Hadith Innama al-Amal bil-Niyyat - min al-Badr al-Munir al-Sari fi al-Kalam ala Sahih al-Bukhari
- Author died
- 735 AH
- Editions
- Majallat al-Turāth al-Nabawī
Hadith Innama al-Amal bil-Niyyat - min al-Badr al-Munir al-Sari fi al-Kalam ala Sahih al-Bukhari is an extant excerpt from the incomplete commentary on Sahih al-Bukhari composed by the Hanafi hadith scholar al-Qutb al-Halabi (d. 735 AH / 1335 CE) . The text focuses on the opening chapter and the foundational hadith of intention ( إنما الأعمال بالنيات , "Actions are only by intentions") from Sahih al-Bukhari .
Context and Scope
The larger work from which this section survives, al-Badr al-Munir al-Sari fi al-Kalam ala Sahih al-Bukhari ("The Illuminating, Traversing Full Moon in Commentary on Sahih al-Bukhari"), was not brought to completion by its author; al-Qutb al-Halabi reached approximately the midpoint of Sahih al-Bukhari before his work ceased . Only three distinct portions of that half are known to have survived: this section commenting on the opening hadith of intentions, a section on Kitab al-Ilm (The Book of Knowledge), and a section on Kitab al-Taharah (The Book of Purification) .
Method and Contents
The excerpt opens with the initial chapter heading of Sahih al-Bukhari regarding the beginning of revelation (Bad al-Wahy) and addresses both textual and linguistic dimensions of the work :
- Textual variants and grammar: al-Qutb al-Halabi records manuscript differences, such as copies omitting or including the word bab (chapter), and examines the grammatical parsing (irab) and vocalization options of key introductory terms .
- Linguistic and thematic analysis: He provides lexical definitions and linguistic variants for terms such as bad (beginning or appearance) and wahy (revelation, defined linguistically as swift, hidden communication) .
- Theology of revelation: He enumerates the forms through which revelation came to prophets, including true dreams, inspiration cast into the heart, bell-like reverberations, the angel appearing in human form (such as the form of Dihyah al-Kalbi), or the angel appearing in his original celestial form with six hundred wings .
- Commentary on the Hadith of Intention: The work systematically examines the chain of narration leading from al-Humaydi from Sufyan ibn Uyaynah from Yahya ibn Said al-Ansari from Muhammad ibn Ibrahim al-Taymi from Alqamah ibn Waqqas al-Laythi from Umar ibn al-Khattab, alongside the legal rulings, conditions, and significance of intention (niyyah) in worship .
Manuscript and Transmission
The published text was edited by Khalid Abd al-Azim al-Huwayni based on a unique manuscript preserved at Dar al-Kutub al-Misriyya (MS Hadith Tal'at no. 486), consisting of 19 folios with 15 lines per page, containing a single omitted leaf noted in the margin .
The manuscript contains an audition note (qiraah) documenting that the scholar Ahmad ibn Abd al-Qadir ibn Ahmad ibn Maktum al-Qaysi read this portion of al-Badr al-Munir al-Sari back to al-Qutb al-Halabi and verified it against the author's own autograph manuscript at the author's residence outside Bab al-Nasr in Cairo on Friday, 22 Rajab 722 AH (1322 CE), receiving full authorization (ijazah) to transmit it .
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