Fayd al-Muin
- Author died
- 1014 AH
- Editions
- Maktabat al-Manar
Fayd al-Muin (also known as al-Mubin al-Muin li-Fahm al-Arba‘in) is a commentary on al-Nawawi’s celebrated collection of forty hadiths (al-Arba‘un al-Nawawiyyah) by the Hanafi scholar and polymath al-Mulla Ali al-Qari (d. 1014 AH / 1606 CE) .
Title and Overview
The work is documented across biographical and bibliographical literature under slight variations of its title, including Fayd al-Muin bi-Sharh al-Arba‘in (The Outpouring of the Helper in Explaining the Forty Hadiths), al-Mubin al-Muin li-Fahm al-Arba‘in, and simply Sharh al-Arba‘in al-Nawawiyyah . In the tradition of hadith literature, it was composed to provide a detailed explanation and legal and theological elucidation of the core prophetic traditions compiled by al-Nawawi .
The text opens with the doxology: «الحمد لله الذي جعل الأعداد والأوقات اعتبار الأنام» ("Praise be to God, Who made numbers and times a lesson for mankind") . In the course of his commentary—such as in his analysis of the twenty-fourth tradition—al-Qari discusses specialized topics within hadith sciences, noting alongside other commentators such as Ibn Hajar al-Haytami that the divine traditions (al-Ahadith al-Qudsiyyah) exceed one hundred in number .
Manuscript Heritage
Manuscripts of the commentary have been preserved in numerous collections and libraries globally, including:
- The Berlin State Library
- Princeton University Library (Garrett Collection)
- The Austrian National Library in Vienna (spanning 160 folios)
- The Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Public Library in Patna
- The Al-Azhar Library and the Egyptian National Library (Dar al-Kutub / al-Khedivial Library) in Cairo
- The Central Libraries in Mecca and Riyadh, and King Abdulaziz Library in Medina
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