Ahkam al-Hadith al-Daif - within "Athar al-Muallimi
- Author died
- 1386 AH
- Editions
- Dār ‘Ālam al-Fawā’id lil-Nashr wa-al-Tawzī‘
Ahkam al-Hadith al-Daif (Rulings Pertaining to Weak Hadith) is a treatise on hadith methodology by the Yemeni scholar Abd al-Rahman al-Muallimi al-Yamani (1312–1386 AH / 1894–1966 CE), published as part of his collected works (Athar al-Muallimi) .
Background and Purpose
The treatise was not given a distinct formal title by al-Muallimi; instead, the title was derived from his opening line: "This is a treatise on the rulings of weak hadith" (fa-hadhihi risalah fi ahkam al-hadith al-da'if) .
Al-Muallimi originally drafted the discussion as part of the introduction to his theological work Raf' al-Ishtibah 'an Ma'na al-'Ibadah wa-al-Ilah (also known as Kitab al-'Ibadah), in which he examined invalid evidentiary sources relied upon by later authors . Finding that the critique of acting upon weak reports grew extensive before the inquiry could be fully exhausted, he separated it into an independent monograph . He also made reference to this independent treatise in his work Haqiqat al-Bid'ah (or Bayan al-Bid'ah), his introduction to al-Shawkani's al-Fawa'id al-Majmu'ah, and his book al-Anwar al-Kashifah .
Al-Muallimi stated that he compiled the work in response to widespread confusion and instability (idtirab) among later scholars regarding weak narrations . He noted that some authors mistakenly attributed reliance on weak hadith to leading early authorities, while others claimed a scholarly consensus (ijma') on the recommendability of acting on weak reports in virtuous deeds (fada'il al-a'mal) . He criticized how this indulgence led people to establish religious innovations (muhdathat), prioritizing them over established prophetic traditions and definitive obligations, and even constructing theological doctrines contrary to decisive proofs from the Quran, the Sunnah, and reason, while extending their practice beyond merely weak reports to outright fabrications (mawdu'at) .
Manuscripts and Publication
According to a bibliographical description by Mansur al-Sammari, the manuscript of the treatise consists of three medium-sized notebooks: the first contains 43 written pages (with 16 lines per page and 10 words per line), the second contains 30 pages, and the third contains 34 pages .
The work was edited and published as the eighth treatise within the collection Majmu' al-Rasa'il al-Hadithiyyah (volume 15 of Athar al-Shaykh al-'Allamah Abd al-Rahman al-Muallimi al-Yamani), supervised and edited by Ali ibn Muhammad al-Umran alongside Muhammad Ajmal al-Islahi and Adil al-Zuraqi .
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