al-Tahur - Abu Ubayd
- Author died
- 224 AH
- Editions
- T mashhur
Kitab al-Tahur (The Book of Purification) is an early legal and hadith treatise authored by the scholar and jurist Abu Ubayd al-Qasim ibn Sallam (d. 224 AH / 838 CE), devoted to the legal rulings, prophetic traditions, and virtues pertaining to ritual purity and water.
Scope and Contents
The work gathers prophetic traditions (hadiths) alongside reports from the Companions and Successors (athar) governing purity, ablution (wudu), and water. Among the central subjects treated in the book are:
- Virtues and Performance of Ablution: Abu Ubayd records reports detailing the spiritual reward of performing ablution thoroughly and praying two units of prayer afterward, noting that such devotion serves as an expiation of past sins.
- Moderation in Water Usage: The text emphasizes the practice of early Muslims in using small amounts of water and discouraging wastefulness (israf) during purification, citing reports encouraging thriftiness even when standing beside a flowing stream.
- Purity and Impurity of Water: The author details rules regarding water capacity and contamination, including narrations defining thresholds such as the two pitchers of water (qullatayn) rule.
- Leftover Water of Animals: The treatise addresses controversies over water touched by animals, examining conflicting reports regarding the leftover water (su'r) of cats, dogs, and beasts, wherein Abu Ubayd harmonizes apparent contradictions and evaluates the transmission chains of opposing views.
Method and Transmission
Abu Ubayd’s method combines hadith narration with juristic analysis and textual glossing. After transmitting reports with full chains of transmission, he regularly appends explanatory notes clarifying ambiguous expressions, comparing variant wordings, and reconciling divergent legal rulings.
The surviving text of the work is preserved through the transmission of Abu Ubayd’s student Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Yahya ibn Sulayman al-Marwazi. From al-Marwazi, the text passed down through a transmission line that includes al-Husayn ibn Muhammad ibn Ubayd al-Daqqaq, al-Hasan ibn Ali al-Jawhari, Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Abd al-Baqi al-Bazzaz, Umar ibn Muhammad ibn Tabarzadh, and Fatima bint Sa'd al-Khayr al-Ansariyyah.
Reception
Later jurists and hadith scholars frequently cited Kitab al-Tahur as an authoritative early source for jurisprudential hadiths and legal opinions. Scholars such as Ibn Abd al-Barr, Ibn Kathir, Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, and Badr al-Din al-Ayni drew upon the work for its narrations, transmission variants, and Abu Ubayd's analytical conclusions on purification.
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