أَصَبْتَ مَعْنَى حَدِيثِنَا فَأَعْرِبْ عَنْهُ بِمَا شِئْتَ.

you have grasped the meaning of our hadith well, express it however you wish.

«24»- وَ قَالَ بَعْضُهُمْ لَا بَأْسَ إِنْ نَقَصْتَ أَوْ زِدْتَ أَوْ قَدَّمْتَ أَوْ أَخَّرْتَ إِذَا أَصَبْتَ الْمَعْنَى وَ قَالَ هَؤُلَاءِ يَأْتُونَ الْحَدِيثَ مُسْتَوِياً كَمَا يَسْمَعُونَهُ وَ إِنَّا رُبَّمَا قَدَّمْنَا وَ أَخَّرْنَا وَ زِدْنَا وَ نَقَصْنَا فَقَالَ ذَلِكَ زُخْرُفَ الْقَوْلِ غُرُوراً إِذَا أَصَبْتُمُ الْمَعْنَى فَلَا بَأْسَ.

Some narrators have related thus: There is no objection to your subtracting from or adding to a hadith, or putting earlier or later, provided you have understood the meaning. The narrator said: Our opponents state a hadith just as they heard it, while we often put parts earlier and later and subtract and add. He said: Their words are false and fabricated; they adorn their speech in order to deceive people. But as for you, when you have understood the meaning you may relate it in your own words.

بيان: الإعراب الإبانة و الإفصاح و ضمير بعضهم راجع إلى الأئمة عليهم السلام و فاعل قال في قوله قال هؤلاء أحد الرواة و في قوله فقال الإمام عليه السلام قوله ذلك أي الذي ترويه العامة زخرف القول أي الأباطيل المموهة من زخرفه إذا زينه يغرون به الناس غرورا و هو داخل فيما قال اللّٰه تعالى في شأن المبطلين وَ كَذلِكَ جَعَلْنا لِكُلِّ نَبِيٍّ عَدُوًّا شَياطِينَ الْإِنْسِ وَ الْجِنِّ يُوحِي بَعْضُهُمْ إِلى بَعْضٍ زُخْرُفَ الْقَوْلِ غُرُوراً و الحاصل أن أخبارهم موضوعة و إنما يزينونها ليغتر الناس بها.

Elucidation: "Al-i'rab" means to make plain and to express clearly; the pronoun in "some of them" refers to the Imams, peace be upon them, and the subject of "qala" in "qala ha'ula'" is one of the narrators. The reports of the Sunnis are illusory falsehoods by which they deceive people, and this [point] falls under the Qur'anic verse revealed concerning the people of falsehood: "And thus We appointed for every prophet an enemy — devils of mankind and jinn — who inspire one another with adorned speech as a deception; and had your Lord willed, they would not have done so." The upshot is that the Sunnis' hadiths are false and fabricated, and they adorn their hadiths so as to deceive people with them.

ثم اعلم أن هذا الخبر من الأخبار التي تدل على جواز نقل الحديث بالمعنى و تفصيل القول في ذلك أنه إذا لم يكن المحدث عالما بحقائق الألفاظ و مجازاتها و منطوقها و مفهومها و مقاصدها لم تجز له الرواية بالمعنى بغير خلاف بل يتعين اللفظ الذي سمعه إذا تحققه و إلا لم تجز له الرواية و أما إذا كان عالما بذلك فقد قال طائفة من العلماء لا يجوز إلا باللفظ أيضا و جوز بعضهم في غير حديث النبي صلى اللّٰه عليه و آله فقط فقال لأنه أفصح من نطق بالضاد و في تراكيبه أسرار و دقائق لا يوقف عليها إلا بها كما هي لأن لكل تركيب معنى بحسب الوصل و الفصل و التقديم و التأخير و غير ذلك لو لم يراع ذلك لذهبت مقاصدها بل لكل كلمة مع صاحبتها خاصية مستقلة كالتخصيص

Then know that this report is among the reports that indicate the permissibility of relating a hadith by its sense. The full discussion of this is as follows: when the one relating is not acquainted with the literal and figurative senses of the wording, its explicit and implicit senses and its purposes, it is by consensus not permissible for him to relate by sense; rather it is laid down for him to relate the hadith only with the wording he heard and recorded, and otherwise it is not permissible for him to narrate. But when the one relating is learned and aware of the above matters, a group of scholars have said that it is not permissible to relate the hadith except with the wording he heard. Some of them have allowed it only in other than the Prophet's hadith, may God bless him and his family, since the Prophet, may God bless him and his family, was the most eloquent of those who ever spoke Arabic, and in the construction of his hadiths lie secrets and subtleties which not everyone can perceive as they are; for every construction of them has, in respect of conjunction and disjunction, of putting earlier and later and so on, a particular sense, and if these are not observed the hadith's true intent is lost. Indeed every word, together with the word placed beside it, has an independent property, such as specification