al-Mukhtasar min Akhbar Fatima bint Sayyid al-Bashar
- Author died
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- Editions
- Dar Al-Aal wa Al-Suhb Al-Waqfiyyah
al-Mukhtasar min Akhbar Fatima bint Sayyid al-Bashar (The Abridgment of the Reports of Fatima, Daughter of the Master of Mankind) is a biographical work on Fatima, the daughter of the Prophet Muhammad, authored by the contemporary Saudi scholar Ibrahim bin Abdullah al-Mudayhish .
Composition and Relation to the Parent Work
The book is a concise condensation of al-Mudayhish's extensive seven-volume biographical and hadith encyclopedia, Fatima bint al-Nabi: Siratuha, Fada'iluha, Musnaduha – Dirasa Hadithiyya Tarikhiyya Mawdu'iyya (Fatima, Daughter of the Prophet: Her Biography, Virtues, and Musnad – A Hadith-Based, Historical, and Thematic Study), published by Dar al-Al wa-al-Sahb al-Waqfiyya in Riyadh in 1440 AH . The parent work contains detailed scientific analyses of 755 narrations and was intended as an exhaustive reference work for specialized researchers .
Al-Mudayhish completed the abridgment in Riyadh on 3 Ramadan 1441 AH to provide an accessible edition suitable for continuous general reading . While drawing primarily from the larger encyclopedia, the abridgment also incorporates slight corrections and additional notes not included in the original edition .
Method and Scope
In composing the summary, the author stripped away the extensive chains of transmission (isnad), scholarly references, and lengthy cross-quotations found in the original encyclopedia . He primarily confined the material to accepted (maqbul) reports, omitting rejected or fabricated narrations except for a few instances where their flaws are explicitly pointed out .
Structure and Themes
The book is structured into twenty-eight thematic markers (maʿalim) addressing various aspects of Fatima's life, virtues, and legacy :
- Creedal Foundations and Lineage: The Sunni doctrine regarding the Prophet's household (Ahl al-Bayt) and the attention given to Fatima; her name and its etymology, lineage, kunya, titles, family, birth, upbringing, and order among her siblings .
- Life Events and Domestic Sphere: Her migration (Hijrah), marriage and life with Ali ibn Abi Talib, her children, descendants, house, and physical and moral traits (shama'il) .
- Relationship with the Prophet: Her filial devotion to both her parents, the Prophet's financial care and justice toward her, mutual visits, his protective jealousy, her keeping of his secrets, and his instruction of her .
- Virtues, Hadith, and Relations with Companions: Her distinctive merits, her scholarly transmission and musnad, her relationship with the Prophet's wives (including his exhortation for her to love Aisha), historical interactions with Abu Sufyan and Abu Lubabah, her claim regarding inheritance from Abu Bakr, her relations with Abu Bakr and Umar ibn al-Khattab, and her stance regarding Abu Bakr's caliphal allegiance .
- Passing and Legacy: Her grief over the Prophet's death, her last will, the circumstances of her death, washing, funeral prayer, burial location, and two biographical poems dedicated to her memory .
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