al-Abwab wa al-Tarajim li Sahih al-Bukhari

Al-Abwab wa al-Tarajim li Sahih al-Bukhari (The Chapters and Headings of Sahih al-Bukhari) is a specialized hadith study by the Indian scholar Muhammad Zakariya al-Kandahlawi (d. 1402 AH / 1982 CE), dedicated to analyzing the purpose, structure, and hermeneutical principles behind the chapter headings (tarajim) in al-Bukhari's Sahih al-Abwab wa al-Tarajim li…+1.

Background and Composition

The material for the book originally formed part of al-Kandahlawi's introduction to Lami' al-Darari al-Abwab wa al-Tarajim li…. In that work, he compiled the principles formulated by Shah Waliullah al-Dihlawi, the treatise of Mahmud Hasan al-Deobandi (known as Shaykh al-Hind), the pedagogical insights of Rashid Ahmad al-Gangohi, and the observations of classical commentators such as Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, Badr al-Din al-Ayni, and al-Qastallani al-Abwab wa al-Tarajim li…. Al-Kandahlawi expanded on these sources with his own original deductions al-Abwab wa al-Tarajim li…. At the suggestion of Abu al-Hasan Ali al-Nadwi and several students, who noted that such a comprehensive compilation did not exist in a single volume, al-Kandahlawi separated the treatise to be published as an independent work al-Abwab wa al-Tarajim li….

Content and Methodology

The work addresses the classical scholarly adage that "the jurisprudence of al-Bukhari is in his chapter headings" (fiqh al-Bukhari fi tarajimihi) al-Abwab wa al-Tarajim li…+1. Al-Kandahlawi examines the relationship between each heading, the prophetic hadiths, and the companion reports (athar) cited beneath it, explaining why al-Bukhari repeated certain narrations under multiple headings to extract various legal and theological rulings al-Abwab wa al-Tarajim li…+1.

At the beginning of the book, al-Kandahlawi identifies around seventy comprehensive principles (usul) and rules governing al-Bukhari's construction of chapter titles al-Abwab wa al-Tarajim li…+1. These principles reflect insights drawn from prior commentaries as well as his decades-long experience teaching Sahih al-Bukhari as head of hadith studies at the Madrasah Mazahir Ulum in Saharanpur al-Abwab wa al-Tarajim li…+1. The book goes through the Sahih chapter by chapter, offering solutions to difficult textual problems that earlier commentators had sometimes dismissed as copyist errors al-Abwab wa al-Tarajim li…+1.

Publication History

The book was first printed in India in 1391 AH / 1971 CE Sahih al-Bukhari - bi Has…+1. A later critical edition was edited and annotated by Wali al-Din ibn Taqi al-Din al-Nadwi under the supervision of Taqi al-Din al-Nadwi, featuring introductory remarks by Abu al-Hasan Ali al-Nadwi, and was published by Dar al-Basha'ir al-Islamiyyah in Beirut in 1433 AH al-Abwab wa al-Tarajim li…+1.