Fadail Shahr Ramadan li Abd al-Ghani al-Maqdisi
- Author died
- 600 AH
- Editions
- Dār Ibn Ḥazm lil-Nashr wa-al-Tawzī‘
Fada'il Shahr Ramadan (The Virtues of the Month of Ramadan) is a short hadith tractate (juz') compiled by the Hanbali scholar and traditionist Taqi al-Din Abd al-Ghani al-Maqdisi (541–600 AH / 1146–1203 CE; other reports place his birth in 542, 543, or 544 AH) . The work gathers prophetic traditions and early narrations on the spiritual standing, merits, and acts of devotion associated with the month of Ramadan .
Content and Structure
The treatise brings together hadiths documenting the specific merits of fasting (sawm) and nightly vigil prayers (qiyam) during Ramadan, as well as general virtues of the month . Key themes addressed in the text include:
- The divine obligation of fasting and the promise of Paradise and forgiveness for those who observe it with faith and anticipation of reward (iman wa-ihtisaban) .
- The opening of the gates of Paradise and mercy, the closure of the gates of Hell, and the chaining of devils and rebellious jinn throughout Ramadan .
- The nightly call for seekers of good to come forward and seekers of evil to desist, and the divine emancipation of servants from the Hellfire each night .
- The presence of the Night of Decree (Laylat al-Qadr), characterized as being better than a thousand months .
- The contrast between the believer, who prepares provisions and strength for worship, and the hypocrite or transgressor during the month .
Transmission and Method
Al-Maqdisi arranges the treatise with full chains of transmission (isnad) tracing back from his own direct teachers across the major centers of learning he visited . Among the prominent authorities from whom he received the narrations in the text are Abu Tahir Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Silafi in Alexandria, Abu Bakr Abd Allah ibn Muhammad ibn al-Naqqur al-Bazzaz in Baghdad, Abu al-Husayn Abd al-Haqq ibn Abd al-Khaliq al-Yusufi in Baghdad, Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Hamzah al-Qurashi in Damascus, Abu al-Qasim Hibat Allah ibn al-Hasan al-Daqqaq in Baghdad, and Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Ali ibn Mahjub al-Musaddi in western Baghdad .
The author occasionally inserts critical hadith notes, such as identifying a narrator when confusion might arise or noting the grading and canonical sources of particular narrations (such as pointing out a transmission in Sahih al-Bukhari) . Subsequent transmission records at the opening of the text document its reading by later scholars, including Amat al-Aziz bint Isma'il ibn Ibrahim from the Hanbali hadith scholar Ahmad ibn Abd al-Da'im from al-Maqdisi himself .
Manuscripts and Publication
Manuscript copies of the treatise—sometimes recorded under variant titles such as Juz' fi Fadl Shahr Ramadan or Ahadith fi Fadl Shahr Ramadan—have been preserved in historical manuscript repositories, including the Zahiriyya Library in Damascus (e.g., MS 3791 / majmu' 55, MS 3807 / majmu' 71, and MS 3877 / majmu' 144) .
The text was edited by Ammar ibn Sa'id Tamalt al-Jaza'iri and published by Dar Ibn Hazm in Riyadh (1st edition, 1420 AH / 1999 CE) .
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