Oceans of Lights (Arabic: Bihar al-Anwar بحار الأنوار) is a comprehensive collection of traditions (ahadith) compiled by the Shi'i scholar Mulla Muhammad Baqir, known as 'Allama Majlisi (d. 1110/1698). It is a hadith collection, the second source of inspiration in Islam.
Other transliterations:
- Bihar-ul-Anwar
- Biharu-l-Anwar
- Biharu al Anwar
- Biharu al-Anwar
Probably completed between 1106/1694 and 1110/1698, it is an encyclopedia of ahadith, historical subjects and commentaries on many Qur'anic verses.
Bihar al-Anwar has 110 volumes. Majlisi wrote it to gather all the wisdom he could find, in order to preserve that knowledge for following generations. His goal was to collect every single narration available, not to sift through and find the reliable ones, so only a trained scholar can determine which ones are authentic.
The collection is the most comprehensive (as a single collection) among all Islamic hadith collections. The author collected narrations related from the Prophet Muhammad, along with statements by Fatima (the daughter of Muhammad) and the Shi'i Imams, using both Shi'i and Sunni sources. The collection also includes his well-researched commentary on these narrations.
This book is one of the intellectual and scholarly masterworks of the Islamic Heritage.
Iqbal fiyl a'amal[]
- List of Shi'a books