al-Arus al-Mujalliya fi Asanid al-Hadith al-Musalsal bil-Awwaliyya
- Author died
- 1200 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-Bashāʾir al-Islāmiyyah lil-Ṭibāʿah wal-Nashr wal-Tawzīʿ
al-ʿArūs al-Mujalliya fī Asānīd al-Ḥadīth al-Musalsal bi-l-Awwaliyya (Arabic: العروس المجلية في أسانيد الحديث المسلسل بالأولية, "The Unveiled Bride Regarding the Chains of the Hadith Transmitted with Primacy") is a short hadith treatise that documents the transmission routes of the celebrated Hadith of Mercy ( الراحمون يرحمهم الرحمن تبارك وتعالى، ارحموا من في الأرض يرحمكم من في السماء ; "The merciful are shown mercy by the Most Merciful; be merciful to those on earth, and the One in the heavens will show mercy to you") . The text brings together the chains of the hadith scholar Safi al-Din Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Bukhari (1160–1200 AH / ca. 1747–1786 CE) through the hadith extraction (takhrīj) and authorship of the polymath Muhammad Murtada al-Zabidi (1145–1205 AH / 1732–1791 CE) .
Background and Attribution
The Hadith of Mercy (Ḥadīth al-Raḥmah) is conventionally known among hadith specialists as al-Musalsal bi-l-Awwaliyya because it is traditionally the first hadith a teacher imparts to a student upon beginning formal study . Safi al-Din al-Bukhari requested his colleague and teacher, al-Zabidi, to extract and document the transmission paths of this hadith through three of al-Bukhari's primary shaykhs .
Al-Zabidi composed and finalized the drafting of the treatise in a single sitting on Tuesday night, 10 Rabiʿ al-Thani 1193 AH . In biographical and bibliographical literature, the work is frequently cataloged under al-Zabidi's writings—often titled al-ʿArūs al-Mujalliya fī Ṭuruq Ḥadīth al-Awwaliyya or al-ʿArūs al-Mujalliya bi-Sanad Ḥadīth al-Awwaliyya—as its compiler, while simultaneously recognized under Safi al-Din al-Bukhari's works as the authority whose chains form the core of the tract and who granted formal licenses (ijāzāt) to transmit it .
Contents and Structure
The treatise begins with an introductory preface by al-Zabidi, in which he commends Safi al-Din al-Bukhari's mastery of the hadith disciplines and explains the request that prompted the writing of the work .
Following the opening, al-Zabidi provides a methodological overview classifying al-aḥādīth al-musalsalah (traditions with uniformly chained features) according to several technical categories :
- Historical occasion and timing: Chains characterized by the chronological sequence of reception (such as being the first or last hadith heard) or by specific dates (such as Eid or Thursday) .
- Location: Chains connected to specific transmission places (such as the Multazam in Mecca) .
- Narrator characteristics: Continuity in personal descriptors (e.g., memorization capacity, juristic expertise, long lifespan, common provenance, or shared names such as Muhammad) .
- Verbal or physical acts: Chains involving recurring phrases (such as reciting Surah al-Saff or saying "I love you") or physical actions accompanying transmission (such as shaking hands or interlacing fingers) .
- Formulaic transmission terms: Chains consistently using identical recital terminology (samiʿtu, qaraʾtu, anshadtu) .
The core of the book lays out the chains connecting Safi al-Din al-Bukhari to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ via his three shaykhs . In the conclusion (khātima), al-Zabidi lists prominent earlier and later hadith scholars who authored dedicated compilations on the routes of the Hadith of Mercy, including Ibn Nasir, Abu al-Qasim al-Samarqandi, Mansur ibn Salim, Ibn al-Salah, Shams al-Din al-Dhahabi, Taqi al-Din al-Subki, Ibn Nasir al-Din al-Dimashqi, and Shams al-Din al-Sakhawi . He also refers the reader to his separate work, al-Mirqāt al-ʿAliyya fī Sharḥ al-Ḥadīth al-Musalsal bi-l-Awwaliyya, for the poetic verses composed around the hadith .
Transmission and Publication
The Damascene scholar Muhammad Kamal al-Din al-Ghazzi (d. 1214 AH) copied the treatise directly during Safi al-Din's lifetime in 1193 AH, and produced another transcription completed on 8 Ramadan 1197 AH in his cell at the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus . On this manuscript, Safi al-Din al-Bukhari inscribed an autographed ijāzah granting al-Ghazzi permission to transmit the treatise and his other narrations .
The text was edited by Muhammad ibn Nasir al-Ajmi based on the two manuscripts preserved in the private library of Dr. Muhammad Mutiʿ al-Hafiz, and was published in Beirut by Dar al-Basha'ir al-Islamiyyah in 1422 AH / 2001 CE as part of the Liqāʾ al-ʿAshr al-Awākhir bi-l-Masjid al-Ḥarām series .
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