al-Arbaun Hadithan fi Haqq al-Fuqara li Abi Tahir al-Salafi
- Author died
- 576 AH
- Editions
- al-Arbaun Hadithan fi Haqq al-Fuqara li Abi Tahir al-Salafi
al-Arbaun Hadithan fi Haqq al-Fuqara (The Forty Hadiths on the Rights of the Poor), also titled in manuscript as al-Arba‘un Hadithan fi Haqq al-Fuqara’ Ahl al-Suffah, is a hadith treatise attributed to the scholar Abu Tahir al-Silafi (d. 576 AH / 1180 CE) focusing on the virtues of poverty and the People of the Bench (Ahl al-Suffah) .
Transmission and Context
The work is preserved in a manuscript held in the municipal archives of Alexandria (under manuscript number 2162 / d Hadith) . It opens with an introductory transmission chain narrated by the ascetic ‘Isa ibn Hasan al-Silafi, who reports receiving it from Abu Tahir Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Silafi in Alexandria at the al-‘Adiliyyah Madrasa during the middle ten days of Ramadan .
The prologue relates a Sufi chain of investiture regarding the spiritual garb of poverty (ziyy al-faqr), tracing from the Prophet ﷺ through Ali ibn Abi Talib, al-Husayn ibn Ali, al-Hasan al-Basri, Habib al-Ajami, Dawud al-Ta'i, Ma'ruf al-Karkhi, al-Sari al-Saqati, and al-Junayd . In this narrative, Gabriel clothes the Prophet with the garb of poverty during the Heavenly Ascension (al-Isra'), upon which the Prophet states: الفقر فخري وفخر أمتي من بعدي إلى يوم القيامة ("Poverty is my pride and the pride of my community after me until the Day of Resurrection") .
Scope and Surviving Text
The collection was assembled as forty traditions concerning the rights and merits of the poor among the Ahl al-Suffah, compiled to match their number as forty men . The individual chains of narration (asānīd) are omitted from the text following the initial introductory transmission .
The first tradition recorded in the text is narrated on the authority of Abu Hurayrah, reporting that the Prophet ﷺ said: بعثت لخراب الدنيا ما بعثت لعمارتها ("I was sent for the ruination of the world, not for its building") . The surviving manuscript copy breaks off immediately following this first hadith .
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