al-Sarim al-Munki fi al-Radd ala al-Subki
- Author died
- 744 AH
- Editions
- Mu'assasat al-Rayyan
al-Sarim al-Munki fi al-Radd ala al-Subki (The Dismaying Sharp Sword in Refutation of al-Subki) is a polemical and hadith-critical treatise by the Hanbali scholar Ibn Abd al-Hadi (d. 744 AH / 1344 CE), written to refute Taqi al-Din al-Subki's work on visiting the grave of the Prophet .
Background and Purpose
The treatise was composed in response to the Shafi'i chief judge Taqi al-Din Ali ibn Abd al-Kafi al-Subki (d. 756 AH) and his book Shifa al-Siqam fi Ziyarat Khayr al-Anam (also titled by al-Subki as Shann al-Ghara ala Man Ankara Safar al-Ziyara) . In that work, al-Subki had targeted the rulings of Ibn Abd al-Hadi's teacher, Ibn Taymiyyah, concerning journeying specifically to visit graves (shadd al-rihal), claiming that Ibn Taymiyyah had forbidden visiting the Prophet's grave entirely .
Ibn Abd al-Hadi wrote the work to defend Ibn Taymiyyah, demonstrating through Ibn Taymiyyah's own writings that he did not prohibit or dislike visiting the Prophet's grave, but rather prescribed its proper practice in his works on pilgrimage rites . In his introduction, Ibn Abd al-Hadi criticized al-Subki for declaring weak and fabricated hadiths to be sound, weakening authentic and accepted traditions, diverting texts from their apparent meanings through rejected interpretations, and adopting anomalous positions that breached scholarly consensus .
Structure and Incompletion
Some scholars referred to the treatise as al-Kalam ala Ahadith al-Ziyara . Ibn Abd al-Hadi structured his response systematically, addressing al-Subki's text chapter by chapter to dissect the chains of transmission (asānīd) and hidden defects (ʿilal) of each tradition cited in support of travelling for visitation .
Ibn Abd al-Hadi reached the fifth chapter—addressing the status of visitation as a meritorious act of worship (qurba)—when his death overtook him in 744 AH . As a result, several subsequent sections of al-Subki's book remained unaddressed, including discussions on intercession (shafāʿah), supplication through the Prophet (tawassul and istighāthah), and the life of prophets in their graves . The work was later completed in the modern period by the scholar Muhammad ibn Husayn al-Faqih (d. 1355 AH) under the title al-Kashf al-Mubdi li-Tamwih Abi al-Hasan al-Subki: Takmilat al-Sarim al-Munki .
Reception and Editions
The work was recorded in biographical dictionaries by scholars such as Ibn Rajab (who described it as a single-volume work on visitation), Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, and al-Suyuti . A manuscript of the work bears an endorsement by Ibn Abd al-Hadi's teacher, al-Mizzi (d. 742 AH) . Later scholars, including Nu'man al-Alusi and Bakr Abu Zayd, highlighted the book for its density of hadith critique, biographical evaluations of narrators, and analysis of transmission defects .
The work has been printed in multiple editions, including one edited by Ismail ibn Muhammad al-Ansari and another edited by Aqil ibn Muhammad al-Maqtari .
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