al-I'tibar fi al-Nasikh wa al-Mansukh min al-Athar
- Author died
- 584 AH
- Editions
- Dā'irat al-Ma‘ārif al-‘Uthmāniyyah
al-I'tibar fi al-Nasikh wa al-Mansukh min al-Athar (Consideration of Abrogating and Abrogated Traditions) is a specialized hadith treatise on abrogation (naskh) in prophetic reports and legal traditions by the Shafi'i hadith master Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Musa al-Hazimi (d. 584 AH / 1188 CE) .
Purpose and Scope
The book is devoted to compiling and resolving conflicting prophetic hadiths that cannot be reconciled through harmonization (al-jam'), determining which texts are abrogating (nasikh) and which are abrogated (mansukh) based on chronological precedence and posteriority . It serves as a foundational reference for jurists and hadith scholars deriving legal rulings, demonstrating where legal obligations were abrogated, such as the initial rule that major ritual ablution was required only upon ejaculation, which was superseded by the requirement of ablution upon intercourse regardless of discharge .
Structure and Methodology
The work is arranged according to the standard chapters of jurisprudence, where al-Hazimi cites traditions with their chains of transmission (asānīd) and analyzes the historical and textual evidence governing each issue . In the introduction to the book, al-Hazimi presents fifty distinct methodological criteria of textual and chain-based preference (wujuh al-tarjih) used to adjudicate between apparent conflicts when abrogation or dates cannot be established, noting that he omitted many others to keep the summary concise .
Reception and Influence
Scholars describe al-I'tibar as one of the most comprehensive and indispensable treatises written in the genre of hadith abrogation . Later authorities frequently drew upon its classifications; Ibn al-Wazir incorporated a summary of the traditions in al-I'tibar—distinguishing between those universally agreed to be abrogated and those subject to scholarly dispute—into his work al-Rawd al-Basim fi al-Dhabbi 'an Sunnat Abi al-Qasim . Later hadith theorists, such as al-Iraqi, also engaged with al-Hazimi's fifty criteria of preference, expanding upon them to exceed one hundred .
Editions
The text, which historically circulated as a single volume, has been published in multiple editions, including:
- An edition edited by Abd al-Mu'ti Amin Qal'aji, published by Dar al-Wa'y in Aleppo (1403 AH / 1983 CE) .
- An edition edited by Zakariyya 'Umayrat, published by Dar al-Kutub al-'Ilmiyya in Beirut (1416 AH / 1996 CE) .
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