Assessing the Credibility of Twelver Shii Exegetical Hadiths in the Educative Life of the Prophet Shuʿayb

The existence of many hadiths quoted from the Infallible Imams that provide exegeses of Quranic verses makes one of the greatest treasure troves for the correct interpretation of the verses in the Shii school. As the hadiths pertaining to the Quranic stories are mixed with or accompanied by Israelite and fake accounts, it has become difficult to distinguish the correct versions from the wrong ones. Therefore, checking the authenticity of these hadiths paves the ground for understanding the Quranic stories better.
    In this research, an attempt has been made with regard to verses 84 to 95 of Sura Hūd, the preaching and prophetic life of prophet Shuʿayb (Jethro) in the form of six separate titles with regard to the hadiths presented about these verses in hadith-based tafsir books and by scrutinising their chain of transmission. In general, what has been reported about the story of the prophet Shuʿayb in the hadith-based exegeses is correct, except for a few minor cases, all owing to the existence of some reporters whose reliability has not been ascertained. This research seeks to propose a method similar to what jurists (faqihs, fuqahā) have followed for authenticating hadiths, to propose a method to evaluate and separate credible hadiths from other hadiths in interpretation so that this hadith-based treasure can be used more authentically. The method applied in this research is fundamental (bunyādī), documentary (isnādī), with interdisciplinary data analysis.