al-Arbaun al-Mukhtara min Hadith al-Imam Abi Hanifa
- Author died
- 909 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-Farfūr
al-Arba'un al-Mukhtara min Hadith al-Imam Abi Hanifa (The Forty Selected Hadiths from the Narration of Imam Abu Hanifa) is a hadith collection compiled by the Hanbali scholar Yusuf ibn Hasan ibn Abd al-Hadi, known as Ibn al-Mubarrad (840–909 AH / 1436–1503 CE), comprising selected prophetic traditions narrated through Abu Hanifa with connected chains of transmission .
Composition and Purpose
Ibn al-Mubarrad completed the compilation of the work on Saturday, 6 Rabi' al-Akhir 897 AH (1492 CE), at the madrasa of Shaykh al-Islam Abu 'Umar . In his introduction, the author stated that he compiled these selected hadiths narrated by Abu Hanifa al-Nu'man with unbroken, connected chains of transmission (asanid muttasilah) leading back to him, seeking their blessing and asking God to benefit himself and all Muslims through them .
Content and Method
The work is organized into forty main hadith headings (al-Hadith al-Awwal through al-Hadith al-Arba'un), though the total number of distinct chains and textual narrations spans fifty-one numbered reports, as some sections contain more than one narration or alternative transmission routes .
The narrations cover diverse aspects of Islamic jurisprudence, ethics, and ritual practice, including:
- Ritual purification, bathing for Friday prayer, and wiping over leather socks (al-mash 'ala al-khuffayn) .
- Legal rulings regarding prayer garments, the direction of the qibla for the people of Iraq, reciting the Quran melodiously, and supplications such as the istikharah prayer .
- Rulings on fasting, pilgrimage (umrah in Ramadan), blood money (diyah), financial matters, and marriage dissolution (khul') .
- Moral conduct and the pursuit of religious knowledge, such as the obligation of seeking knowledge and the warning against lying .
Ibn al-Mubarrad relates these traditions through his own teachers and family members—including his grandfather, al-Nizam ibn Muflih, and Fatima bint al-Haristani—who transmitted them through established chains involving earlier authorities such as Ibn al-Jawzi, Yusuf ibn Khalil al-Dimashqi, Fakhr al-Din Ibn al-Bukhari, Abu Yusuf, and Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Shaybani, tracing back to Abu Hanifa .
Publication
The text was edited by Khalid al-Awwad and published in Damascus by Dar al-Farfur in 1422 AH (2001 CE), printed in a single volume alongside Juz' 'Awali al-Imam Abi Hanifa by Shams al-Din Yusuf ibn Khalil al-Dimashqi (d. 648 AH) .
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