al-Arbaun al-Sughra lil-Bayhaqi
- Author died
- 458 AH
- Editions
- Dar al-Kitab al-'Arabi
al-Arbaun al-Sughra (The Minor Forty [Hadiths]), also known as al-Arbaun al-Sughra al-mukhrajah fi ahwal ibad Allah wa-akhlaqihim, is a thematic hadith collection compiled by the Shafi'i hadith master Abu Bakr al-Bayhaqi (384–458 AH / 994–1066 CE) focusing on religious ethics, spiritual states, and moral conduct .
Purpose and Scope
In his introduction, al-Bayhaqi indicated that he compiled the work to present the essential traditions that hadith scholars and students need to know and put into practice regarding their spiritual states and personal character, serving as sufficient guidance for what is indispensable in worshipping God . He also noted having compiled another work under the same general title dedicated to clarifying the foundational landmarks of the religion .
Structure and Contents
The book is structured into forty thematic chapters (abwab) and contains approximately seventy hadiths transmitted with full chains of narration (asanid) . The opening section includes narrations on the obligation and virtue of preserving and transmitting the Prophet's ﷺ traditions to subsequent generations .
The work is distinct from al-Bayhaqi's al-Arbaun al-Kubra (The Major Forty), which represents a selection of forty hadiths extracted from his larger legal compendium al-Sunan al-Kabir . However, some contemporary researchers, such as Badr al-Badr, have argued that the text printed as al-Arbaun al-Sughra is in fact al-Arbaun al-Kubra .
Transmission and Reception
The text was transmitted down through major hadith scholars, passing through students of al-Bayhaqi such as Zahir al-Shahhami and Abd al-Jabbar al-Khuwari, and was later taught and audited in Damascus and other scholarly centers by figures such as Ibn al-Salah, al-Sadr al-Bakri, and Salah al-Din al-Ala'i .
Editions
The work has been edited and published in several modern editions:
- An academic edition by Muhammad Nur al-Maraghi, prepared as a master's thesis at Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University in Riyadh (1401 AH) and subsequently printed in Qatar .
- An edition edited by Abu Hajar Muhammad al-Sa'id ibn Basyuni Zaghlul, published by Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyyah in Beirut (1407 AH / 1987 CE) .
- An edition edited by Abu Ishaq al-Huwayni, accompanied by his hadith verification treatise titled Shifa al-Zamin bi-Takhrij al-Arba'in, published by Dar al-Kitab al-Arabi in Beirut (1408 AH / 1988 CE) .
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