al-Najat bi-Hamd Allah
- Author died
- 909 AH
- Editions
- Manuscript published in the free program Jawāmi‘ al-Kalim affiliated with Islamweb
al-Najat bi-Hamd Allah (Deliverance through Praising Allah) is a short hadith treatise authored by the Damascene Hanbali scholar Ibn al-Mubarrad (840–909 AH / 1436–1503 CE), compiling prophetic traditions on the virtues, formulas, and etiquette of praising Allah (al-hamd) .
Composition and Date
Ibn al-Mubarrad completed the composition of the treatise on Thursday, 19 Jumada al-Akhirah 892 AH (1487 CE) . A manuscript copy of the work is preserved on microfilm at the Islamic University of Medina (ms. no. 5005/45/2) .
Structure and Contents
The work contains twenty-nine numbered hadith narrations transmitted with connected chains of transmission (asānīd) through the author's teachers back to classical hadith compilers, including al-Bukhari, Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj, al-Tirmidhi, and Ibn Majah . In these chains, Ibn al-Mubarrad relates through intermediate authorities such as his grandfather, al-Salah ibn Abi Umar, Fakhr al-Din Ibn al-Bukhari, Ibn Taymiyya, al-Mizzi, and Diya' al-Din al-Maqdisi .
The narrations cover several themes regarding praise and supplication:
- The opening of speeches and sermons with the testification of faith and praise, including khutbat al-hajah .
- Prophetic reports stating that any significant matter not initiated with praise of Allah is deficient or severed (aqta' or ajdham) .
- Supplications and phrases of praise prescribed for daily occurrences, such as retiring to sleep and waking up, night vigil prayers (tahajjud), donning new garments, finishing meals and drinks, and upon seeing an afflicted person .
- The reward of remembrance phrases involving hamd, such as its weight filling the Scale, its status alongside tasbīḥ, tahlīl, and takbīr, and planting trees in Paradise .
Ibn al-Mubarrad concludes the treatise with an exhortation on the necessity of commencing every worldly and religious action—such as eating, drinking, dressing, giving, taking, and planting—with the name of Allah (tasmiyah) and concluding it with praise (tahmīd), noting that the inhabitants of Paradise similarly conclude their invocations with praise as described in the Quran: وَآخِرُ دَعْوَاهُمْ أَنِ الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ ("And the last of their call will be: Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds") . He ends the work with three verses of his own poetry counseling turning to God and praising Him in all circumstances .
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