Akhbar al-Salah li Abd al-Ghani al-Maqdisi
- Author died
- 600 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-Sanābil
Akhbar al-Salah (Traditions of Prayer) is a hadith treatise on the virtues, obligations, and supererogatory forms of ritual prayer compiled by the Hanbali traditionist Taqi al-Din Abd al-Ghani al-Maqdisi (541–600 AH / 1146–1203 CE) .
Contents and Methodology
The work collects prophetic traditions and early reports arranged around the merits and practices of prayer. Al-Maqdisi records narrations with his own chains of transmission (asānīd) running through teachers such as Abu Tahir al-Silafi, Abu al-Fath ibn al-Batti, Abu Talib al-Mubarak ibn Ali al-Sayrafi, and Abu Zur'a Tahir ibn Muhammad al-Maqdisi .
The traditions in the collection cover numerous aspects of worship, including:
- Virtues of prayer and prostration: Hadiths highlighting prayer as the key to Paradise, the elevation of ranks and expiation of sins through prostration (sujūd), and the practice of prophets seeking refuge in prayer during times of distress .
- Punctuality and congregation: Traditions stressing the observance of the five daily prayers at their prescribed times, the special rewards of congregational prayer (salāt al-jamāʿah), and warnings regarding the heavy burden of the dawn and night prayers upon hypocrites .
- Supererogatory prayers: Reports concerning twelve voluntary units (rakʿāt) performed during the day, four rakʿahs at the beginning of the day, prayers offered upon entering and leaving one's home, and the status of the witr prayer .
- Adab and etiquette: Narrations cautioning against looking around or becoming distracted while engaged in prayer .
Reception and Influence
The treatise was utilized by subsequent scholars and jurists within the Hanbali school. In his legal commentary Sharh al-Muqni', Baha' al-Din al-Maqdisi incorporated a subsection on the merit of voluntary prayer between the sunset (maghrib) and night (ʿishāʾ) prayers that draws directly from his teacher Abd al-Ghani al-Maqdisi's Akhbar al-Salah .
Manuscripts and Publication
An autograph manuscript of the treatise in the author's own hand is preserved at the Zahiriyya Library in Damascus (Majmu' 3757, folios 64–90) .
The text has been published in modern editions, including:
- An edition edited by Muhammad Abd al-Rahman al-Nabulsi, published by Dar al-Sanabil in Damascus (1st edition, 1416 AH / 1995 CE) .
- An edition edited by Majdi Atiyyah Hammudah, published by Maktabat Ibn Abbas in Egypt (1st edition, 1424 AH) .
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