Ghayat al-Maram fi Takhrij Ahadith al-Halal wa al-Haram
- Author died
- 1420 AH
- Editions
- al-Maktab al-Islami
Ghayat al-Maram fi Takhrij Ahadith al-Halal wa al-Haram (The Ultimate Aim in Documenting the Narrations of The Lawful and the Prohibited) is a hadith evaluation and documentation work by the hadith scholar Muhammad Nasir al-Din al-Albani (1332–1420 AH / 1914–1999 CE), dedicated to verifying and grading the prophetic traditions cited in Yusuf al-Qaradawi’s jurisprudential treatise al-Halal wa al-Haram fi al-Islam (The Lawful and the Prohibited in Islam).
Background and Purpose
The book was composed to provide a rigorous, independent critical evaluation (takhrij) of the prophetic traditions relied upon in al-Qaradawi's work on lawful and prohibited matters. Al-Albani clarified that claims appearing on the covers of certain commercial printings of al-Halal wa al-Haram stating they contained his takhrij were mistaken; the annotations printed in the margins of al-Qaradawi's book were written by al-Qaradawi himself, containing brief citations and judgments that diverged from al-Albani's methodology and findings in Ghayat al-Maram.
Methodology and Content
In Ghayat al-Maram, al-Albani examines the transmission chains (asanid) and texts (mutun) of the narrations referenced across the various legal topics of the original work, tracing them to their primary sources such as Sahih al-Bukhari, Sahih Muslim, the Sunan compilations, and the Musnad of Ahmad ibn Hanbal. He distinguishes authentic (sahih and hasan) reports from weak (da'if) and uncorroborated ones, assessing narrator reliability and hidden defects.
Alongside source verification, al-Albani engages in critical discussions regarding the legal deductions drawn from these narrations. These include topics such as the prohibition of making non-three-dimensional images and hanging pictorial draperies, the rulings on dyeing hair black, and rules pertaining to hunting and slaughter. In several instances, he critiques the reliance on weak narrations or interpretations that run counter to prevailing authentic evidence.
In subsequent scholarship, al-Albani revisited the grading of certain narrations from the book, upgrading several hadiths that he had initially declared weak in Ghayat al-Maram to authentic in his later compendiums, such as Silsilat al-Ahadith al-Sahiha.
Publication History
Ghayat al-Maram was published in Beirut by al-Maktab al-Islami in 1400 AH (1980 CE). A fourth edition was issued by the same publishing house in 1414 AH (1994 CE) in a single volume comprising 244 pages.
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