Amali Abd al-Ghafir al-Farisi
- Author died
- 529 AH
- Editions
- al-Dār al-Athariyyah [within the collection of Kitāb Sulūk Ṭarīq al-Salaf and six other parts]
Amali Abd al-Ghafir al-Farisi (The Dictations of Abd al-Ghafir al-Farisi) is a collection of hadith dictation sessions delivered by the Shafi'i hadith scholar and historian Abu al-Hasan Abd al-Ghafir ibn Isma'il al-Farisi (d. 529 AH / 1134 CE) in Nishapur in 525 AH.
Composition and Transmission
The work preserves four dictation sessions (majalis) delivered on consecutive Fridays between Safar and Rabi' al-Akhar in the year 525 AH. The dictations were recorded by scholars and scribes, including Abu Mansur Zahir al-Shahhami as the call-out prompter (mustamli), the author's son Ahmad ibn Abd al-Ghafir, Umar ibn Ahmad ibn Mansur al-Saffar, his son Abu Sa'd Abd Allah ibn Umar al-Saffar, and Muhammad ibn Amirak al-Juwayni.
The preserved transmission stems from Abu Sa'd Abd Allah al-Saffar, who read and heard the text in Nishapur in 600 AH. It was then transmitted by Abu al-Tahir Ismail ibn Zafar al-Nabulsi, who verified its reading in Rabi' al-Awwal 632 AH.
Structure and Contents
The text comprises twenty numbered entries distributed across the four sessions:
- First Session (20 Safar 525 AH): Contains five entries (nos. 1–5), opening with the prophetic prohibition of image making ( إن أشد الناس عذابًا يوم القيامة الذين يشبهون بخلق الله – "The most severely punished people on the Day of Resurrection will be those who imitate the creation of God"), followed by reports on divine forbearance, a tradition affirming predestination (qadar) as held by Ahl al-Sunnah, an ethical epistle by Muhammad ibn Abi al-Nadr al-Harithi, and poetic verses recited by Abu Muhammad Abd al-Rahman ibn Ahmad ibn Jasrah al-Farisi to Abu al-Tayyib Sahl al-Sa'luki.
- Second Session (4 Rabi' al-Akhar 525 AH): Contains three entries (nos. 6–8), including the account of the sorcery of Labid ibn al-A'sam against the Prophet ﷺ and the revelation of the refuge-seeking chapters (al-Mu'awwidhatan), as well as a literary anecdote recounting a Bedouin praising Dawud ibn Yazid ibn al-Muhallab.
- Third Session (18 Rabi' al-Akhar 525 AH): Contains six entries (nos. 9–14), covering legal traditions regarding the prescribed penalty (hadd) for wine drinking, the primacy of bloodshed in divine judgment on the Day of Resurrection, positioning of the Companions behind the Prophet in prayer, an ascetic aphorism by Malik ibn Dinar, and verses composed by the author's maternal grandfather, Abu al-Qasim al-Qushayri.
- Fourth Session (25 Rabi' al-Akhar 525 AH): Contains six entries (nos. 15–20), beginning with the legal rulings of inheritance and the revelation of يوصيكم الله في أولادكم ("God instructs you concerning your children"), followed by reports on compassion toward animals, the prohibition against separating a mother from her child ( من فرق بين والدةٍ وولدها، فرق الله بينه وبين أحبته يوم القيامة – "Whoever separates a mother from her child, God will separate him from his loved ones on the Day of Resurrection"), a saying of Ayyub al-Sikhtiyani on scholarly humility, and poetic lines by the grammarian Ali ibn Faddal al-Nahwi.
Scholarly Method
In addition to recording full chains of transmission (isnad), al-Farisi incorporates analytical commentary. He evaluates chains by indicating which narrations were documented in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, identifies elevated ('ali) or singular (gharib) routes, clarifies rare and difficult words (gharib al-hadith) such as matbub and istafa'a, and rectifies narrator confusions—such as identifying a transmitter's misattribution concerning the daughters of Sa'd ibn al-Rabi'.
Editions
The work was edited by Abu Abd Allah Hamzah al-Jaza'iri and published in Jordan by al-Dar al-Athariyyah (1st edition, 1430 AH / 2009 CE) within a compendium of hadith treatises titled Kitab Suluk Tariq al-Salaf wa-Sittat Ajza' Ukhra.
Answer updated