Fadail al-Awqat lil-Bayhaqi
- Author died
- 458 AH
- Editions
- Maktabat al-Manārah
Fadail al-Awqat (The Virtues of Blessed Times) is a hadith compilation by the Shafi'i scholar and traditionist Abu Bakr al-Bayhaqi (384–458 AH / 994–1066 CE) that collects prophetic traditions and ancestral reports concerning the spiritual merits of sacred seasons, months, days, and nights .
Subject Matter and Scope
The book is devoted to compiling narrations regarding virtuous periods of time in the Islamic calendar and the acts of worship recommended within them, including voluntary fasting, night vigils, and supplications . Among its subjects are the merits of the sacred months such as Rajab, the month of Sha'ban—including specific chapters such as the virtue of the middle night of Sha'ban (Bāb fī faḍl laylat al-niṣf min Shaʿbān)—the month of Ramadan, Friday and its eve, and the two Eids . It includes narrations such as the report transmitted from Ibn Umar enumerating five nights wherein supplication is not rejected: Friday night, the first night of Rajab, the middle night of Sha'ban, and the two nights of Eid .
Method and Juridical Analysis
Al-Bayhaqi arranges the work systematically under thematic chapter headings, transmitting reports with their complete chains of narration (isnāds) through his teachers, such as al-Hakim al-Nisaburi and Abu al-Husayn ibn Bishran .
Beyond merely recording narrations, al-Bayhaqi integrates hadith criticism and legal commentary:
- He evaluates the strength of individual transmitters and variant chains, distinguishing between sound, weak, and mursal narrations .
- When examining the report prohibiting fasting the entirety of Rajab, he notes the weakness of its transmitter Dawud ibn Ata and contextualizes the report through the legal reasoning of al-Shafi'i from his earlier doctrine (al-Qadīm), explaining that any disapproval was intended to prevent the ignorant from assuming that fasting the full month was obligatory like Ramadan .
Transmission and Reception
Taj al-Din al-Subki included the work among al-Bayhaqi's compositions, praising them as neat, well-ordered, refined, and of immense utility . In his Mu'jam al-Shuyukh, al-Subki recorded his transmission of the book, describing it as consisting of three substantial parts (thalāthat ajzāʾ ḍakhmah), transmitted on the authority of Abu Muhammad Abd al-Jabbar ibn Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Khuwari from al-Bayhaqi .
The work has been referenced and utilized by later traditionists for hadith verification and legal discussions on seasonal devotion, and it was edited in modern print by the researcher Adnan Abd al-Rahman al-Qaysi .
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