Ahadith Musalsalat
- Author died
- 497 AH
- Editions
- مخطوط نُشر في برنامج جوامع الكلم المجاني التابع لموقع الشبكة الإسلامية
Ahadith Musalsalat (also referenced as Juz' min Ahadith Musalsalat or Musalsalat al-Turaythithi) is a short hadith compilation (juz') assembled by the Baghdadi Sufi narrator Abu Bakr al-Turaythithi (d. 497 AH / 1104 CE), devoted to patterned or continuous-chain narrations (musalsalat).
Content and Structure
The work is structured as a collection of traditions characterized by a specific repetitive feature, condition, phrase, or physical act preserved across every tier of the transmission chain (isnad).
The narrations preserved in the tract include:
- A hadith chained through consecutive narrators named al-Hasan and where each narrator describes the report or teacher with the word hasan (good/beautiful), textually stating: إِنَّ أَحْسَنَ الْحُسْنِ الْخُلُقُ الْحَسَنُ ("Indeed, the most beautiful beauty is good character").
- A narration regarding sincerity (al-ikhlas), tracing questions from the narrator through the Prophet ﷺ and Gabriel to God: سِرٌّ مِنْ أَسْرَارِي، اسْتَوْدَعْتُهُ قَلْبَ مَنْ أَحْبَبْتُ مِنْ عِبَادِي ("A secret among My secrets, which I have entrusted to the heart of whomever I love among My servants").
- A narration accompanied at each stage by the physical interlocking of hands or fingers ( وَشَبَّكَ بِيَدِي ) regarding the days of creation: خُلِقَتِ الأَرْضُ يَوْمَ السَّبْتِ... ("The earth was created on Saturday...").
- A report where each transmitter introduces the text by stating وَأَعْجَبَنِي حَدِيثُهُ ("and his narration delighted me"), recounting a tradition regarding marjoram.
- A report chained exclusively through judicial figures ( الْقَاضِي ) concerning the smelling of narcissus.
- A chain where each narrator is asked about his age and replies: أَقْبِلْ عَلَى شَأْنِكَ ("Mind your own business"), leading back to Malik ibn Anas, who remarked: لَيْسَ مِنَ الْمُرُوءَةِ أَنْ يُخْبِرَ الرَّجُلُ بِسِنِّهِ ("It is not part of decorum for a man to disclose his age").
- A narration where each transmitter swears by God ( بِاللَّهِ الْعَظِيمِ ) regarding the merit of reciting the Basmala connected directly to Surat al-Fatiha.
Transmission and Reception
The core manuscript of the text was transmitted directly from al-Turaythithi by the judge Taj al-Islam Abu Abd Allah al-Husayn ibn Nasr ibn Muhammad ibn Khamis, who read it before him in the final ten days of Rabi' al-Awwal 491 AH. It was then transmitted from Ibn Khamis by Shams al-Din Abu al-Qasim Abd al-Muhsin ibn Abd Allah al-Tusi.
Scholarly chains of transmission for the work were preserved in later bibliographical repertoires, including those compiled by Muhammad ibn Sulayman al-Rudani and Abd al-Hayy al-Kattani, which trace back through Izz al-Din ibn Jama'ah, Sharaf al-Din al-Dimyati, Ibn Bint al-Jummayzi, and Ibn Abi Asrun to Ibn Khamis from al-Turaythithi. Another transmission was recorded in Dunaysir in 592 AH by Abu al-Izz Yusuf ibn Mahmud al-Rawdi via Ali ibn Abi Mansur from Ibn Khamis through authorization (ijaza) from al-Turaythithi.
Answer updated