Is the Jawshan prayer mutawatir?

- According to the chain of narrators in the “Majmu’atul-Ahzab” included in the Jawshan books of Sözler Neşriyat and you mention in the answer to the question “Will you give detailed information about Jawshan prayer and its sources”, Jawshan al-Kabir is narrated from Zayn al-Abidin (r.a.) with tawatur. However, this narration is not included in the reliable hadith books. Some of it is narrated in only Kanzul-Ummal. Will you explain it?

Dear Brother / Sister,

Ahmed Ziyaeddin Gümüşhanevî, who introduced Jawshan prayer to the Sunni world, included this prayer in his famous three-volume book “Majmuatul-Ahzab”. He does not include the full chain of narrators but he starts from a person whose name we could not determine exactly and continues as follows:

“Jafar Sadiq, through his father (Muhammad al-Baqir) and grandfather (Zayn al-Abidin), from Husayn, and Husayn from his father, Ali (r.a.) who reported it from the Prophet. [Gümüşhanevi, Majmuatul-Ahzab, 1311(copy date, 1298), 3/231-232]

The difference between the order of the narrators in it and the chain of narrators in Diyanet İslam Ansiklopedisi is only the name Musa al-Kazim, which is absent in Gümüşhanevi.

- In Diyanet İslam Ansiklopedisi, the chain of narrators of Jawshan al-Kabir is given as follows: Musa al-Kazim ­- Jafar as-Sadiq - Muhammad al-Baqir - Zayn al-Abidin - through Husayn and Ali from the Prophet (pbuh)”. (DİA, VII/462- Cevşen article)

- The content of Jawshan is different from the prayers in the books of sound hadith in that it is made with a thousand and one names and attributes of Allah. Otherwise, an important part of the prayers in Jawshan are included both in the verses and in the sound hadith sources - in terms of content.

- In the short introductory article written at the beginning of Jawshan al-Kabir prayer published by Badiuzzaman Said Nursi, he writes the following about the chain of narrators of Jawshan:

“It is a very high and very valuable prayer of the Prophet (pbuh) that Gabriel (Jibril) brought to the Prophet (pbuh) with revelation and said ‘Take off the armor, read this’, narrated from Zayn al-Abidin (r.a.) through tawatur.” (see Niyazi Beki, Büyük Cevşen Duası, Zafer yayınları, İstanbul, 2001, p.9, Introduction)

We think “tawatur” mentioned by Badiuzzaman here is not the tawatur included in the hadith criteria, but something known by a significant number of people.

However, it can be called “tawatur” in terms of the Ahl al-Bayt tradition through which Jawshan’s chain of narration comes.

The fact that Gümüşhanevî uses a title meaning “Jawshan al-Kabir prayer from Zayn al-Abidin” at the beginning of Jawshan supports this concept of “tawatur” in both forms.

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