Shams al-Din al-Dhahabi
al-Radd ala Ibn al-Qattan fi Kitabihi Bayan al-Wahm wal-Iham
- Author died
- 748 AH
- Editions
- Al-Fārūq al-Ḥadīthah lil-Ṭibā‘ah wa-al-Nashr
al-Radd 'ala Ibn al-Qattan fi Kitabihi Bayan al-Wahm wal-Iham ("The Refutation of Ibn al-Qattan Regarding His Book 'Clarification of Delusion and Ambiguity'") is a critical hadith treatise by the Syrian hadith scholar and historian Shams al-Din al-Dhahabi (d. 748 AH / 1348 CE), written as an abridgment and critical evaluation of the Moroccan traditionist Ibn al-Qattan al-Fasi's (d. 628 AH / 1231 CE) work on hadith defects .
Background and Context
The subject of al-Dhahabi's critique is Ibn al-Qattan's extensive work Bayan al-Wahm wal-Iham al-Waqi'ayn fi Kitab al-Ahkam, which systematically identified alleged transmission mistakes and evaluative oversights in al-Ahkam al-Wusta (often referred to as al-Ahkam al-Kubra) by the Andalusian scholar Abd al-Haqq al-Ishbili (d. 581 AH) . Ibn al-Qattan organized his critique into two major divisions: twelve chapters on transmission errors (wahm) and nineteen chapters on interpretive oversights (iham) . While al-Dhahabi acknowledged Ibn al-Qattan's extensive reading, exceptional memory, and penetrating insight into the hidden defects of hadith ('ilal), he compiled an abridgment titled Mukhtasar Kitab al-Wahm wal-Iham, from which this treatise of rejoinders was derived, to evaluate Ibn al-Qattan's critical rulings .
Content and Methodology
In his critique, al-Dhahabi balanced praise for Ibn al-Qattan's correct findings with direct criticism of his methodology and conclusions :
- Critique of Overstrictness and Unfair Demands: Al-Dhahabi noted that Ibn al-Qattan went to excess (asrafa fi al-muhaqqaqah wal-ta'annut) in his scrutiny of 'Abd al-Haqq al-Ishbili, demanding extensive critical discussions of chains and variants that were unsuitable for an abridged legal compilation shorn of full isnads .
- Evaluation of Transmitters (al-Jarh wal-Ta'dil): Al-Dhahabi objected to Ibn al-Qattan's tendency to cast doubt on prominent, established transmitters found throughout the authoritative hadith collections merely because he could find no early critic explicitly stating their reliability (tawthiq), as well as his undue softening of well-known figures such as Hisham ibn Urwah and Suhayl ibn Abi Salih .
- Theoretical Principles: Al-Dhahabi highlighted that Ibn al-Qattan, in his underlying theoretical positions, followed the methodology of Ibn Hazm and legal theorists (usuliyyun) regarding the unconditional acceptance of additions by reliable transmitters, whether conflicting, raising a halted narration (marfu'), or connecting a severed one (mawsul) .
- Specific Technical Corrections: Proceeding through individual traditions, al-Dhahabi corrected Ibn al-Qattan's errors regarding source attributions, transmitter identities, claims of broken chains (inqita'), and assumptions about the status of companions and early successors .
Manuscripts and Publication
The treatise survives in a unique manuscript preserved in the al-Zahiriyyah Library in Damascus (Majmu' 70, folios 15–26), transcribed by Muhammad ibn 'Abd Allah ibn Munjja al-Hanbali, which bears a reading certificate before the scholar Yusuf ibn Abd al-Hadi dated Tuesday, 17 Jumada al-Akhirah 897 AH . It was published in Cairo under the editorship of Khalid ibn Muhammad ibn 'Uthman (1426 AH / 2005 CE) and has also been published in scholarly journals and alongside editions of 'Abd al-Haqq al-Ishbili's al-Ahkam .
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