Anis al-Sari (Takhrij Ahadith Fath al-Bari)
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- Mu’assasat al-Samāḥah
Anis al-Sari fi Takhrij Ahadith Fath al-Bari (The Traveler's Companion in Sourcing the Hadiths of Fath al-Bari) is an extensive multivolume hadith reference encyclopedia compiled by the Kuwaiti scholar Abu Hudhayfa Nabil ibn Mansur ibn Ya'qub ibn Sultan al-Basara . The work is dedicated to tracing, documenting, evaluating the transmission chains, and assessing the authenticity of the supplementary hadiths and traditions cited by Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani in his commentary Fath al-Bari .
Composition and Purpose
The project originated from the author's desire to compile and index Ibn Hajar's authoritative critical remarks on hadiths and narrators throughout Fath al-Bari . After reading through Fath al-Bari and collecting its cited traditions on index cards arranged alphabetically, al-Basara observed that Ibn Hajar had only evaluated a small portion of these reports, leaving many either unsourced or without an explicit ruling on their authenticity .
Consequently, al-Basara expanded the scope into a comprehensive scholarly verification (takhrij and tahqiq) of these narrations . Work on the compendium began in 1979 CE and took nearly twenty years of solitary labor, concluding with the author's preface dated 19 Rabi' al-Awwal 1422 AH (11 June 2001 CE) in Kuwait .
Structure and Organization
The work is organized into two primary divisions (majmu'atan):
- The First Collection (al-Majmu'a al-Ula): Comprises 4,794 hadiths arranged in strict alphabetical order according to their initial wording . This division covers six categories of narrations: verbal hadiths cited by Ibn Hajar verbatim; verbal hadiths cited in part; hadiths describing actions (af'al) cited verbatim; hadiths describing actions cited in part; traditions detailing the physical and moral traits of the Prophet ﷺ; and traditions concerning occasions of revelation (asbab al-nuzul) .
- The Second Collection (al-Majmu'a al-Thaniyya): Covers narrations whose exact texts were not recorded by Ibn Hajar, hadiths cited only by meaning, reports where only brief phrases were given, and narrations overlooked during the initial pass . These are arranged sequentially according to their order of occurrence in Fath al-Bari, supplemented with an alphabetical index .
When a hadith recurred in multiple places across Fath al-Bari, the author gathered its occurrences, discussed its chain in one primary entry, and cross-referenced the others .
Methodology and Scope
Al-Basara relied primarily on the Mustafa al-Babi al-Halabi print of Fath al-Bari (published in Egypt), identifying each hadith's volume, page, book title (kitab), and chapter heading (bab) so readers could locate citations across different editions .
The author established defined guidelines for grading and inclusion:
- Division of Hadith Rulings: Primary hadiths of Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim mentioned in the commentary are identified by their canonical placement without redundant authentication, except where narrators differed over their continuous transmission (wasl) versus interruption (irsal) . For hadiths outside the Sahihayn, the author gathered transmission routes, conducted narrator critique (jarh wa-ta'dil), and assigned judgments—classifying narrations as authentic (sahih), fair (hasan), weak (da'if), severely weak (da'if jiddan), or fabricated (mawdu'), while abstaining from a final ruling where evidence remained inconclusive .
- Scope and Exclusions: The primary texts and isnads of Sahih al-Bukhari and its suspended (mu'allaq) traditions were excluded from detailed commentary . Statements of Companions (mawqufat) and Successors (maqtu'at) were omitted unless reported through raised (marfu') routes to the Prophet ﷺ . Al-Basara also set aside many reports attributed by Ibn Hajar to al-Waqidi due to his status as abandoned (matruk) .
- Identification of Inadvertent Errors: The work documents instances where Ibn Hajar erred in hadith attribution or text identification, such as attributing a narration to the Sunan of Abu Dawud when it was preserved in the Musnad of Abu Ya'la, or attributing a composite text to Muslim when Muslim recorded only a single clause .
Reception and Publication
The hadith scholar Mahmud al-Tahhan, professor of hadith at Kuwait University, commended the project in a foreword dated 7 Rabi' al-Awwal 1422 AH (31 May 2001 CE), noting that while he had long suggested such a task as a topic for master's or doctoral dissertations, students had deemed its magnitude too overwhelming . Al-Tahhan praised al-Basara for undertaking the extensive project single-handedly and sticking to the critical methodology of classical hadith authorities .
Anis al-Sari was published in Beirut by Mu'assasat al-Rayyan in partnership with Mu'assasat al-Samaha (first edition, 1426 AH / 2005 CE) .
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