al-Mudabbaj wa Riwayat al-Aqran
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- Islamic University of Madinah
al-Mudabbaj wa Riwayat al-Aqran (Mutual Transmission Between Peers and Peer Narration) is a treatise on Hadith terminology and transmission criticism written by Muwaffaq ibn Abd al-Qadir (Muwaffaq ibn Abd Allah ibn Abd al-Qadir), an associate professor at the College of Da'wah at Umm al-Qura University . It investigates the technical nuances, functions, and historical documentation of peer transmissions in Hadith chains (asanid) .
Background and Purpose
The study forms part of a broader series of research papers by the author addressing the science of Hadith transmission and its role in text verification and accuracy . The author undertook the work because independent classical treatises dedicated exclusively to certain specialized Hadith genres had become scarce or lost, leaving their discussions dispersed across general works of Hadith methodology and commentaries . The work aims to analyze the nature of peer narration, demonstrate its significance in eliminating errors and mistaken assumptions in chains of transmission, and highlight how scholars handled cross-peer reports .
Subject Matter and Methodology
The work delineates the linguistic and technical boundaries between two closely related Hadith terms:
- Riwayat al-aqran (peer narration): Defined technically as narrations exchanged between individuals who are proximate in age and in their tier of teachers (shuyukh), where one peer narrates from the other without necessarily having a reciprocal transmission .
- Al-Mudabbaj: A more specific subcategory in which two peers narrate reciprocally from one another . The author notes the linguistic derivation of the term from dibajatay al-wajh (the two cheeks of the face), representing symmetry and equality between the two narrators .
The text surveys classical literature written on the subject, citing works such as Kitab al-Mudabbaj by al-Daraqutni, al-Ta'rij 'ala al-Tadbij and al-Afnan fi Riwayat al-Aqran by Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, and specialized monographs titled al-Aqran attributed to Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj, Abu al-Shaykh al-Asbahani, and Ibn al-Akhram .
Rather than arranging the material into formal chapters and divisions, the author structured the study as continuous prose to keep the presentation concise and adhere to publication page constraints . A core section of the text is devoted to analyzing practical instances of peer narrations in Sahih al-Bukhari, accompanied by textual remarks and explanations drawn from Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani's commentary .
Scholarly Significance
The study details several key benefits of identifying al-mudabbaj and peer narrations in Hadith criticism:
- Preventing the assumption of an accidental addition in the chain of transmission when a peer's name appears alongside another .
- Guarding against the misreading of the preposition 'an (from) as the conjunction wa (and) in chain transmissions (an'anah) .
- Assisting in biographical analysis, such as determining birth and death dates, regional narrator networks, and generational ranks (tabaqat) .
- Demonstrating scholarly humility and mutual acknowledgment among contemporaries .
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