al-Fath al-Mubin bi Sharh al-Arbain
- Author died
- 974 AH
- Editions
- Dar al-Minhaj
al-Fath al-Mubin bi Sharh al-Arba'in (The Manifest Conquest in Explaining the Forty) is a commentary by the Shafi'i scholar Ibn Hajar al-Haytami (909–974 AH / 1504–1567 CE) on the celebrated collection of foundational prophetic traditions compiled by al-Nawawi (631–676 AH / 1233–1277 CE) .
Purpose and Scope
Al-Haytami composed the work to explicate al-Nawawi’s al-Arba'in, noting that because its traditions constitute core principles of Islam upon which most legal and creedal rulings rest, they deserved detailed pedagogical analysis . The author defined the scope of his commentary as introducing the narrators (ruwah), detailing legal rulings (ahkam), clarifying rare vocabulary (gharib), resolving grammatical difficulties (i'rab al-mushkil), and deriving theological foundations (usul), subsidiary legal branches (furu'), and ethical conduct (adab) .
Method
The commentary is structured as an interwoven text (sharh mazji), embedding al-Nawawi’s text directly within the explanatory prose, unlike sentence-by-sentence (qawli) commentaries . Al-Haytami aimed for a middle course between tedious elaboration and deficient brevity . He remarked in his preface that exhaustive treatment of even a single report—such as the Hadith of Gabriel—would otherwise require three full volumes covering theology (usul al-din for faith), jurisprudence (fiqh for Islam), and spiritual ethics (tasawwuf for excellence) .
Supercommentaries and Abridgments
The text attracted sustained scholarly engagement across the Islamic world, producing multiple supercommentaries (hawashi):
- Ta'liqat Latifa wa Tahqiqat Sharifa 'ala Sharh al-Arba'in al-Nawawiyya by Shams al-Din Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Khatib al-Shawbari (d. 1069 AH) .
- A hashiya by Ilyas ibn Ibrahim ibn Dawud al-Kurdi (d. 1138 AH) .
- Irshad al-Mustarshidin li-Fahm al-Fath al-Mubin (also recorded as Istrishad al-Mustarshidin) by Isma'il ibn Muhammad al-Ajluni (d. 1162 AH) .
- A widely circulated hashiya by Husayn ibn 'Ali ibn Ahmad al-Mantawi al-Madabighi (d. 1170 AH) .
- Miftah al-Talibin lil-Fath al-Mubin by Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn 'Ali al-Qal'awi al-Suhaymi (d. 1178 AH) .
- A hashiya by Mustafa Taqi ibn Muhammad Taqi al-Mantini (d. 1214 AH) .
The commentary was also condensed into two known abridgments: one by the author's grandson Radi al-Din ibn 'Abd al-Rahman ibn Ahmad ibn Hajar al-Haytami (d. 1041 AH), and another by Diya' al-Din Yusuf ibn 'Abd Allah al-'Umari al-Mawsili (d. after 1240 AH) .
Transmission and Editions
Numerous manuscript copies survive in libraries globally, including holdings in Cairo, Paris, Berlin, Princeton, Rampur, Patna, Mosul, and Riyadh . It has been published in multiple print editions, including early printings by Dar Ihya' al-Kutub al-'Arabiyya in Egypt , an edition edited by 'Ala' al-Tukhi al-Tawwaf issued by Dar al-Bayruti in Damascus , and a critical edition published by Dar al-Minhaj edited by Ahmad Jasim al-Muhammad, Qusay al-Hallaq, and Anwar al-Shaykhi, which drew on thirteen manuscripts alongside an annotated Dagestani print .
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