Dhayl Lisan al-Mizan

Dhayl Lisan al-Mizan (Supplement to Lisan al-Mizan) is a biographical dictionary of weak and criticized hadith transmitters by the Saudi hadith scholar Hatim al-Awni (b. 1385 AH / 1966 CE), published in 1418 AH (1998 CE) Dhayl Lisan al-Mizan+1. Subtitled Ruwat du'afa' aw tukullima fihim lam yudhkaru fi kutub al-du'afa' wa-al-mutakallam fihim ("Weak Transmitters or Those Criticized Who Were Not Mentioned in the Books of Weak Narrators"), the work serves as an appendix supplying omitted figures that meet the inclusion criteria of Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani's Lisan al-Mizan Dhayl Lisan al-Mizan+1.

Background and Purpose

The compilation of biographical dictionaries on impugned transmitters developed through successive historical stages, culminating in al-Dhahabi's Mizan al-I'tidal Dhayl Lisan al-Mizan. Later scholars supplemented al-Mizan, notably Zayn al-Din al-Iraqi in his Dhayl Mizan al-I'tidal, after which Ibn Hajar combined al-Iraqi's additions with al-Dhahabi's text into Lisan al-Mizan, removing narrators of the Six Books whom he had already covered in Tahdhib al-Tahdhib Dhayl Lisan al-Mizan.

Because Lisan al-Mizan was widely regarded as exhaustive for non-canonical impugned narrators, al-Awni undertook a project spanning over ten years to identify weak and criticized transmitters scattered across various primary hadith and biographical sources who had escaped Ibn Hajar's notice Dhayl Lisan al-Mizan. Fearing the potential loss of his collected material, he compiled and completed the work on 13 Jumada al-Akhirah 1418 AH in Mecca Dhayl Lisan al-Mizan+1.

Structure and Methodology

The work contains 237 biographical entries arranged alphabetically Dhayl Lisan al-Mizan+1. Each entry conforms to the criteria of Lisan al-Mizan by treating narrators outside the Six Books who were declared weak, unknown, or otherwise criticized by early hadith critics Dhayl Lisan al-Mizan+1.

For each individual entry, al-Awni typically provides:

• The transmitter's name and lineage Dhayl Lisan al-Mizan.
• The authorities from whom the transmitter narrated (rawa 'an) and those who narrated from him (rawa 'anhu) Dhayl Lisan al-Mizan.
• Exact citations and verbatim statements of jarh (criticism) from classical authorities, referencing works such as al-Khatib al-Baghdadi's Tali Talkhis al-Mutashabih and Ibn al-Faradi's Tarikh 'Ulama' al-Andalus Dhayl Lisan al-Mizan.

In verifying that these entries were genuinely absent from Lisan al-Mizan, al-Awni relied on the Hyderabad edition published by Da'irat al-Ma'arif al-Nizamiyyah (1329 AH) and cross-checked his findings against the modern edition edited by Khalil Muhammad al-'Arabi and others Dhayl Lisan al-Mizan.

Reception and Publication

Dhayl Lisan al-Mizan was published in a single volume by Dar 'Alam al-Fawa'id in Dhu al-Hijjah 1418 AH Dhayl Lisan al-Mizan.

The work was commended by later editors of Lisan al-Mizan for its scholarly precision and verification Lisan al-Mizan. However, Salman, in his editorial commentary on Lisan al-Mizan, noted minor caveats: he pointed out that certain entries assumed to be omissions—such as Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Rahman al-'Amiri—were in fact present in Lisan al-Mizan under fuller variant names (Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Rahman ibn al-Raddad al-'Amiri), and observed that differences between surviving manuscript recensions of al-Dhahabi's al-Mizan accounted for some perceived discrepancies Lisan al-Mizan.