al-Bath li-Ibn Abi Dawud
- Author died
- 316 AH
- Editions
- Dar al-Kutub al-'Ilmiyyah
Kitab al-Ba'th (Arabic: كتاب البعث, "The Resurrection"), also known as Kitab al-Ba'th wa-al-Nushur, is an eschatological hadith compilation by the traditionist and jurist Abu Bakr ibn Abi Dawud (d. 316 AH / 929 CE).
Scope and Contents
The work gathers prophetic traditions and ancestral narrations (athar) transmitted with chains of narration concerning the afterlife, bodily resurrection, and the events of the Day of Judgment. Among the specific topics documented through its narrations are the trial and punishment in the grave (fitnat al-qabr wa-adhabuh), the eschatological Basin (al-Hawd), the Prophet's intercession (al-Shafa'ah), the disputation between Paradise and Hellfire, descriptions of Paradise, and the status of believers' children in the hereafter. The author occasionally provided biographical and narrational remarks alongside the traditions.
Transmission and Misattribution
The book is listed among Ibn Abi Dawud's compositions by classical bibliographers and historians, including Ibn al-Nadim in al-Fihrist, al-Qasim ibn Yusuf al-Tujibi in his Barnamaj, and al-Dhahabi in Siyar A'lam al-Nubala'. In later centuries, scholars transmitted the work through established chains of audition; al-Sam'ani read it in Baghdad with the sharif Abu al-Rida Ahmad ibn al-Abbas al-Hashimi al-Raha'i, who transmitted it from Abu Nasr Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Zaynabi. Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani documented his lines of transmission to the text, which traced back to Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn 'Umar al-Warraq from Ibn Abi Dawud.
The orientalist Carl Brockelmann and subsequent researchers, including the Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute and Taqi al-Din al-Nadwi, mistakenly attributed the work and its manuscript copies to Ibn Abi Dawud's father, the famous compiler of the Sunan, Abu Dawud al-Sijistani. Manuscript catalogers such as Fu'ad Sayyid and Yasin al-Sawwas clarified the attribution, confirming that the surviving copies belong to the son, Abu Bakr ibn Abi Dawud.
Manuscripts and Editions
Manuscripts of the text are preserved in multiple collections, including the al-Zahiriyya Library in Damascus, Dar al-Kutub al-Misriyya, and the al-Azhar Library in Cairo. One notable manuscript from the al-Azhar collection (MS 2019 hadith) was copied in 592 AH by Sharaf al-Din Abu 'Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn al-Husayn al-Hakkari as part of a collective manuscript (majmu'), spanning 32 pages.
The text was edited based on this al-Azhar manuscript and published in Beirut by Dar al-Kitab al-'Arabi in 1408 AH (1987/1988 CE). It has also appeared under the title al-Hayah ba'd al-Mawt: al-Ba'th wa-al-Nushur, published by Maktabat al-Turath al-Islami in Cairo.
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