A Comparative Study of Divine Attributes in Osul al-Kafi and Sahih al-Bokhari, Considering the Effect of Authority of the Household in Difference of Views

The comparative study of attributes of God in Osul Kaafi and Sahih Bukhari shows that Kolaini, while explaining attributes of God, has emphasized that knowledge, power and life are objective in the His essence and accordingly explains them. However, Bukhari in emphasizing divine knowledge has only underscored God’s prescience, especially His prescience of the day of the doom. Besides, in Osul Kaafi, Divine power and its dimensions especially God’s actions as manifestations of His power are the axis of the analyses of tradition while in Bukhari there is only a mention of divine power without any explaining and greatness of creation is given as the sole symbol of the greatness of the creator. Yet, concerning the life attributes of God, both sources have provided a meager traditional records or analyses.  In divine attributes of action, Kolaini has explained God as the creator through subjects such as God’s creation in the absence of any instrument and previous record of creation and that God does not stand in the need of any creature in His creation while in Bukhari proving God as creator is limited to divine role in Human action and therefore emphasized the active role of God in human action to show the role of divine will actions of human being. Unlike the traditional narrations in Sahih Bukhari, the privative (negative) attributes of God are more manifest in Osul Kaafi where Kolaini has disproved the corporal manifestation of God but in Bukhari such a disproves is not seen. Besides, divine attributes associated with corporality, including disproving movement and transition, disproving limitedness in time and place and disproving God’s sight is explained in Kolaini but Bukhari not only has failed to deal with these privative (negative) attributes but also, on the contrary, has proved some of them such as transition of God and that He comes to sight. Concerning attributes of declaration, proving the sight of God and His descending on the heaven of the world are among the peculiarities of Bukhari but association of issues such as face, hand, eye, side to God is reflected in both sources but in Osul Kaafi these issues are referred to justification of these evidences such as (the position of authority). Bukhari has sufficed it to mention these kinds of attribute however the commentators of Bukhari, relying on theological underpinnings of Sunnis, have insisted on the principle of refraining from “Takayof” and proof without interpretation. In both sources, a significant difference resides in the effect of Authority of jurists (infallible Imams). The effect of authority of Imams on writings of Kolaini is manifest in his content, his power to convince the readers, his power in interview and debate, his power in answering the questions and removing doubts and his logical approach. However, deprived from this authority, Bukhari had adopted a mere quoting approach and narrated the Hadith of the prophet unilaterally and inflexibly.