Dirasa hawl qawl Abi Zuraa fi Sunan Ibn Majah
- Author died
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- Editions
- Islamic University of Madinah Journal
Dirasa hawl qawl Abi Zuraa fi Sunan Ibn Majah (A Study on the Statement of Abu Zur'a Regarding Sunan Ibn Majah) is a modern hadith study by Sadi bin Mahdi al-Hashimi examining the authenticity and implications of a classical appraisal of Sunan Ibn Majah attributed to Abu Zur'a al-Razi (d. 264 AH) .
Background and Context
The study centers on the historical report stating that Ibn Majah (209–273 AH) presented his hadith collection to the critic Abu Zur'a al-Razi, who examined it and remarked that if it circulated widely, most contemporary compilations (jawami‘) would be superseded, adding that it contained perhaps no more than thirty hadiths with weak chains . Later scholars recorded variations of this estimate, mentioning twenty, nineteen, or as few as three hadiths .
Earlier authorities addressed the apparent conflict between this statement and the substantial number of weak chains present in Sunan Ibn Majah. Al-Dhahabi noted that if the report is authentic, Abu Zur'a meant wholly discarded or fabricated traditions (al-ahadith al-matruhah al-saqitah), whereas unestablished hadiths in the work number around one thousand . Similarly, Ibn Rashid al-Sabti questioned the chain of transmission of the report and argued that Abu Zur'a may have examined only a portion of the text, noting that Abu Zur'a himself had declared multiple narrations in the collection to be invalid or rejected in other works .
Structure and Scope
Al-Hashimi's work was originally published across multiple issues of the scholarly journal of the Islamic University of Madinah (Majallat al-Jami'ah al-Islamiyyah), beginning in issues 47–48 (1400 AH) and continued in issues 55–56 .
The study provides a detailed critical catalog of narrators in Sunan Ibn Majah whom Abu Zur'a deemed weak:
- Unique narrators: An examination of 125 transmitters from whom Ibn Majah alone narrated among the compilers of the Six Books (al-Kutub al-Sittah), cross-referenced with Abu Zur'a's specific evaluations in his critical writings, such as his Kitab al-Du‘afa’ .
- Shared narrators: A compilation of 172 narrators whom Ibn Majah shared with other compilers of the Six Books and whom Abu Zur'a criticized, classified successively by those shared exclusively with al-Tirmidhi, Abu Dawud, al-Nasa'i, the authors of the three Sunan, and those shared with al-Bukhari or Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj .
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