Criteria and Components for Validating Narrations in the Field of Imamate in the Book "Abaqat al-Anwar"

Although reason plays an irreplaceable role in determining the general characteristics of Imamate, identifying the true Imam depends on the indications and confirmations of tradition. The book "Abaqat al-Anwar" is one of the valuable works in the field of Imamate studies, offering powerful analyses of the documentation and implications in the critique and examination of the narrations cited in this field. Therefore, with the aim of extracting methods and criteria for evaluating the validity of narrations and reports cited in the field of Imamate studies and achieving a comprehensive methodology in this field of theological research, alongside mentioning some of the most important factors involved in assessing the validity of narrations, the approach of the author of Abaqat in examining and analyzing these matters has been explored. The role of prior beliefs in altering the content of narrations or concealing realities, and the strategies for critiquing and analyzing these matters, the method of weakening Imamate narrations, and the strategies for correcting the validity of these narrations, analyzing the validity of narrations based on the characteristics of a work, and validating narrations based on external evidence are among the achievements of this research.