al-Arbaun al-Abdal al-Awali li-Ibn Asakir
- Author died
- 571 AH
- Editions
- Dar al-Basha'ir al-Islamiyyah - Dar al-Siddiq
al-Arbaun al-Abdal al-Awali (The Forty Elevated Substitute Traditions) is a hadith compilation by the Damascene scholar Abu al-Qasim Ibn Asakir (499–571 AH / 1105–1176 CE) . It gathers forty narrations selected to demonstrate elevated chains of transmission (uluww) through technical pathways of alternative routing (abdal and muwafaqat) .
Content and Method
The work belongs to the forty-hadith genre (al-arba'iniyyat), structured around Ibn Asakir's personal transmission chains that bypass intermediate authorities to link directly with the teachers or grand-teachers of major canonical collectors . For each tradition, Ibn Asakir cites his full chain through his teachers, records the prophetic text, and provides a critical comparative appraisal of its routes against the primary collections—such as Sahih al-Bukhari, Sahih Muslim, and the Sunan compilations of Abu Dawud, al-Tirmidhi, and al-Nasa'i .
In his commentary following each hadith, he specifies the nature of the elevation achieved, noting whether the chain constitutes an agreement (muwafaqah) or a substitute (badal) in the shaykh of the authors or their predecessors . The collection includes foundational traditions such as the intention hadith: إِنَّمَا الأَعْمَالُ بِالنِّيَّةِ ("Actions are but by intention") , as well as narrations regarding the supplication after the call to prayer and the divine decree .
Transmission and Reception
The book was actively taught and transmitted in Damascus at the Umayyad Mosque . Audition certificates (sama'at) preserved with the text record public readings before Ibn Asakir in Rabi al-Akhir 549 AH and at the beginning of Ramadan 567 AH . Among its direct students was Abu al-Qasim al-Husayn ibn Hibat Allah ibn Sasra, who transmitted it by recitation in Rabi al-Akhir 611 AH .
The work remained in circulation through continuous chains of transmission, cited by later traditionists such as al-Rudani in Silat al-Khalaf, who recorded his isnad to the book via Ibn Asakir's grandson al-Qasim ibn al-Muzaffar . The Ottoman bibliographer Haji Khalifa cataloged it in Kashf al-Zunun under the variant title al-Arba'un fi al-Abdal al-'Uwal among Ibn Asakir's thematic forty-hadith collections .
Publication History
The work was edited by Muhammad ibn Nasir al-Ajmi based on a manuscript bearing Ibn Asakir's own handwritten verification of the reading and audition, and published in 2004 CE (1425 AH) by Dar al-Basha'ir al-Islamiyyah and Dar al-Siddiq .
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