al-Asrar al-Marfua fi al-Akhbar al-Mawdua
- Author died
- 1014 AH
- Editions
- Dar al-Amanah / Mu'assasat al-Risalah
al-Asrar al-Marfua fi al-Akhbar al-Mawdua (The Elevated Secrets Regarding Fabricated Reports), also known as al-Mawdu'at al-Kubra, is a biographical and critical compendium of fabricated hadiths compiled by the Hanafi jurist and hadith scholar Mulla Ali al-Qari (d. 1014 AH / 1606 CE) .
Background and Purpose
In his introduction, al-Qari notes that while the text of the Quran is divinely preserved from corruption, narrations transmitting legal rulings and religious teachings became vulnerable to error and fabrication over the centuries as the temporal distance from the prophetic era grew . Recognizing the proliferation of fabricated reports (al-ahadith al-mawdua) circulating among the public, he compiled the work to distinguish authentic narrations from spurious and forged sayings falsely attributed to the Prophet .
Drawing upon earlier compilations dedicated to widespread traditions circulating on people's tongues (al-ahadith al-mushtahirah), al-Qari sought to abridge these sources by isolating narrations characterized as baseless (la asla lahu) or fundamentally fabricated (mawdu bi-aslihi) . He generally refrained from definitively including reports over whose fabrication scholars had disagreed, observing that a narration might be fabricated through one chain of transmission yet sound through another, and recalling Badr al-Din al-Zarkashi's distinction that declaring a report "not authentic" (lam yasihh) denotes a lack of established transmission rather than a definitive proof of deliberate falsehood .
Structure and Methodology
Unlike earlier classical treatises on fabricated hadiths that arranged entries by thematic chapters of jurisprudence (such as the works of Ibn al-Jawzi and Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti), al-Qari organized al-Asrar al-Marfua alphabetically according to the opening letters of the narrations (huruf al-hija) . This dictionary format was intended to provide scholars and readers with swift reference to individual sayings commonly cited in popular discourse .
Following the alphabetical dictionary of narrations, the book contains concluding analytical sections dedicated to general rules and universal criteria (dawabit kulliyyah) for identifying forged reports . Among these criteria, al-Qari discusses:
- Excessive and disproportionate promises or threats (mujazafat) uncharacteristic of prophetic speech .
- Reports whose assertions directly contradict tangible reality or sensory observation (takdhib al-hiss) .
- Sayings that lack the dignity of prophetic or Companions' diction .
- Subject areas where all or nearly all transmitted narrations are unauthentic, such as specific reports regarding pigeons .
- The categories and motivations of hadith fabricators, including heretics seeking to corrupt religion, ascetics composing pious frauds (hasbatan), sectarian partisans, and popular storytellers (al-qussas) catering to general audiences .
Abridgment and Editions
Al-Qari prepared a concise abridgment of this work entitled al-Masnu fi Marifat al-Hadith al-Mawdu, also referred to as al-Mawdu'at al-Sughra .
al-Asrar al-Marfua was printed in Istanbul (al-Astana) under titles such as al-Mawdu'at and Mawdu'at Kabir . It was later critically edited by Muhammad al-Sabbagh and published in Beirut in 1391 AH (1971 CE) .
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