al-Arbaun li Abi Sad al-Naysaburi
- Author died
- 548 AH
- Editions
- Manuscript published in the free Jawāmiʿ al-Kalim software affiliated with the Islamweb website
al-Arbaun li Abi Sad al-Naysaburi (The Forty Hadiths of Abu Sad al-Naysaburi) is a collection of forty prophetic traditions compiled from the transmissions of the Shafi'i jurist and scholar Abu Sad Muhammad ibn Yahya al-Naysaburi (d. 548 AH / 1153 CE; another report gives 549 AH) .
Purpose and Structure
The collection was extracted and arranged (takhrij) by Abu al-Abbas Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Maliki from the narrations of Abu Sad al-Naysaburi . It was designed according to a specific thematic and prosopographical scheme: forty hadiths narrated on the authority of forty distinct Companions, covering forty different topics of religious practice and Islamic law . The compiler stated that the collection was assembled out of desire for the virtue promised in traditional reports for anyone who preserves forty hadiths of religious guidance for the Muslim community, seeking divine mercy through the mention of righteous figures, and selecting the highest chains of transmission (uluww al-isnad) available to the author .
The book begins with narrations transmitted by prominent early Companions, opening with Abu Bakr al-Siddiq regarding the event in the cave , followed by Umar ibn al-Khattab , Uthman ibn Affan, and Ali ibn Abi Talib, and concludes with the fortieth narration transmitted on the authority of Abd Allah ibn al-Sa'ib concerning the supplication recited during circumambulation of the Kaaba .
Method and Content
For each entry, the text begins by naming the Companion through whom the report was handed down, followed by Abu Sad al-Naysaburi's full chain of transmission tracing back through his shaykhs—such as Abu Hamid Ahmad ibn Ali ibn Abdus and Abu Ali Nasr Allah ibn Ahmad al-Khushnami—to the Prophet ﷺ . Following the matn (text of the hadith), critical commentary is appended detailing the status of the tradition (such as sahih, hasan, or gharib), identifying supporting and parallel transmission paths (mutaba'at), highlighting instances of high chains of transmission, and documenting cross-references to major canonical hadith compilations, including Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim .
Transmission
The work was preserved and transmitted through Abu Sad's students, notably Abu al-Fadl Mansur ibn Ali ibn Ismail al-Makhzumi al-Tabari—who taught and read it to students in Sha'ban 588 AH—as well as Abu al-Qasim al-Wathiq ibn Ali ibn Fadlan and the judge Abu Ali Yahya ibn al-Rabi' al-Hazzaz .
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