al-Arbaun fi al-Tasawwuf li al-Sulami
- Author died
- 412 AH
- Editions
- Maṭba‘at Majlis Dā’irat al-Ma‘ārif al-‘Uthmāniyyah
al-Arbaun fi al-Tasawwuf (The Forty [Hadiths] on Sufism) is a thematic collection of forty prophetic traditions compiled by the Nishapuri Sufi and hadith transmitter Abu Abd al-Rahman al-Sulami (d. 412 AH / 1021 CE) to substantiate Sufi teachings and ethical concepts .
Structure and Method
The collection consists of forty hadiths, with al-Sulami assigning an individual chapter heading (bāb) to each narration . According to the hadith scholar Abd al-Rahman al-Mu'allimi, al-Sulami's method in the work aligns with authors who formulate a doctrinal or practical position first and subsequently seek hadith evidence to corroborate it, an approach reflected directly in his chapter titles . Al-Mu'allimi also noted that al-Sulami pursued high chains of transmission (ʿuluww) and rare or anomalous narrations (gharābah) in his compilation .
Transmission and Reception
The text was transmitted among classical scholars through connected chains of audition. The traditionist Salah al-Din al-Ala'i recorded receiving the text through a transmission chain via Abu al-Fath Muhammad ibn Abd al-Rahim, from Abd al-Wahhab ibn Zafir, from Abu Tahir al-Silafi, from Tahir ibn al-Musaddad al-Janzi, from Ali ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Naysaburi, on the authority of al-Sulami .
When the Da'irat al-Ma'arif al-Uthmaniyya undertook to print the collection, its council commissioned al-Mu'allimi to author a commentary evaluating the authenticity and weakness of its narrations . In his resulting work, al-Taʿlīq ʿalā al-Arbaʿīn fī al-Taṣawwuf, al-Mu'allimi classified the contents of the collection into three categories: narrations that warrant a ruling of authenticity, narrations that warrant a ruling of invalidity (buṭlān), and those whose status remains probable or inconclusive . His commentary provided concise source attribution (takhrīj), critical examination of transmission chains and criticized narrators, and documentation of corroborating textual witnesses (shawāhid) . Although prepared for the press, al-Mu'allimi's commentary was not included in the Da'irat al-Ma'arif edition published in 1402 AH .
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