al-Sahih al-Musnad Mimma Laysa fi al-Sahihayn
- Author died
- 1422 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-Āthār
al-Sahih al-Musnad Mimma Laysa fi al-Sahihayn (Arabic: الصحيح المسند مما ليس في الصحيحين, lit. 'The Authentic Musnad of Narrations Not Found in the Two Sahihs') is a modern hadith compilation by the Yemeni scholar Muqbil bin Hadi al-Wadii (d. 1422 AH / 2001 CE), dedicated to gathering authentic prophetic traditions that are absent from Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim.
Background and Purpose
Al-Wadi'i began compiling the work during his studies at the Islamic University of Madinah and continued working on it at various intervals throughout his life. His stated objective was to assemble an authentic body of hadith outside the Sahihayn that remained free of weak and fabricated narrations. He observed that earlier efforts in this genre had significant drawbacks: Diya' al-Din al-Maqdisi did not finish al-Ahadith al-Mukhtara and parts of it were lost or unpublished at the time, while al-Hakim al-Naysaburi was excessively lenient (wasi' al-khatw) in his al-Mustadrak 'ala al-Sahihayn, incorporating numerous defective or fabricated reports as well as hadiths that were already recorded in the two Sahihs.
Methodology and Criteria
Al-Wadi'i adopted strict criteria (shart shadid) for inclusion:
- Verification of Chains and Defects: When selecting a narration, he cross-referenced Tuhfat al-Ashraf by al-Mizzi to evaluate discrepancies regarding whether a report was connected (muttasil), interrupted (munqati'), attributed to the Prophet (marfu'), or halted at a Companion (mawquf). He also examined dedicated works on hidden defects ('ilal) and excluded any narration affected by an impairing flaw ('illah qadihah) or about which he harbored doubt.
- Narrator Scrutiny: He withheld judgment on narrators who were not declared trustworthy by recognized authorities (tawthiq mu'tabar) or known for diligence in seeking hadith, as well as Successors whose direct audition from certain Companions was unconfirmed when the Sahihayn contained no precedents for their transmission.
- Grading and Scope: Al-Wadi'i initially graded narrations as authentic according to the criteria of both shaykhs, one of them, or independently authentic, but later simplified his verdicts to "authentic" (sahih) or "good" (hasan). He deliberately excluded hadiths classified as hasan li-ghayrihi (good through corroborating chains) and additions by trustworthy narrators (ziyadat al-thiqat), noting that analyzing every supporting path would require extensive additional research. He also refrained from exhaustive takhrij (tracing all routes), selecting the soundest available chain for each narration.
Structure and Related Works
The compilation is organized as a musnad, grouping hadiths under their respective Companion narrators according to the alphabetical arrangement used in Taqrib al-Tahdhib by Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani. Al-Wadi'i drew primarily from major collections including the four Sunan and the Musnad of Ahmad ibn Hanbal, and subsequently expanded to works such as al-Matalib al-'Aliyah, al-Mu'jam al-Kabir by al-Tabarani, and Sahih Ibn Hibban.
The compilation gave rise to two related works:
- Ahadith Mu'allah Zahiruha al-Sihhah: While examining candidates for inclusion, al-Wadi'i gathered hundreds of narrations whose chains appeared authentic on the surface but harbored hidden defects upon closer scrutiny, publishing them as a separate work.
- al-Jami' al-Sahih Mimma Laysa fi al-Sahihayn: Al-Wadi'i rearranged the material topically according to chapters of Islamic jurisprudence (al-abwab al-fiqhiyyah), incorporating Quranic verses and explanatory commentary.
Editions
Al-Wadi'i maintained a personal working copy of the book to which he added notes, revisions, and supplementary narrations until his death. A revised edition published by Dar al-Athar in Sana'a incorporated more than eighty additional hadiths from his personal supplementary notebooks, removed around fifty narrations whose authentication he had retracted and transferred to Ahadith Mu'allah, and added indices for narrator biographies and hadith beginnings.
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