al-Naqd al-Sahih lima Iturida min Ahadith al-Masabih
- Author died
- 761 AH
- Editions
- ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Muḥammad Aḥmad al-Qashqarī
al-Naqd al-Sahih lima Iturida min Ahadith al-Masabih (Arabic: النقد الصحيح لما اعترض من أحاديث المصابيح, lit. 'The Sound Critique of the Objections Raised Against the Hadiths of al-Masabih') is a hadith treatise by the Shafi'i scholar Salah al-Din al-Alai (d. 761 AH / 1359 CE) that defends nineteen narrations in Abu Muhammad al-Baghawi's collection Masabih al-Sunnah against charges of fabrication.
Background and Purpose
The impetus for the treatise was a set of criticisms originally compiled by the scholar Siraj al-Din Umar ibn Ali al-Qazwini (d. 748 AH; another report gives 750 AH), who extracted nineteen hadiths from Masabih al-Sunnah—classified therein by al-Baghawi among the hasan (fair) narrations—and deemed them fabricated based on their inclusion in Ibn al-Jawzi's work al-Mawdu'at (The Fabrications). In response to a query about these narrations, al-Alai composed this monograph to examine each text, determine its correct status, and demonstrate that the majority did not warrant the judgment of fabrication.
Structure and Method
Al-Alai opens the work with a methodological introduction laying down foundational principles of hadith criticism, grading, and the terminology of early and later scholars. He discusses:
- The division of accepted hadith into sahih (sound) and hasan (fair), and rejected hadith into da'if (weak), munkar (denounced), and mawdu' (fabricated), according to the precision and integrity of narrators.
- The status of the collections of al-Bukhari and Muslim, and the conditions of the Sunan compilations (Abu Dawud, al-Tirmidhi, al-Nasa'i, and Ibn Majah), clarifying why al-Baghawi's general labeling of non-Sahihayn narrations as hasan invited criticism.
- The mechanisms of corroboration (mutaba'at), noting that weakness arising from memory flaws or mistakes can be elevated to hasan through alternate chains, whereas weakness caused by an accusation of lying cannot be mitigated by another mendacious narrator.
- A critique of Ibn al-Jawzi's overextension in ruling hadiths to be forged, highlighting that some of those narrations had alternate supporting paths or had been authenticated by earlier authorities.
Following the theoretical preface, al-Alai analyzes the nineteen impugned hadiths one by one by gathering their transmission chains and citing earlier critical appraisals. Through this evaluation, he establishes that eleven of the nineteen hadiths reach the grade of hasan, while the remaining eight are ordinary weak narrations whose deficiency does not reach the level of fabrication. The examined narrations include the hadith on the prayer of glorification (Salat al-Tasbih), the hadith صنفان من أمتي ("Two groups of my community..."), the hadith أقيلوا ذوي الهيآت ("Pardon the slips of people of good standing"), and the tenth narration, للسائل حق وإن جاء على فرس ("The petitioner has a right even if he comes on a horse").
Reception and Editions
The treatise was cited by subsequent scholars; Ibn al-Qayyim referenced it in his discussion of the hadith on pardoning slips, and Badr al-Din al-Zarkashi quoted al-Alai's refutation of Ibn al-Jawzi verbatim in al-Mu'tabar. Near the end of his life in late 850 AH, Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani composed a similar treatise answering the same objections against the hadiths of al-Masabih, mirroring much of al-Alai's assessments while omitting the hadith on the petitioner on horseback because it was not in the question posed to him.
Al-Naqd al-Sahih has been edited and published in modern times, notably by Abd al-Rahim Muhammad Ahmad al-Qashqari (published in 1405 AH / 1985 CE) and by Mahmud Sa'id Mamduh.
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