al-Arbaun li-Ibn al-Muqri
- Author died
- 381 AH
- Editions
- Maktabat al-'Ubaykān
Al-Arbaun li-Ibn al-Muqri (The Forty Hadiths of Ibn al-Muqri) is a 4th-century AH hadith collection compiled by the traditionist Ibn al-Muqri (d. 381 AH / 991 CE), assembling forty prophetic traditions across forty distinct subject areas of Islamic knowledge .
Structure and Contents
The compilation belongs to the genre of forty-hadith works (arba'iniyyat), arranged systematically so that each hadith represents a separate branch or topic of religious knowledge .
The work opens with traditions on the virtues and obligation of seeking religious knowledge, leading with the narration: طَلَبُ الْعِلْمِ فَرِيضَةٌ عَلَى كُلِّ مُسْلِمٍ ("Seeking knowledge is an obligation upon every Muslim"), recorded through multiple chains from authorities such as Abu Ya'la al-Mawsili and Muhammad ibn Nusayr al-Madini . This is accompanied by traditions encouraging travel in pursuit of knowledge and honoring students of religious learning . Subsequent sections cover core devotional obligations and legal subjects, including the prescribed prayers and the fast of Ramadan .
Transmission and Publication
The principal transmission of the collection relies on Ibn al-Muqri's student Abu al-Tayyib Abd al-Razzaq ibn Umar ibn Musa ibn Shammah . Later traditionists recorded their transmission chains of the work through Ibn Shammah, including Salah al-Din al-Ala'i and al-Sadr al-Bakri .
A manuscript copy of the work is preserved in Damascus in the collection of the Zahiriyya Library . The text was edited by Muhammad Ziyad Umar Tiklah with an introduction by Abd al-Qadir al-Arna'ut and published in Riyadh by Maktabat al-Ubaykan as part of the multi-text compilation Jamharat al-Ajza al-Hadithiyya .
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