al-Ahadith al-Qudsiyya al-Arbainiyya
- Author died
- 1014 AH
- Editions
- t al-Huwayni · t Abd al-Aziz Mukhtar
al-Ahadith al-Qudsiyya al-Arbainiyya (The Forty Sacred Hadiths) is a collection of forty sacred traditions (hadith qudsi) compiled by the Hanafi scholar al-Mulla Ali al-Qari (d. 1014 AH / 1606 CE) .
Background and Purpose
The work belongs to the forty-hadith genre (arba'iniyyat) . In his preface, al-Mulla Ali al-Qari states that he compiled forty sacred traditions and intimate utterances (al-kalimat al-unsiyya) related by the Prophet from God, whether conveyed through the angel Jibril or through revelation, inspiration, and dreams, with the Prophet entrusted to express them in whatever phrasing he chose . The author notes that he assembled the collection seeking to fall under the promise of the report concerning anyone who preserves forty traditions for the Muslim community . The work is also recorded in bibliographical and manuscript sources under variant titles, including al-Ahadith al-Qudsiyya wa-l-Kalimat al-Unsiyya and al-Arba'un al-Qudsiyya .
Distinction Between Hadith Qudsi and the Quran
In the introduction to the text, al-Qari delineates the conceptual and legal distinctions between sacred hadiths and the Quran :
- The Quran was revealed exclusively through Jibril (al-Ruh al-Amin), its specific wording is fixed from the Preserved Tablet (al-Lawh al-Mahfuz), and its transmission is definitive and continuous (mutawatir) across every generation .
- Several legal rulings branch from this distinction: prayer is invalid if performed by reciting sacred hadiths instead of the Quran; it is not forbidden for ritual impurity (junub), menstruating, or postpartum individuals to touch or recite sacred hadiths; denying a sacred hadith does not constitute unbelief (kufr); and the attribute of inimitability (i'jaz) does not apply to them .
Contents and Structure
The book contains forty narrations, beginning with the hadith on the recitation of Surat al-Fatiha in prayer, in which God states: قسمت الصلاة بيني وبين عبدي نصفين ولعبدي ما سأل ("I have divided the prayer between Myself and My servant into two halves, and My servant shall have what he asked for") . The collection encompasses divine admonitions, supplications, God's mercy, divine justice, and the virtues of remembrance and mutual love for God's sake . For each tradition, al-Qari cites the primary compilers from whom the hadith was drawn—such as Ahmad ibn Hanbal, al-Hakim al-Naysaburi, or the canonical six books—and attaches a brief verdict regarding its authenticity .
Publication and Reception
The work was printed in Istanbul at Matba'at Arif Afandi in 1324 AH, and was later republished by Muhammad Raghib al-Tabbakh in Aleppo in 1345 AH . Ibn Ashur also notes an edition printed in 1316 AH under the title al-Ahadith al-Qudsiyya wa-l-Kamalat al-Unsiyya .
A modern edition with hadith verification (takhrij) was edited by Abu Ishaq al-Huwayni in 1412 AH . In his evaluation, al-Huwayni noted that eleven of the forty traditions in the booklet are weak (da'if) according to strict hadith critical standards, despite al-Qari having authenticated most of them, and observed that al-Qari acted primarily as a compiler and transmitter rather than an analytical critic in this treatise .
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