al-Idda fi Sharh al-Umda fi Ahadith al-Ahkam li-Ibn al-Attar
- Author died
- 724 AH
- Editions
- دار البشائر الإسلامية للطباعة والنشر والتوزيع
al-Idda fi Sharh al-Umda fi Ahadith al-Ahkam (The Equipment in Explaining "The Pillar" of Legal Hadiths) is a multi-volume legal hadith commentary authored by the Shafi'i jurist and hadith scholar Ibn al-Attar (654–724 AH / 1256–1324 CE) . It serves as an extensive commentary on Umdat al-Ahkam, the canonical collection of legal rulings based on agreed-upon narrations from Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim compiled by Abd al-Ghani al-Maqdisi (d. 600 AH / 1203 CE) .
Composition and Title
Ibn al-Attar composed the work in response to a request from a group of his companions who asked him to write an exposition of Abd al-Ghani al-Maqdisi's Umdat al-Ahkam . After performing the prayer for divine guidance (istikharah), he agreed and titled the work al-Idda fi Sharh al-Umda . The work has also been recorded in biographical literature under the alternate title Ihkam Umdat al-Ahkam .
Method and Structure
For each hadith from Umdat al-Ahkam, Ibn al-Attar organized his commentary into four sequential analytical components:
- Biographical accounts of the narrators: Discussing the Companion narrators, their life reports, and their documented virtues derived from authoritative biographical references .
- Lexical analysis: Clarifying individual words and explaining obscure or rare terms (gharib al-hadith) .
- General meanings: Expounding upon the core message and contextual significance of the text .
- Legal and theoretical rulings: Delineating the jurisprudential (fiqh) and legal-theoretical (usul al-fiqh) derivations, presenting refined verifications and legal preferences without convoluted or excessive elaboration .
Sources
The commentary draws primarily from foundational texts across hadith, jurisprudence, biographical analysis, and lexicography:
- Hadith commentaries: Ibn al-Attar drew substantially upon Sharh Sahih Muslim by his principal teacher, al-Nawawi, abridging and adapting many of its discussions, alongside Ihkam al-Ahkam, the commentary on Umdat al-Ahkam by his teacher Ibn Daqiq al-Id, as well as al-Khattabi's Ma'alim al-Sunan .
- Biographical literature: He consulted Ibn Abd al-Barr's al-Isti'ab, Ibn Hibban's al-Thiqat, Abd al-Ghani al-Maqdisi's al-Kamal fi Asma' al-Rijal, Ibn al-Athir's Usd al-Ghaba, and al-Nawawi's Tahdhib al-Asma' wa-al-Lughat .
- Lexicography and rare terms: His explanations of obscure terminology relied heavily on al-Nawawi's Tahrir Alfaz al-Tanbih, al-Qadi Iyad's Mashariq al-Anwar, Abu Ubayd al-Qasim ibn Sallam's Gharib al-Hadith, and Abu Mansur al-Azhari's al-Zahir fi Gharib Alfaz al-Shafi'i .
Reception and Impact
al-Idda occupies a prominent place among the early commentaries on Umdat al-Ahkam and served as a major reference for subsequent scholars :
- The Maliki scholar Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Marzuq al-Tilimsani (d. 781 AH) incorporated Ibn al-Attar's commentary alongside those of Ibn Daqiq al-Id and Taj al-Din al-Fakahani in his five-volume work Taysir al-Maram fi Sharh Umdat al-Ahkam, as observed by Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani .
- Ibn Hajar quoted Ibn al-Attar's commentary in multiple places throughout Fath al-Bari .
- It was likewise cited by Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti in his commentaries on the Sunan compilations and by Muhammad ibn Ali al-Shawkani in Nayl al-Awtar .
Publication
The work was edited and prepared for publication by Nizam Muhammad Salih Ya'qubi and published in three volumes by Dar al-Basha'ir al-Islamiyyah in Beirut in 1427 AH / 2006 CE .
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