al-Muhtadarin li-Ibn Abi al-Dunya
- Author died
- 281 AH
- Editions
- Dār Ibn Ḥazm
Kitab al-Muhtadarin (The Book of the Dying) is a collection of hadith and ascetic biographical reports compiled by the Baghdadi scholar Ibn Abi al-Dunya (208–281 AH / 823–894 CE), documenting the deathbed scenes, final counsels, and spiritual states of early Muslims at the point of death .
Subject and Contents
The work brings together narrations arranged with individual chains of transmission (asānīd) concerning the final hours and utterances of early Islamic figures across several generations . Its reports encompass:
- The Prophet and Companions: The final testament and illness of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, as well as the dying moments of prominent Companions including Umar ibn al-Khattab, Uthman ibn Affan, Salman al-Farsi, Mu'adh ibn Jabal, Hudhayfah ibn al-Yaman, Abu al-Darda, Abu Hurayrah, Amr ibn al-As, Abd Allah ibn Umar, and Abu Bakrah .
- Caliphs and Rulers: The dying reflections and deathbed speeches of Umayyad and Abbasid rulers, such as Mu'awiyah ibn Abi Sufyan, Abd al-Aziz ibn Marwan, Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan, Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik, Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz, Harun al-Rashid, al-Mu'tasim, and al-Muntasir .
- Successors and Ascetics: Early scholars, devout worshippers, and ascetics (zuhhād), including al-Hasan al-Basri, Muhammad ibn Sirin, Ibrahim al-Nakha'i, Mutarrif ibn Abd Allah, Thabit al-Bunani, Amir ibn Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr, and Muhammad ibn Wasi' .
The material highlights recurring themes of Islamic spiritual literature (al-riqāq wa-l-zuhd), notably deep reverence and apprehension regarding the transition to the afterlife, remorse over sins, expressions of hope in divine forgiveness, grief over the cessation of nocturnal prayers and midday fasting, and the recitation of Quranic verses at the moment of death .
Transmission and Reception
The book was preserved and transmitted through scholarly lineages from Ibn Abi al-Dunya, such as the line passing through his student Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Umar al-Lunbani to Abu Amr Abd al-Wahhab ibn Mandah, recorded in the bibliographical collections of Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani and al-Suyuti . Later scholars writing on eschatology and the soul frequently drew upon the collection, including Ibn al-Qayyim in Kitab al-Ruh and Tariq al-Hijratayn, and al-Qurtubi in al-Tadhkirah bi-Ahwal al-Mawta wa-Umur al-Akhirah .
A printed edition of the work, edited by Muhammad Khayr Ramadan Yusuf, was published by Dar Ibn Hazm in Beirut in 1417 AH / 1997 CE .
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