The Four Books

:"Distinguish from the Four Books of Chinese Confucianism.""The Four Books" (Arabic: الكتب الاربعة "Al-Kutub Al-Arbʿah"') is a Twelver Shiʿa term referring to their four best known hadith collections.

The books are:

Shi'a Muslims use this different set of hadith rather than the Six major Hadith collections followed by the Sunni because the majority of the companions who passed down the hadith in the Six major Hadith collections are considered to have erred by accepting the Caliphate of Abu Bakr, Umar and Uthman in preference to Ali, and consequently Shia believe cannot be regarded as reliable transmitters of hadith. Shia trust traditions transmitted by the Imams, Muhammad's descendants through Fatima Zahra. [Momen, Moojan, "Introduction to Shi'i Islam", Yale University Press, 1985, p.174]

ee also

*List of Shi'a books