Fadail Ramadan li-Ibn Shahin
- Author died
- 385 AH
- Editions
- Dār Ibn al-Athīr
Fadail Ramadan li-Ibn Shahin (The Virtues of Ramadan by Ibn Shahin) is a specialized hadith treatise compiled by the Baghdadi hadith scholar Ibn Shahin (297–385 AH / 909–995 CE) concerning the religious merits, rulings, and virtues associated with fasting during the month of Ramadan .
Title and Subject Matter
The full title recorded on the manuscript is Kitab Fadail Shahr Ramadan wa-Ma Fihi min al-Ahkam wa-l-Ilm wa-Fadl Suwwamihi wa-l-Taghliz ala Man Aftara Fihi Mutaammidan min Ghayr Udhr (The Book of the Virtues of the Month of Ramadan, Its Rulings and Knowledge, the Merit of Those Who Fast It, and Stern Warning to Whoever Intentionally Breaks Fast in It Without an Excuse) . The work gathers prophetic traditions and early narrations on the blessings of the month, the spiritual rewards of fasting, and warnings against missing the month's forgiveness or deliberately breaking the fast without a valid legal concession .
Transmission and Structure
The treatise is arranged as a collection of traditions transmitted with full chains of narration (isnad) . It opens with chapters addressing the general virtue of the month and the divine mercy, blessing, and forgiveness prepared for those who observe it .
The surviving text preserves the primary transmission of the book through Ibn Shahin's son, Abu al-Qasim Ubayd Allah, from whom it was narrated by Abu al-Husayn Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn al-Naqqur . It was then related by Abu Abd Allah al-Husayn and Abu Muhammad Abd Allah, the sons of Ali ibn Ahmad, and subsequently by Taj al-Din Abu al-Yaman Zayd ibn al-Hasan al-Kindi . The manuscript was witnessed by Ismail ibn Abd Allah ibn al-Anmati, endowed at the Hanbaliyyah school in Damascus, and recorded by the scholar Yusuf ibn Abd al-Hadi via authorization (ijaza) tracing back to Ibn al-Muhibb .
Scholarly Reception and Editions
The treatise has been cited by subsequent hadith compilers and commentators, such as al-Mundhiri in al-Targhib wa-l-Tarhib and al-Bayhaqi . Modern scholars who inspected the manuscript preserved in the Zahiriyyah Library in Damascus observed that Ibn Shahin recorded the narrations without appending personal evaluations regarding their authenticity .
The book has been edited and published in multiple printings, including an edition prepared by Samir al-Zuhayri (Zarqa: Maktabat al-Manar, 1408 AH / 1988 CE) and an edition edited by Badr ibn Abd Allah al-Badr (Kuwait: Dar Ibn al-Athir, 1415 AH / 1994 CE) within a compendium of Ibn Shahin's treatises .
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