Arbaun Hadithan Tusaaiyat al-Isnad
- Author died
- 702 AH
- Editions
- Manuscript published in the free Jawāmi‘ al-Kalim software affiliated with Islamweb
Arbaun Hadithan Tusaaiyat al-Isnad (Forty Hadiths with Nine-Tiered Chains of Transmission) is a hadith compilation by the Egyptian Shafi'i and Maliki scholar and chief judge Ibn Daqiq al-Eid (625–702 AH / 1228–1302 CE), collecting forty narrations transmitted through elevated, nine-link chains of transmission.
Scope and Content
The work belongs to the forty-hadith (arba'iniyyat) genre, specifically focusing on elevated chains (al-asānīd al-'awālī). Ibn Daqiq al-Eid extracted the forty narrations for himself from his own direct auditions (masmū'āt), selecting reports that connect him to the Prophet ﷺ through exactly nine intermediary transmitters (tusā'iyyāt).
The text comprises prophetic narrations across diverse topics, including the Prophet's character and manners, supplications, ritual prayers, and eschatological signs. Among the texts included are:
- The testimony of Anas ibn Malik regarding his ten years of serving the Prophet ﷺ.
- The prayer taught for travel: اللَّهُمَّ إِنِّي أَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنْ وَعْثَاءِ السَّفَرِ، وَكَآبَةِ الْمُنْقَلَبِ ("O Allah, I seek refuge in You from the hardships of travel and from returning to grief").
- The ruling instructing a person who enters the mosque during the Friday sermon to perform two units of prayer.
- The hadith concerning love for Allah and His Messenger: فَأَنْتَ مَعَ مَنْ أَحْبَبْتَ ("You will be with whom you love").
- The revelation of لَن تَنَالُوا الْبِرَّ حَتَّى تُنفِقُوا مِمَّا تُحِبُّونَ (Surah Al Imran: 92) and Abu Talha's subsequent donation of his orchard as charity.
Transmission and Method
Ibn Daqiq al-Eid recorded his direct transmission from several prominent contemporary shaykhs, notably:
- Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Hibat Allah ibn Salama al-Shafi'i, reading through the line of the hadith master Abu Tahir al-Silafi.
- Abu al-Hasan Muhammad ibn al-Anjab al-Baghdadi al-Baqqal, transmitting from Abu al-Ma'ali Abd al-Mun'im ibn Abd Allah al-Furawi, through Abu Bakr al-Shirawi, and through Abu al-Abbas Muhammad ibn Ya'qub al-Asamm.
In his analytical remarks appended to specific transmissions, Ibn Daqiq al-Eid notes the presence of different types of elevation ('uluww), distinguishing between numerical shortness of the chain to the Prophet ﷺ ('uluww al-'adad) and comparative elevation relative to canonical compilations ('uluww al-tanzīl), as when an intermediate transmitter occupies a tier equivalent to that of Muhammad ibn Ismail al-Bukhari or Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj.
Transmission and Manuscripts
The collection was transmitted by scholars such as Ibn Jabir al-Wadi Ashi (d. 749 AH), who documented receiving it in his transmission registry (Barnāmaj). An early manuscript copy is preserved in Cairo at the Taymuriyya Library under MS 432.
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