al-Tanbihat al-Mujmala ala al-Mawadi al-Mushkila
- Author died
- 761 AH
- Editions
- Islamic University of Madinah
al-Tanbihat al-Mujmala ala al-Mawadi al-Mushkila (Concise Notices on Problematic Passages) is a treatise on hadith criticism by the Shafi'i scholar and hadith specialist Salah al-Din al-Alai (694–761 AH / 1294–1359 CE) . The work investigates ambiguous, difficult, or erroneous passages found within the major canonical collections of prophetic traditions .
Scope and Purpose
In his introduction, al-Alai notes that the work comprises concise observations regarding problematic spots occurring in important hadith collections that few scholars had previously addressed . The texts treated in the treatise include Sahih al-Bukhari, Sahih Muslim, the Sunan collections of Abu Dawud, al-Tirmidhi, al-Nasa'i, and Ibn Majah, as well as Malik ibn Anas's al-Muwatta .
Al-Alai classified the problematic points addressed in his treatise into four distinct categories:
- Passages whose apparent difficulties he was able to resolve and establish the correct reading or interpretation .
- Passages where he determined the flaw to be most likely an error (wahm), stemming either from copyists or from the original author's composition .
- Passages regarding which critical judgment was hesitant, though close to resolution, which he highlighted for awareness .
- Passages where no satisfactory solution could be reached, which he recorded and left marked so that subsequent scholars might uncover the correct determination .
Attribution and Manuscript History
While classical biographers noted that al-Alai authored numerous short treatises and monographs (ajza'), many omitted the specific title of this work from his bibliographies . The book was likewise absent from Katib Celebi's Kashf al-Zunun . In modern bibliographical scholarship, the title was recorded by Umar Rida Kahhala and Dr. Zuhayr al-Nasir .
The full title appears on the title page of a preserved manuscript compendium (majmu') containing six treatises by al-Alai, where it is listed as Kitab al-Tanbihat al-Mujmala ala al-Mawadi al-Mushkila fi Kutub al-Hadith ka-al-Bukhari wa-Muslim wa-al-Muwatta li-al-Imam Malik wa-al-Sunan wa-Ghayriha . This manuscript also bears an ownership mark by Muhammad ibn Abd al-Haqq .
Publication
The text was edited and studied by Dr. Marzuq ibn Hayyas Al Marzuq al-Zahrani and published in the journal of the Islamic University of Madinah (issues 79–80, 1408 AH / 1988 CE) . It was subsequently printed as an independent volume by Maktabat al-Ulum wa-al-Hikam in 1412 AH .
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