, j 2, ṣ 307.
- ↑ Majlisī, Muḥammad Bāqir, Mir’āt al-‘Uqūl fī Sharḥ Akhbār Āl al-Rasūl, Tehrān, Dār al-Kutub al-Islāmiyya, chāp-e dovvom, j 16, ṣ 135.