al-Iman - Ibn Abi Shayba
- Author died
- 235 AH
- Editions
- al-Maktab al-Islami
Kitab al-Iman (The Book of Faith) is a classical work on Islamic creed and hadith compiled by the Kufan traditionist Abu Bakr ibn Abi Shayba (159–235 AH / 775–849 CE). The text brings together Prophetic hadiths and transmitted reports (athar) from early authorities defining the theological nature, components, and manifestations of faith (iman).
Contents and Structure
The work is organized as a concise treatise (risala) comprising narrated traditions with their chains of transmission (isnad). It focuses on central theological questions regarding faith, establishing that faith consists of belief, speech, and deeds (i'tiqad wa-qawl wa-'amal), that it increases and decreases, and presenting narrations that enumerate various branches of faith (shu'ab al-iman).
In its surviving manuscript form, the work is presented without separate chapter headings (abwab). The text opens under the heading "What has been mentioned regarding faith" (Ma dhukira fi al-iman) and concludes with the traditional scribal closing formula.
Transmission and Modern Editions
Kitab al-Iman survived in a unique manuscript preserved at the Zahiriyya Library in Damascus. In 1383 AH, the scholar Muhammad Nasir al-Din al-Albani, while in Medina, selected the manuscript for publication upon the request of Muhammad Nasif (d. 1391 AH in Ta'if), who funded its printing. It was initially printed in Damascus alongside three other early treatises—al-Iman by Abu 'Ubayd al-Qasim ibn Sallam, al-'Ilm by Abu Khaythama Zuhayr ibn Harb, and Iqtida' al-'Ilm al-'Amal by al-Khatib al-Baghdadi—under the collective title Min Kunuz al-Sunna (From the Treasures of the Sunna).
Al-Albani completed his critical edition and verification of the text on 24 Ramadan 1385 AH in Damascus based on the single Zahiriyya manuscript. The work has since been printed independently in several editions, including a second edition published by al-Maktab al-Islami in Beirut in 1403 AH / 1983 CE with an introduction by Zuhayr al-Shawish, an undated edition by Dar al-Arqam in Kuwait, and an edition published by Maktabat al-Ma'arif in Riyadh in 1421 AH / 2001 CE.
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