al-Nukhba al-Bahiya fi al-Ahadith al-Makdhuba ala Khayr al-Bariya
- Author died
- 1228 AH
- Editions
- al-Maktab al-Islami
al-Nukhba al-Bahiya fi al-Ahadith al-Makdhuba ala Khayr al-Bariya (The Splendid Selection of Fabricated Hadiths Ascribed to the Best of Creation) is a concise hadith treatise by the Maliki scholar al-Amir al-Kabir (1154–1228 AH / 1742–1812 CE), dedicated to identifying fabricated, baseless, and popular pseudepigraphal sayings falsely attributed to the Prophet Muhammad .
Purpose and Scope
The author compiled the work as a concise reference manual drawn from authoritative collections of hadith and criticism . Its primary objective was to serve the Prophet and assist Muslims by distinguishing authentic traditions from fabricated narratives and false statements circulating among the general public . In total, the author assembled roughly four hundred entries consisting of fabricated (makdhuba), baseless (batila), and rejected (munkara) reports .
Structure and Methodology
The work is organized alphabetically according to the Arabic letters of the dictionary (huruf al-mu'jam), following the arrangement of earlier compilations in the genre to facilitate rapid retrieval by students and researchers investigating suspected traditions .
In treating each entry, al-Amir al-Kabir adopted the following method:
- He omitted chains of narration (asānīd) entirely, noting that the reports lack authentic transmission chains .
- He identified the true origins of various popular sayings when available, indicating whether an expression was a statement of a Companion (such as Abd Allah ibn Mas'ud or Ibn Abbas), a remark by early Muslim ascetics and scholars (such as al-Junayd or al-Shafi'i), an Arabic proverb, or common street parlance .
- For certain entries, he noted whether the phrasing had an authentic textual basis with different wording, or whether its meaning was sound despite the text having no prophetic origin .
The treatise begins under the letter alif with the baseless report آية من كتاب الله خير من محمد وآله ("A verse from the Book of God is better than Muhammad and his family") and concludes under the letter ya' with various popular adages and colloquial verses falsely ascribed as prophetic utterances .
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