Amal al-Yawm wa al-Layla li-Ibn al-Sunni
- Author died
- 364 AH
- Editions
- Dar al-Qiblah lil-Thaqafah al-Islamiyyah and Mu'assasat 'Ulum al-Qur'an
Amal al-Yawm wa al-Layla (Practices of the Day and Night) is a hadith compendium of daily prayers, supplications, and invocations authored by the hadith master Ibn al-Sunni (d. 364 AH / 975 CE) .
Scope and Methodology
The work was compiled to encompass the recorded prophetic supplications (adhkar and awrad) meant for regular practice throughout the day and night, during travel and residency, and in sickness and health . It systematically organizes reports by daily human activities and life events, including waking, dressing, entering and leaving the home or mosque, ablution, prayer, commercial transactions, visiting the sick, facing distress or blessings, encountering enemies, and repenting from transgressions .
The author adopted the title and subject framework following the model of his teacher, al-Nasa'i . The book presents reports with connected chains of transmission (asānīd), drawing the vast majority of its narrations through four primary teachers: al-Nasa'i, Abu Ya'la al-Mawsili, Abu Urubah al-Harrani, and Abu al-Qasim al-Baghawi .
Reception and Transmission
The book achieved wide transmission and scholarly acclaim, being regarded as among the most substantial early collections in the genre of devotional hadith literature . In the introduction to his al-Adhkar, al-Nawawi noted that among the books dedicated to the practices of the day and night, al-Nasa'i's work was among the best, but characterized Ibn al-Sunni's collection as even finer, more valuable, and richer in beneficial content . Because he considered it the most comprehensive book in this specialized discipline, al-Nawawi highlighted his own connected chain of audition for the entire text via his teacher Khalid ibn Yusuf, tracing back through Zayd ibn al-Hasan al-Kindi, Sa'd al-Khayr al-Ansari, Abd al-Rahman ibn Ahmad al-Duni, and the judge Abu Nasr al-Kassar to Ibn al-Sunni .
Later scholars produced specialized studies and hadith verifications of the text, such as Salim al-Hilali's Ujalat al-raghib al-mutamanni fi takhrij kitab Amal al-yawm wa al-layla li-Ibn al-Sunni . The book has been published in several printed editions, including an early print in Hyderabad (1357 AH) and an edition verified by Abd al-Qahir Ahmad Attar (1399 AH) .
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