al-Qadar - Ibn Wahb
- Author died
- 197 AH
- Editions
- tahqiq al-Hafyan · t al-Uthaymin
Kitab al-Qadar (Arabic: كتاب القدر), also known as al-Qadar wa-ma warada fi dhalik min al-athar ("Predestination and the Narrations Transmitted Regarding It"), is an early treatise on divine decree and predestination by the Egyptian jurist and traditionist Ibn Wahb (125–197 AH / 743–813 CE).
Transmission and Structure
The preserved version of the book is transmitted from Ibn Wahb through the Egyptian scholar Ahmad ibn Sa'id ibn Bishr al-Hamdani (d. 253 AH), from whom it was received by Abu Bakr ibn Abi Dawud al-Sijistani (d. 316 AH), and from him by Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Isma'il al-Warraq al-Baghdadi. Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani noted that the surviving text contains occasional additions (ziyadat) contributed by Muhammad ibn Isma'il al-Warraq on the authority of his own teachers. The work compiles prophetic traditions and early reports documenting orthodox stances on divine decree, the writing of destinies, and related theological matters alongside other early standalone monographs on the subject, such as those by al-Bukhari and al-Firyabi.
Reception
Although several early biographers of Ibn Wahb did not explicitly name the book when enumerating selected titles from his vast output, the text circulated widely among later scholars. In particular, Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya cited numerous reports from Kitab al-Qadar with their complete chains of transmission (isnad) and texts (matn) throughout his theological treatise Shifa' al-'Alil fi Masa'il al-Qada' wa-l-Qadar wa-l-Hikma wa-l-Ta'lil.
Manuscripts and Editions
A preserved manuscript of the work forms part of a composite volume (majmu'), transcribed immediately following al-Firyabi's Kitab al-Qadar by the scribe Shihab al-Din Ahmad ibn Uthman ibn Muhammad al-Kalwatati al-Hanafi, who completed copying it on 18 Jumada al-Ula 786 AH.
Kitab al-Qadar has been published in several modern editions:
- Edited by Abd al-Aziz Abd al-Rahman al-Uthaym, published in one volume by Dar al-Sultan in Mecca (1406 AH / 1986 CE). Later editors criticized this edition for directly altering phrases in the text, such as emending al-Warraq's notes on transmission variants.
- Edited by Umar al-Hifyan, published by Dar al-Ata' in Riyadh (1424 AH).
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