Fath al-Qarib al-Mujib ala al-Targhib wa al-Tarhib
- Author died
- 870 AH
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- The Editor
Fath al-Qarib al-Mujib ala al-Targhib wa al-Tarhib (The Grant of the Responding Near One upon "Encouragement and Warning") is an extensive Arabic commentary on Abd al-Azim al-Mundhiri's (d. 656 AH) hadith collection al-Targhib wa al-Tarhib, authored by the Egyptian scholar Hasan ibn Ali al-Fayyumi (d. 870 AH / 1465 CE) .
Background and Composition
Al-Mundhiri's base work, al-Targhib wa al-Tarhib, enjoyed widespread public recitation and study across Muslim lands, particularly during the months of Rajab, Sha'ban, and Ramadan, because its chains of transmission were abridged, making it accessible to both scholars and laymen . Al-Fayyumi explained in his introduction that although the work was popular, its texts contained difficult and obscure phrases (gharib) that required explanation from lexicographical works and commentaries; having found no satisfying answers from contemporary teachers and noting the absence of a comprehensive commentary at the time, he undertook the compilation of this work .
Al-Fayyumi served as the imam at the al-Zahid Mosque in the al-Maqsam quarter of Cairo, where he regularly read and taught the book to public audiences . Shams al-Din al-Sakhawi recorded that al-Fayyumi mastered al-Mundhiri's text, studied it under several teachers—including Ibn Khidr, Shihab al-Din al-Mahalli, and Burhan al-Din al-Karaki—and heard it under Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani . Al-Sakhawi further noted in al-Jawahir wa al-durar that the original al-Targhib largely achieved widespread dissemination through al-Fayyumi's sustained dedication, transcription, and teaching of the text over his lifetime . Colophons on surviving manuscript volumes indicate that al-Fayyumi was completing parts of the text around 859 AH .
Content and Methodology
Fath al-Qarib al-Mujib is a voluminous, multi-volume commentary that expands significantly upon al-Mundhiri's original compilation . In expounding the traditions, al-Fayyumi incorporates:
- Linguistic and lexical analysis: defining obscure vocabulary, parsing difficult grammatical constructions, and vocalizing narrator names and geographical locations .
- Narrative and context: citing occasions of revelation/transmission (asbab al-wurud) omitted by al-Mundhiri, along with historical narratives, moral anecdotes, and the virtues of the Companions and Successors to illustrate each hadith's intent .
- Hadith criticism and jurisprudence: discussing narrator evaluations (jarh wa ta'dil), hadith terminology, differing scholastic judgments on authenticity, legal rulings (fiqh), scholarly disagreements, and reconciling apparent contradictions between texts .
- Supplementary texts: adding variant wordings and traditions not found in the original source, often quoting from classical works that are otherwise rare or lost .
Abridgment and Manuscript Heritage
The commentary was abridged by the Maliki jurist Ali ibn Muhammad al-Manufi al-Shadhili (d. 939 AH) under the title Talkhis Fath al-Qarib al-Mujib ala al-Targhib wa al-Tarhib .
Manuscript copies of Fath al-Qarib al-Mujib are preserved across several global collections, including the British Library in London, the al-Qarawiyyin Library in Fez, the Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Public Library in Patna, and the Sa'idiyya collection in Hyderabad .
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