al-Sirr al-Maktum fi al-Farq bayn al-Malayn al-Mahmud wa al-Madhmum
- Author died
- 902 AH
- Editions
- Maktabat wa-Tasjilat Dar al-Imam Malik
al-Sirr al-Maktum fi al-Farq bayn al-Malayn al-Mahmud wa al-Madhmum (The Hidden Secret Concerning the Distinction Between the Two Kinds of Wealth: The Praiseworthy and the Blameworthy) is a theological and hadith treatise by the Shafi'i scholar and hadith master al-Sakhawi (831–902 AH / 1428–1497 CE) . The work investigates the religious status of acquiring wealth, reconciling apparently conflicting prophetic traditions that praise or condemn affluence .
Background and Occasion of Writing
The composition of the treatise was prompted by an inquiry from the Mamluk Sultan Qaytbay (al-Malik al-Ashraf) . The Sultan asked about a narration cited in a treatise attributed to al-Hasan al-Basri concerning the daily obligations of a believer, in which the Prophet ﷺ reportedly prayed: "O Allah, grant whoever loves me sufficient sustenance, and multiply the wealth and children of whoever hates me" («اللهم من أحبني فارزقه الكفاف، ومن أبغضني فأكثِر ماله وولده») . The Sultan sought clarification on the authenticity of this report and how it could be reconciled with the rigorously authenticated hadith in which the Prophet ﷺ prayed for an abundance of wealth and children for his companion Anas ibn Malik .
Contents and Methodology
In addressing the question, al-Sakhawi assembled prophetic traditions with their chains of transmission—including narrations related through his own isnads—alongside statements from early scholars on both the praise and the censure of material wealth . He argued that wealth is not uniform in status:
- Praiseworthy wealth is that which is acquired legitimately and utilized to maintain family ties, discharge trusts, fulfill religious duties, and attain self-sufficiency without dependence on others .
- Blameworthy wealth is that which engenders heedlessness, leads to arrogance, or distracts an individual from religious obligations and the afterlife .
Al-Sakhawi illustrated the virtue of righteous affluence through wealthy Companions of the Prophet ﷺ, such as Uthman ibn Affan, Talhah ibn Ubayd Allah, and al-Zubayr ibn al-Awwam . He noted that such figures represent exceptions to the general hadiths stating that the poor enter Paradise centuries before the rich .
Transmission, Manuscripts, and Editions
Al-Sakhawi documented the work in his autobiographical accounts, including Irshad al-Ghawi and al-Daw' al-Lami', and cross-referenced it in his other writings, such as al-Ajwibah al-Mardiyyah and Istijlab Irtiqa' al-Ghuraf . Several students studied the text directly under him, including Ahmad ibn Husayn al-Ashmuni, Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Hisham al-Qahiri, and Abu Bakr ibn Abi al-Fadl al-Qastallani . Later bibliographers recorded the title with slight variations: Ismail Pasha al-Baghdadi listed it in Iydah al-Maknun while omitting the word al-malayn, and in Hadiyyat al-Arifin with the singular noun al-mal .
A surviving illuminated manuscript of the treatise is preserved in the Aya Sofya collection in Istanbul (MS 1849), bearing a record of its endowment by the Ottoman Sultan Mahmud Khan . The treatise has been edited and published by Mashhur ibn Hasan Al Salman, accompanied by an autograph responsum by al-Sakhawi on the same topic preserved in Dar al-Kutub al-Misriyyah .
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