al-Tadhkira fi Ulum al-Hadith li-Ibn al-Mulaqqin
- Author died
- 804 AH
- Editions
- Dar 'Ammar
al-Tadhkira fi ‘Ulum al-Hadith (Arabic: التذكرة في علوم الحديث, lit. 'The Reminder in the Sciences of Hadith') is an ultra-concise manual on hadith terminology by the Shafi'i scholar Ibn al-Mulaqqin (723–804 AH / 1323–1401 CE) .
Composition and Purpose
The treatise is a compact abridgment extracted by Ibn al-Mulaqqin from his own broader work on hadith terminology, al-Muqni‘ fi ‘Ulum al-Hadith, which itself condensed the seminal work of Ibn al-Salah . Ibn al-Mulaqqin noted that he completed drafting the treatise in approximately two hours on the morning of Friday, 27 Jumada al-Ula 763 AH .
In his introduction, the author stated that he authored the summary so that "the beginner is alerted by it and the advanced scholar gains insight through it" (يتنبه بها المبتدي ويتبصر بها المنتهي) . Covering roughly three folios, the text's brevity is comparable to that of Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani's Nukhbat al-Fikar .
Structure and Content
The treatise begins by dividing hadith into three overarching primary categories :
- Sahih (sound): That which is free from defect in both its chain of narration and its text, including agreed-upon reports transmitted in the collections of al-Bukhari and Muslim .
- Hasan (good): That whose chain of transmission falls below the first category in terms of retention and precision, sharing with sahih the general classification of strong reports .
- Da‘if (weak): Any report that does not meet the standards of either sahih or hasan .
Following these tripartite divisions, the author enumerates and briefly defines individual hadith classifications and technical terms, noting that their types exceed eighty in number . These encompass genres such as al-musnad (fully traced chain to the Prophet), al-muttasil (connected chain), al-marfu‘ (attributed specifically to the Prophet), and various sub-disciplines of transmission and narrator criticism .
Commentaries and Editions
Due to its conciseness and comprehensive coverage of technical types, al-Tadhkira was memorized, turned into verse, and expounded by later hadith scholars :
- al-Sakhawi (d. 902 AH) composed a concise commentary titled al-Tawdih al-Abhar li-Tadhkirat Ibn al-Mulaqqin fi ‘Ilm al-Athar . Al-Sakhawi transmitted the text through his teacher Ibn Hajar from Ibn al-Mulaqqin, and based his commentary on a manuscript copied by Jamal Ibn Zuhayra that had been read to Ibn al-Mulaqqin in Ramadan 777 AH at the Nasiriyya madrasa in Cairo .
- Muhammad al-Minshawi, a student of Zakariyya al-Ansari, wrote a commentary titled Fath al-Mughith bi-Sharh Tadhkirat al-Hadith .
The text was edited by Muhammad Aziz Shams and published in the journal of Jamia Salafiyya in India in 1403 AH / 1983 CE . It was also edited and annotated by 'Ali Hasan 'Abd al-Hamid, published by Dar 'Ammar in Amman in 1408 AH / 1988 CE .
Answer updated