Juz al-Abdi
- Author died
- 599 AH
- Editions
- Juz al-Abdi
Juz al-Abdi (Juzʾ al-ʿAbdī, lit. 'The Hadith Tract of al-Abdi') is a hadith compilation compiled by the traditionist, man of letters, and prosodist Abu al-Hasan al-Abdi (d. 599 AH / 1202 CE), gathering narrations and traditions transmitted through his scholarly teachers .
Structure and contents
The work consists of 55 numbered hadiths, prophetic traditions, companion reports, and poetic and biographical anecdotes arranged through the author's diverse chains of transmission (isnad) . It opens with the hadith on divine mercy: الرَّاحِمُونَ يَرْحَمُهُمُ الرَّحْمَنُ ارْحَمُوا أَهْلَ الأَرْضِ يَرْحَمْكُمْ أَهْلُ السَّمَاءِ ("The merciful are shown mercy by the Most Merciful; show mercy to those on earth, and the One in heaven will show mercy to you"), which al-Abdi noted was the first hadith he heard from his teacher Abd al-Aziz ibn Muhammad al-Adami at the Old Mosque (al-Jami al-Atiq) in Isfahan .
The tract draws upon transmissions gathered in various scholarly centers, including Baghdad, Basra, Isfahan, and Shiraz . Notable authorities from whom al-Abdi narrates in the text include Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani, Abu Bakr ibn al-Zaghuni, Abu al-Fath Muhammad ibn Abd al-Baqi ibn al-Batti, the renowned female scribe and traditionist Shuhda al-Katiba, Abu al-Abbas Muhammad ibn al-Qasim al-Hariri (narrating from Qadi Abu Shuja Ahmad ibn al-Hasan al-Shafi'i), and al-Abdi's own mother, al-Rashida bint Muhammad ibn Ali . The collection covers an array of subjects—such as the virtues of remembrance, prayer, charity, character, and asceticism—and concludes with an account and verses of counsel given by Asma ibn Kharija al-Fazari to his daughter upon her marriage .
Transmission and preservation
The preserved version of the work represents the transmission of al-Abdi's student Abu Abd Allah al-Husayn ibn Abi al-Hasan ibn Thabit al-Tibi al-Darir, to whom the text was read in Basra on 10 Rabi al-Akhir 635 AH . The surviving manuscript was copied in that same month at the Hanbali school (Madrasat al-Hanabila) in Basra by the scribe Abu al-Faraj ibn Zayd ibn al-Hawari al-Dimashqi, and is preserved in the Zahiriyya Library in Damascus (MS 129, fols. 154–162) .
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