al-Uqubat li-Ibn Abi al-Dunya
- Author died
- 281 AH
- Editions
- Dār Ibn Ḥazm
al-Uqubat (Kitāb al-ʿUqūbāt, "The Punishments") is a classical hadith and ethical work by the Baghdad-based scholar and educator Ibn Abi al-Dunya (208–281 AH / 823–894 CE) . The book compiles prophetic traditions, statements of early Muslim figures, and historical narrations concerning divine punishments and worldly retributions visited upon individuals, communities, and prior nations for committing sins and neglecting moral responsibilities .
Subject and Content
The text focuses on the causes of divine chastisement and the various forms in which retribution manifests in the world . It includes chapters such as "Causes of Punishments and Their Types" (Asbāb al-ʿuqūbāt wa-anwāʿuhā) and "Metamorphosis and Earth-Swallowing" (Maskh wa-khasf) .
Across these sections, Ibn Abi al-Dunya presents transmitted reports warning that moral transgression, injustice, cheating in weights and measures, withholding zakat, breaking covenants, and abandoning the duty of enjoining good and forbidding wrong bring about calamities such as plagues, droughts, tyrannical governance, social strife, earth-swallowing (khasf), and metamorphosis (maskh) . The author cites narrations from Companions such as Ali ibn Abi Talib, Abd Allah ibn Mas'ud, Abd Allah ibn Umar, Abu al-Darda', and Umm Salamah, along with early figures such as Wahb ibn Munabbih .
Transmission and Reception
Al-Uqubat was transmitted from the author primarily through his direct student Abu Ali al-Husayn ibn Safwan al-Bardha'i (d. 340 AH), whose transmission passed to Abu al-Husayn Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Bishran al-Mu'addal (d. 407 AH), Abu al-Husayn Muhammad ibn Abd Allah ibn Ubayd Allah al-Muqri' (in 451 AH), and later scholars . Another transmission route recorded in the Andalusian catalogue of Ibn Khayr al-Ishbili traces the work from Ibn Abi al-Dunya via Ahmad ibn Marwan al-Maliki, Ubayd Allah ibn Muhammad al-Bazzar, and Abu Ali al-Ghassani .
The work was carried and taught across various regions; al-Khatib al-Baghdadi recorded it among the books he brought with him to Damascus . The book was edited in modern times by Muhammad Khayr Ramadan Yusuf and published under the expanded title al-ʿUqūbāt: al-ʿUqūbāt al-Ilāhiyyah lil-Afrād wal-Jamāʿāt wal-Umam by Dar Ibn Hazm in Beirut (first edition 1416 AH / 1995 CE; second edition 1420 AH) .
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