al-Ilmam bi-Ahadith al-Ahkam
- Author died
- 702 AH
- Editions
- Dar al-Mi'raj al-Dawliyyah - Dar Ibn Hazm
al-Ilmam bi-Ahadith al-Ahkam (The Comprehension of the Hadiths of Legal Rulings) is a collection of legal hadiths compiled by the Egyptian scholar and jurist Ibn Daqiq al-Eid (625–702 AH / 1228–1302 CE) .
Background and Purpose
Ibn Daqiq al-Eid originally authored an expansive work on legal traditions entitled al-Imam fi Ma'rifat Ahadith al-Ahkam . Observing that readers found its great length daunting and that its comprehensive scope made it suited primarily for research and consultation rather than regular memorization, he compiled an abridgment designed specifically for students to memorize and for teachers to employ as a pedagogical reference, titling it al-Ilmam bi-Ahadith al-Ahkam .
Method and Structure
The work comprises 1,471 hadiths arranged according to standard chapters of Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh) . Ibn Daqiq al-Eid stripped the narrations of their full chains of transmission (isnad) and cited the original collectors who recorded each tradition .
Regarding his criteria for selection, the author stipulated that he would only include narrations transmitted by individuals verified as trustworthy by recognized critics of hadith transmitters, and which were sound (sahih) either according to the methodology of the hadith masters (ahl al-hadith al-huffaz) or according to speculative jurists (a'immat al-fiqh al-nuzzar) .
Transmission and Reception
The author's student, Qutb al-Din al-Halabi, noted that certain textual errors occurred during the recording of the work because Ibn Daqiq al-Eid occasionally dictated portions to individuals who lacked expertise in hadith, or wrote sheets in a rapid, cursive script (khatt mu'allaq) distributed among various scribes, without the manuscripts being subsequently read back to him for verification . Al-Halabi corrected what he could of these passages in his abridgment, al-Ihtimam bi-Talkhis al-Ilmam .
Derived Works and Editions
al-Ilmam served as the foundation for several commentaries, abridgments, and critical studies:
- Commentaries: Ibn Daqiq al-Eid began an extensive commentary on his own work, titled Sharh al-Ilmam bi-Ahadith al-Ahkam, which reached the end of the chapter on the description of ablution (sifat al-wudu') before remaining incomplete . A later commentary was authored by Ibn Nasir al-Din al-Dimashqi (d. 842 AH) .
- Abridgments and Annotations: The Hanbali scholar Ibn Abd al-Hadi (d. 744 AH) copied the text in his own handwriting in 729 AH with extensive marginal glosses (hashiyah), and subsequently based his own legal hadith compendium, al-Muharrar fi Ahadith al-Ahkam, on al-Ilmam with additional remarks and narrations .
- Printed Editions: The book has been published in multiple editions, including a 1383 AH / 1963 CE edition annotated by Muhammad Sa'id Mawlawi in Damascus, a two-volume edition edited by Husayn Isma'il al-Jamal (1423 AH / 2002 CE), and an edition edited by Muhammad Khalluf al-Abd Allah based on Ibn Abd al-Hadi's manuscript (1434 AH / 2013 CE) .
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