Ghurar al-Fawaid al-Majmua
- Author died
- 662 AH
- Editions
- Maktabat al-ʻUlūm wa-al-Ḥikam
Ghurar al-Fawa'id al-Majmu'a fi Bayan ma Waqa'a fi Sahih Muslim min al-Ahadith al-Maqtu'a (The Choice Collected Benefits in Clarifying the Disconnected Hadiths Occurring in Sahih Muslim) is a specialized hadith treatise by the Egyptian Maliki traditionist al-Rashid al-Attar (d. 662 AH / 1264 CE) . The work investigates fourteen narrations in Sahih Muslim that had been characterized as having broken chains of transmission (maqtu'at al-asanid), proving their continuous connectivity (ittisal) through alternative transmission paths .
Background and Purpose
The treatise was motivated by statements in al-Mu'lim bi-Fawa'id Muslim, a commentary on Sahih Muslim by Abu 'Abd Allah Muhammad ibn 'Ali al-Mazari (d. 536 AH / 1141 CE) . Drawing on earlier observations by the Andalusian scholar Abu 'Ali al-Ghassani al-Jayyani, al-Mazari counted fourteen narrations in Sahih Muslim as having disconnected chains . However, al-Mazari did not detail the exact nature of these interruptions nor identify the authorities who transmitted them with continuous chains . Al-Rashid al-Attar noted that this omission led readers unfamiliar with the broader science of hadith transmission to suspect that these reports were irrevocably disconnected and unfit to serve as legal evidence . He composed the book to refute this misconception and demonstrate that all of these narrations possess authenticated, continuous chains .
Content and Methodology
Al-Rashid al-Attar systematically examines each of the impugned narrations, citing their full chains from other authoritative compilations—such as Sahih al-Bukhari and the collections of Abu Dawud, al-Tirmidhi, and al-Nasa'i—to verify their unbroken transmission . In addition to the fourteen narrations listed by al-Mazari and al-Ghassani, the author added other comparable reports from Sahih Muslim that al-Ghassani had not cataloged .
Methodologically, al-Attar challenges the terminology applied by al-Mazari and al-Ghassani, arguing that labeling chains with ambiguous narrators (such as the phrasing haddathana sahibun lana, "a companion of ours narrated to us") as maqtu' contradicts the standard usage of the majority of hadith scholars; he explains that such chains are considered connected (musnad) with ambiguity in an individual narrator's identity, rather than being broken chains . He also highlights variant transmission paths of Sahih Muslim itself, pointing out where a narrator remained anonymous in one recension—such as that of Ibn Mahan—while being explicitly named in the primary recension of Ibrahim ibn Muhammad ibn Sufyan .
Transmission and Reception
The treatise was circulated among later hadith scholars and biographers. The Hanafi scholar Abd al-Qadir al-Qurashi records receiving the work through an audition chain in 712 AH from his teacher Abu Ishaq Ibrahim ibn Muhammad ibn 'Abd Allah al-Zahiri, who studied it directly under the author . Later traditionists, including Ibn al-Salah and al-Iraqi, cited the compilation in discussions concerning hanging (mu'allaq) and interrupted transmissions in the two Sahih collections . Modern scholars, such as Muhammad ibn 'Ali ibn Adam al-Ityubi, incorporated the full text into commentaries on the introduction to Sahih Muslim .
Editions
The work has been edited and published in several modern editions:
- Edited by Muhammad Khurshafi (Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-'Ilmiyya / Medina: Maktabat al-'Ulum wa-l-Hikam, 1417 AH / 1996 CE) .
- Edited by Mashhur Hasan Salman .
- Edited by Salah al-Amin Muhammad Bilal (Riyadh: Maktabat al-Rushd, 1421 AH / 2000 CE) .
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