al-Diraya fi Takhrij Ahadith al-Hidaya
- Author died
- 852 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-Maʿrifah
al-Diraya fi Takhrij Ahadith al-Hidaya (Arabic: الدراية في تخريج أحاديث الهداية, "Knowledge in the Extraction of the Hadiths of al-Hidaya") is a hadith verification and extraction work authored by Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani (d. 852 AH / 1449 CE) . It serves as an abridgment of al-Zayla'i's (d. 762 AH) foundational work Nasb al-Raya li-Ahadith al-Hidaya, which evaluated the textual proofs in Burhan al-Din al-Marghinani's (d. 593 AH) Hanafi legal manual al-Hidaya .
Background and Composition
Ibn Hajar recounts in the prologue of the book that after completing his abridgment of the hadith extraction for al-Rafi'i's Sharh al-Wajiz—which formed Talkhis al-Habir—he frequently consulted al-Zayla'i's Nasb al-Raya during its compilation . Certain scholars and companions subsequently requested that he produce a similar concise abridgment of Nasb al-Raya so that Hanafi jurists could benefit from it just as Shafi'i jurists benefited from his previous summary . Ibn Hajar undertook the task, aiming to preserve the core aims and textual substance of al-Zayla'i's work while removing nonessential lengths .
The book is also referenced in biographical and bibliographical literature under slight title variants, such as al-Diraya fi Muntakhab Takhrij Ahadith al-Hidaya and al-Diraya fi Talkhis Nasb al-Raya .
Structure and Method
The work follows the legal chapter sequence of al-Hidaya, opening with the Book of Purification (Kitab al-Tahara) . For each legal issue, it quotes the textual citations cited by al-Marghinani, verifies their transmission, traces their source collections, and reviews their chains of transmission (isnad) .
Rather than being a mechanical condensation of Nasb al-Raya, the book incorporates Ibn Hajar's own critical additions:
- Evaluating chains and narrations that al-Zayla'i left without an explicit ruling .
- Clarifying ambiguous narrators by specifying unspecified names (al-asma' al-muhmala) or identifying shared patronymics (kunya) .
- Reconciling apparent contradictions between conflicting narrations and discussing the statements of early critical authorities .
- Providing rectifications or dissenting evaluations on specific narrations where he differed with al-Zayla'i .
Publication History
The work has been published in several historical and modern editions:
- An early lithograph printed in Delhi, India, at Matba' Faruqi in 1299 AH (and later in Lucknow in 1303 AH and Delhi in 1350 AH) .
- An edition published in Cairo at Matba'at al-Fajjala al-Jadida (1384 AH / 1964 CE), edited and annotated by Abd Allah Hashim al-Yamani al-Madani in two parts .
- A two-volume edition published in Beirut by Dar al-Ma'rifa based on al-Yamani's text .
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