al-Kawkab al-Wahhaj Sharh Sahih Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj
- Author died
- 1441 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-Minhāj - Dār Ṭawq al-Najāh
al-Kawkab al-Wahhaj Sharh Sahih Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj (Arabic: الكوكب الوهاج والروض البهاج في شرح صحيح مسلم بن الحجاج, The Blazing Star and Splendid Garden in Explaining Sahih Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj) is an extensive multi-volume commentary on Sahih Muslim by the Ethiopian-born Meccan scholar Muhammad al-Amin al-Harari (1348–1441 AH) .
Background and Scope
The work is a comprehensive commentary on the Sahih of Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj (204–261 AH), designed as an encyclopedic compilation of hadith sciences that synthesizes the insights, distillations, and explanations of earlier commentators . Al-Harari composed it while residing as an instructor in Mecca, where he taught at Dar al-Hadith al-Khayriyyah for decades and previously held evening classes in the Sacred Mosque (al-Masjid al-Haram) .
The author penned the commentary over a lengthy period; he noted beginning work on his third volume in Sha'ban 1420 AH and completed drafts of subsequent volumes across the following years, reaching the end of the work around Safar 1428 AH .
Transmission and Methodology
In the introductory section of the work, al-Harari documents his chains of transmission (asānīd) to Imam Muslim . He records having several routes: his shortest (ʿālī) chain contains nine intermediaries between himself and Muslim, while his longest (nāzil) contains twenty-four intermediaries . He presents two median chains in the introduction, transmitting the collection through the Meccan hadith scholar Muhammad Yasin al-Fadani, who narrated it through a chain including Nawawi al-Bantani, Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, and earlier transmitters back to Muslim .
Throughout the commentary, al-Harari addresses linguistic nuances, grammatical parsing, narrators' biographies, jurisprudential rulings, and reconciliations of complex hadith texts, noting four-link chains (rubāʿiyyāt) where they appear in Muslim's collection .
Structure and Publication
Al-Harari originally arranged his handwritten manuscript into 16 volumes; when preparing the work for publication, he reorganized it into 26 volumes .
The work was reviewed by an academic committee chaired by Hashim Muhammad Ali Mahdi, advisor to the Muslim World League in Mecca . Its first edition was published in 26 volumes in 1430 AH / 2009 CE jointly by Dar al-Minhaj in Jeddah and Dar Tawq al-Najat in Beirut .
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