Muhammad Mahmud Atiya
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Muhammad Mahmud Atiya is a contemporary scholar of hadith and researcher known for his critical work on hadith literature and the textual traditions of the sound collections (al-Sahihayn).
Name and Scholarly Focus
His full name is Muhammad ibn Mahmud ibn Ibrahim Atiya. He dedicated his research to the examination of prophetic narrations, particularly the critical verification of hadiths in major canonical and supplementary collections.
His principal contribution to hadith criticism is al-Intibah lima qala al-Hakim: wa lam yukhrijah wa huwa fi ahadihima aw rawayahu ("Attentiveness to What al-Hakim Stated They Did Not Transmit While It Is in Either or Both of Them"), which is also titled al-Mustadrak ala al-Mustadrak ("The Rectification of al-Mustadrak"). In this study, Atiya systematically collected and analyzed narrations in al-Hakim al-Naysaburi's al-Mustadrak ala al-Sahihayn that al-Hakim had deemed omitted by al-Bukhari and Muslim, demonstrating that they were in fact recorded in Sahih al-Bukhari, Sahih Muslim, or both.
Methodological Approach
Atiya articulated that the motivation behind his critical survey was to preserve the accurate attribution and grading of prophetic reports, emphasizing that the highest tier of authenticity is reserved for narrations agreed upon by al-Bukhari and Muslim, followed by those transmitted individually by al-Bukhari and then by Muslim. When a hadith found in the Sahihayn is mistakenly classified as omitted by them and cited only through al-Hakim's collection, its perceived scholarly status is inadvertently lowered.
Atiya maintained that rectifying these lapses was intended to highlight the preeminence and comprehensive scope of the two Sahih collections rather than disparage al-Hakim, whom classical authorities excused on account of his dictating al-Mustadrak late in life without having the opportunity to revise it before his death. Alongside the textual rectifications, he prefaced the treatise with a biographical sketch of al-Hakim, a study of al-Mustadrak, a discussion of inadvertent error (al-wahm wa-al-iham), and an analysis of the methods of al-Hakim and al-Dhahabi. The work was published in Qatar in 1428 AH (2008 CE).
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List of Works
al-Intibah lima qala al-Hakim wa lam yukhrijah wa huwa fi ahadihima aw rawayahu (also designated as al-Mustadrak ala al-Mustadrak) is a hadith critical work. It identifies and documents narrations in al-Hakim al-Naysaburi's al-Mustadrak ala al-Sahihayn that al-Hakim claimed were omitted by al-Bukhari and Muslim, whereas they are in fact recorded in Sahih al-Bukhari, Sahih Muslim, or both.