Ithaf Dhawi al-Muruwa wal-Inafa bima Jaa fi al-Sadaqa wal-Diyafa
- Author died
- 974 AH
- Editions
- Maktabat al-Qur'an li-l-Tab' wa-l-Nashr wa-l-Tawzi'
Ithaf Dhawi al-Muruwa wal-Inafa bima Jaa fi al-Sadaqa wal-Diyafa (The Gift to Noble and Dignified Souls Regarding What Has Been Transmitted on Charity and Hospitality) is a legal and hadith treatise by the Shafi'i jurist and scholar Shihab al-Din Ibn Hajar al-Haytami (899 or 909–974 AH / 1493 or 1504–1567 CE), dedicated to the virtues, traditions, and legal rulings governing voluntary charity (sadaqa) and hospitality (diyafa) .
Title and Opening
The work is recorded in classical and biographical literature under several titles and variants, including:
- al-Inafa fima Jaa fi al-Sadaqa wal-Diyafa
- Ithaf Dhawi al-Ghina wal-Inafa ila ma Jaa fi al-Sadaqa wal-Diyafa
- Irshad Ahl al-Ghina wal-Inafa [or al-Anaqa] fima Jaa fi al-Sadaqa wal-Diyafa
- Haqa'iq al-Inafa fi al-Sadaqa wal-Diyafa
- Ithaf Dhawi al-Muru'a wal-Anaqa bima Jaa fi al-Sadaqa wal-Diyafa
Bibliographers record the treatise's opening sentence as: «الحمد لله الذي اختص من شاء من عباده بمزايا إنعامه» ("Praise be to God Who distinguished whom He willed among His servants with the merits of His bounty") .
Subject and Juristic Analysis
In his commentary al-Fath al-Mubin bi-Sharh al-Arba'in, al-Haytami notes that the book compiles prophetic hadiths and juristic rulings concerning charity—particularly to neighbors—and hospitality as foundational virtues in Islamic ethics .
A central juristic issue addressed in the work is the legal obligation of hospitality. While Ahmad ibn Hanbal regarded hospitality as obligatory (wajib) based on apparent hadith texts, al-Haytami defended the position of the Shafi'is and the majority of scholars (al-jumhur), who interpreted these narrations as referring either to the early period of Islam when mutual aid was mandatory, or as expressions of emphatic recommendation (ta'kid) rather than strict legal obligation .
In al-Fatawa al-Kubra al-Fiqhiyya, al-Haytami refers back to this book when discussing disagreements over legal discussions surrounding hospitality found in Yahya ibn Sharaf al-Nawawi's Sharh Sahih Muslim and al-Majmu' . Additionally, commentators noted that al-Haytami demonstrated in this treatise that prophetic reports ostensibly commanding the mandatory acceptance of unsolicited, lawful wealth are to be understood as recommending (nadb) rather than obligating its acceptance .
Publication
The treatise has been edited and published under the title al-Inafa fi al-Sadaqa wal-Diyafa, edited by Majdi al-Sayyid Ibrahim and printed by Maktabat al-Qur'an in Cairo .
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