al-Nukat ala Sharh al-Nawawi ala Sahih Muslim

al-Nukat ala Sharh al-Nawawi ala Sahih Muslim (Points of Clarification on al-Nawawi's Commentary on Sahih Muslim) is a critical scholarly work by Hani ibn Ahmad Faqih that identifies approximately one hundred slips and oversights in al-Nawawi's (d. 676 AH) renowned commentary al-Minhaj fi Sharh Sahih Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj al-Madkhal fi Tarikh al-S…+1.

Scope and Purpose

The title reflects the scholarly usage of nukat, defined as brief, clarifying notes and observations on textual points requiring emendation al-Nukat ala Sharh al-Naw…. Faqih compiled these remarks while repeatedly reading al-Nawawi's commentary, recording noticeable errors without attempting an exhaustive survey of the entire text al-Nukat ala Sharh al-Naw…+1.

The author intended the compilation to refine and serve the commentary rather than disparage al-Nawawi, noting that al-Nawawi was an eminent scholar who was nonetheless non-infallible, that he himself frequently corrected predecessors, and that an extensive work spanning nine volumes would naturally contain some oversights amidst thousands of sound analyses al-Nukat ala Sharh al-Naw….

Methodology

Faqih adhered to several methodological principles in structuring his criticism:

• Confining remarks strictly to clear mistakes, lapses, and omissions al-Nukat ala Sharh al-Naw….
• Omitting subsidiary legal matters (furu') open to scholarly reasoning (ijtihad), as they are already extensively debated in fiqh literature al-Nukat ala Sharh al-Naw….
• Omitting creedal matters, because contemporary researcher Mashhur Hasan Al Salman had already authored a dedicated study examining al-Nawawi's theological interpretations in the commentary al-Nukat ala Sharh al-Naw…+1.
• Presenting al-Nawawi's exact words first, followed by the specific objection and its rationale, incorporating evaluations by earlier scholars where available al-Nukat ala Sharh al-Naw….
• Maintaining brevity by stating the error directly without digressing into expansive debates or weighing extensive evidence beyond what is necessary to demonstrate the oversight al-Nukat ala Sharh al-Naw….
• Organizing the entries sequentially according to their order across the individual books of Sahih Muslim, documented with the volume and page number from al-Nawawi's commentary al-Nukat ala Sharh al-Naw….

Preceding Works and Sources

In his introduction, Faqih surveys three prior works dedicated to critiquing al-Nawawi's commentary:

1. A concise treatise by Ibn Abd al-Hadi (d. 744 AH), collected from his notes by Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani (d. 852 AH) and edited in 14 pages by Mustafa Bilqasim Bilhaj in the journal Alam al-Makhtutat wa-l-Nawadir al-Nukat ala Sharh al-Naw…+1. Faqih utilized six points from it—regarding the death year of Sufyan ibn Uyaynah, a narrator's identification, consensus on prayer in a usurped house, the attribution of not invalidating ablution after eating camel meat to the four Caliphs, consensus on weakening the hadith on washing and bathing, and the claim that al-Khidr remains alive—while leaving aside Ibn Abd al-Hadi's remaining points that dealt with grammatical, linguistic, or biographical disagreements al-Nukat ala Sharh al-Naw…+1.
2. Nukat Sharh Muslim lil-Nawawi by Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, an incomplete work described by al-Sakhawi as consisting of a quire on the introduction and another on later sections, of which no manuscript is known to have survived al-Nukat ala Sharh al-Naw….
3. al-Rudud wa-l-Ta'aqqubat ala ma Waqa'a lil-Imam al-Nawawi fi Sharh Sahih Muslim min al-Ta'wil fi al-Sifat wa-Ghayriha min al-Masa'il al-Muhimmat by Mashhur Hasan Al Salman, which focuses exclusively on theological matters al-Nukat ala Sharh al-Naw….

Publication

The work was published in Beirut by Dar al-Muqtabas in 1438 AH al-Madkhal fi Tarikh al-S….