Ahadith Muqtabasa min al-Arbaeen al-Musalsala
- Author died
- 611 AH
- Editions
- Manuscript published in the free program Jawāmi‘ al-Kalim affiliated with the Islamweb website
Ahadith Muqtabasa min al-Arbaeen al-Musalsala (Selected Hadiths from the Forty Continuous Chains) is a hadith treatise compiled by the hadith scholar and jurist Ali ibn al-Mufaddal al-Maqdisi (d. 611 AH / 1214 CE), comprising an extraction of forty patterned hadiths (musalsalat) through connected chains of transmission .
Overview and Content
The text is an excerpted selection from al-Maqdisi's larger compilation al-Arba'in al-Musalsala al-Musnada al-Muttasila (The Forty Continuous Hadiths with Fully Attributed Chains) . In hadith terminology, a musalsal report is one in which narrators sequentially replicate a specific phrase, posture, transmission formula, or circumstance throughout the chain of custody back to the Prophet ﷺ or a Companion.
The collection features various categories of continuity in both verbal formulas and physical actions, including:
- Transmission with an oath: The ninth hadith is narrated with every transmitter taking an oath ("وَحَلَفَ") prior to delivering the text regarding the Prophet's ﷺ intercession for the people of major sins: شَفَاعَتِي لأَهْلِ الْكَبَائِرِ مِنْ أُمَّتِي ("My intercession is for the people of major sins from my nation") .
- Continuous hearing and affirmation: The tenth hadith follows a chain where each narrator explicitly states hearing the next, reporting the narration: عَجِبَ رَبُّنَا مِنْ أَقْوَامٍ يُقَادُونَ إِلَى الْجَنَّةِ فِي السَّلاسِلِ ("Our Lord marvels at people who are led to Paradise in chains") .
- Profession and status: The seventeenth hadith is linked across successive transmitters who were poets reciting verses, terminating in the Companion Hassan ibn Thabit .
- Recitation of specific Quranic verses: The twenty-first hadith is transmitted with each teacher reading the complete chapter of Surah al-Saff down to the verse يَأَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا كُونُوا أَنْصَارَ اللَّهِ .
- Physical postures and gestures: The twenty-eighth hadith involves each narrator reclining ("وَهُوَ مُتَّكِئٌ") while narrating, whereas the thirty-sixth hadith features each narrator holding his own hair ("وَهُوَ آخِذٌ بِشَعْرِهِ") during transmission .
- Interrogative transmission: The thirty-second hadith records each student asking their teacher about the nature of sincere faith (al-ikhlas), which traces back to the Prophet ﷺ asking the angel Gabriel (Jibril) .
The text concludes with the fortieth hadith containing the supplication: اللَّهُمَّ أَحْسِنْ عَاقِبَتَنَا فِي الأُمُورِ كُلِّهَا، وَأَجِرْنَا مِنْ خِزْيِ الدُّنْيَا وَعَذَابِ الآخِرَةِ ("O Allah, make the end of all our affairs good, and protect us from the disgrace of this world and the punishment of the Hereafter") .
Transmission and Sources
A substantial portion of the chains in the book is transmitted through al-Maqdisi's principal teacher, the hadith master Abu Tahir al-Silafi (d. 576 AH / 1180 CE) . Al-Maqdisi also supplies critical remarks on the narrations, comparing variant paths in works such as Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, and noting defects or missing links in particular transmission paths .
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