al-Ilmam bi-Ahadith al-Ahkam - wa maahu Hashiyat Ibn Abd al-Hadi
- Author died
- 702 AH
- Editions
- Dar al-Nawadir
al-Ilmām bi-Aḥādīth al-Aḥkām – wa-maʿahu Ḥāshiyat Ibn ʿAbd al-Hādī is a published edition of the legal hadith collection al-Ilmām bi-Aḥādīth al-Aḥkām by the Shafi'i–Maliki scholar Ibn Daqiq al-Eid (625–702 AH / 1228–1302 CE), accompanied by the marginal commentary of the Hanbali traditionist Ibn Abd al-Hadi (704/705–744 AH / 1304/1305–1343 CE) .
Background and Method of al-Ilmām
Ibn Daqiq al-Eid initially compiled an extensive work on legal traditions titled al-Imām fī Maʿrifat Aḥādīth al-Aḥkām . Observing that contemporaries found the larger work daunting due to its length, he prepared an abridgment titled al-Ilmām bi-Aḥādīth al-Aḥkām, stripping the chains of transmission (asānīd) to provide a focused compendium of rulings-related prophetic traditions . In his introduction, Ibn Daqiq al-Eid established the criterion of including only narrations whose transmitters were declared trustworthy by qualified critics and deemed authentic according to the methodologies of hadith masters or legal theorists .
His student, the hadith scholar Qutb al-Din al-Halabi, noted that certain textual errors entered early copies because Ibn Daqiq al-Eid occasionally dictated the text to individuals outside the hadith discipline or handed unvetted manuscript drafts in a hurried script (khaṭṭ muʿallaq) directly to scribes without later reading them back . Al-Ḥalabī sought to rectify these occurrences in his own abridgment, al-Ihtimām bi-Talkhīṣ al-Ilmām .
Ibn ʿAbd al-Hādī's Glosses and Manuscript
In 729 AH, Ibn Abd al-Hadi produced an autograph copy of al-Ilmām and inscribed extensive critical annotations in its margins . Characterized by later biographers such as Ibn Qadi Shuhba as highly beneficial glosses, these annotations systematically examined ambiguities in the base text, assessed the authenticity and defects of the narrations, supplied corroborating textual witnesses (shawāhid), evaluated the reliability of specific transmitters, clarified obscure terminology, and recorded oral transmissions and legal insights from his teachers Ibn Taymiyya and Yusuf ibn al-Zaki al-Mizzi . Ibn Abd al-Hadi subsequently drew upon al-Ilmām and these analytical notes when drafting his own legal hadith collection, al-Muḥarrar fī al-Ḥadīth .
The primary manuscript witness of this work is preserved in the Köprülü Library in Istanbul (MS 250), consisting of 142 folios penned by Ibn Abd al-Hadi, with subsequent marginal additions by later scholars such as the historian Ibn Ḥijjī and ownership marks by Ibn Abd al-Hadi's son ʿUmar .
Publication
The work, containing Ibn Daqiq al-Eid's text along with Ibn Abd al-Hadi's complete marginalia, was edited by Muhammad Khallūf al-ʿAbd Allāh based on the Köprülü autograph manuscript and published by Dār al-Nawādir in 1434 AH / 2013 CE .
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