Ahkam Tamanni al-Mawt (Matbu ضمن Muallafat al-Shaykh Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, al-Juz al-Thalith)
- Author died
- 1206 AH
- Editions
- Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University
Ahkam Tamanni al-Mawt (Rulings on Wishing for Death) is a legal and hadith treatise historically attributed to Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab (1115–1206 AH / 1703–1792 CE), compiled as a collection of prophetic hadiths and traditions concerning death, the grave, and the intermediate realm (al-barzakh) .
Content and Structure
The treatise begins with the hadith of Anas ibn Malik: لا يتمنين أحدكم الموت لضر نزل به، فإن كان لا بد متمنيا، فليقل: اللهم أحيني ما كانت الحياة خيرا لي، وتوفني إذا كانت الوفاة خيرا لي ("None of you should wish for death due to a harm that has befallen him; but if he must do so, let him say: 'O Allah, keep me alive as long as life is good for me, and take my soul when death is good for me'") .
The work consists of an unchaptered compilation of hadiths and narrations addressing issues related to death, the grave, and the state of souls in the barzakh, without authorial section headings other than the table of contents supplied by modern editors . Researchers have noted that the text appears to be an abridgment of Kitab al-Ruh by Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah or Sharh al-Sudur bi-Sharh Hal al-Mawta wa-al-Qubur by Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti .
Manuscripts and Publication
Manuscripts of the text are preserved in:
- The Saudi Library in Riyadh (MS 771/96) .
- The Leiden University Library in the Netherlands (MS 2479), as documented by Abdullah al-Uthaymin .
The treatise was first published in 78 pages by Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University in Riyadh as part of the third volume (jurisprudence section) of Mu'allafat al-Shaykh al-Imam Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, based on the Riyadh manuscript, edited and collated by Abd al-Rahman ibn Muhammad al-Sadhan and a colleague .
Attribution and Reception
The attribution of the book to Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab has been widely rejected by modern scholars . Salih al-Fawzan authored a dedicated monograph titled Ibtal Nisbat Kitab Ahkam Tamanni al-Mawt ila Shaykh al-Islam Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab (published in 1412 AH / 1991–1992 CE by Dar Ibn Khuzaymah in Riyadh), demonstrating that the university's editors had confused authorship with copying, because the manuscript bore an endorsement stating merely that it was transcribed in the hand of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab .
Al-Fawzan and Abd al-Muhsin al-Abbad noted that the treatise contains content contrary to the teachings of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab and his school, including discussions on the nature of the soul, prompting the deceased with the testimony of faith after burial (talqin al-mayyit), and reciting the Quran over graves, all of which were treated by Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab and his disciples as prohibited innovations . Following this study, Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University issued a statement clarifying that the work was not composed by him . Al-Abbad also recorded that ideological opponents of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab's movement had initially taken interest in printing and distributing the treatise due to these doctrinal discrepancies .
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