Bustan al-Waizin wa Riyad al-Samiin
- Author died
- 597 AH
- Editions
- Mu’assasat al-Kutub al-Thaqāfiyyah
Bustan al-Waizin wa Riyad al-Samiin (The Garden of Preachers and the Meadow of Listeners) is a work on homiletics and religious exhortation by the Baghdadi Hanbali scholar Ibn al-Jawzi (d. 597 AH / 1201 CE) .
Structure and Content
The work is composed as a single volume arranged into thematic preaching sessions (majalis) . Across these sessions, the text integrates Quranic verses, prophetic reports, moral anecdotes, supplications, and poetic verses designed to inspire spiritual vigilance and ethical refinement .
Key subjects addressed in the sessions include:
- Seeking refuge in God from Satan (istiʿadha), explaining its Quranic foundations, forms, and spiritual protection against demonic whispering .
- The inevitability and description of death, the deaths of prophets and the righteous, and admonitions urging preparation for the grave and the afterlife .
- The punishment of the grave (ʿadhab al-qabr) and its causes, such as talebearing (namima) and backbiting (ghiyba) .
- Sincere repentance (tawba), turning away from sinful habits, and remaining steadfast upon the Sunnah .
Hadith Assessment
Like several popular homiletic texts, Bustan al-Waizin contains a number of weak (daʿif) and unauthentic or fabricated (mawduʿ) narrations . Among the poorly attested reports cited in the text is the narration describing the deaths of the archangels Gabriel, Michael, Israfil, and the Angel of Death .
Manuscripts and Publication
Manuscript copies of the book are preserved in various international repositories, including the Berlin State Library, the Khedivial Library, Dar al-Kutub al-Misriyya, and the Library of al-Azhar in Cairo .
The work has been published in several modern editions, including one with an introduction by al-Sayyid al-Jumayli (Dar al-Kitab al-Arabi, Beirut, 1414 AH / 1994 CE) and an edition edited by Ayman al-Buhayri (Mu'assasat al-Kutub al-Thaqafiyya, Beirut, 1419 AH / 1998 CE) .
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