Khulasat al-Badr al-Munir
- Author died
- 804 AH
- Editions
- Maktabat al-Rushd lil-Nashr wa-al-Tawzī‘
Khulasat al-Badr al-Munir (The Essence of the Illuminating Full Moon) is a work of hadith extraction (takhrīj) by the Shafi'i traditionist and jurist Ibn al-Mulaqqin (723–804 AH / 1323–1401 CE), abridging his own extensive compendium on the legal traditions cited in Shafi'i jurisprudence .
Composition and Purpose
Ibn al-Mulaqqin initially authored al-Badr al-Munir fi Takhrij al-Ahadith wa-al-Athar al-Waqi'ah fi al-Sharh al-Kabir to trace and evaluate the thousands of prophetic traditions and narrations included in al-Sharh al-Kabir (also known as Fath al-'Aziz) by Abu al-Qasim al-Rafi'i (d. 623 AH), a seminal commentary on Abu Hamid al-Ghazali's Shafi'i legal manual al-Wajiz .
In his introduction to the abridgment, Ibn al-Mulaqqin noted that human life is short, the scope of Islamic knowledge is vast, and students frequently recoil from overly voluminous texts in favor of manageable summaries . Prompted by the suggestion of one of his teachers, he condensed al-Badr al-Munir to approximately one-tenth of its original size so that it would be accessible for learners to memorize and serve as a reliable reference for instructors, while noting that the unabridged parent work remained the primary authority . While the parent work spanned several volumes, bibliographers describe the abridgment as comprising two volumes, though another report notes it in four .
Methodology and Structure
The book follows the arrangement of al-Rafi'i's al-Sharh al-Kabir chapter by chapter . In abridging the material, Ibn al-Mulaqqin focused on citing the soundest or most well-attested transmission chains (asahh al-turuq aw ahsaniha) and presenting the weightiest scholarly positions regarding the legal traditions .
He stripped away extensive chains of transmission (asānīd) and lengthy digressions while preserving critical judgments regarding authenticity (sihhah), good standing (husn), weakness (da'f), hidden defects ('ilal), and narrator status .
Related Works and Editions
Ibn al-Mulaqqin later produced an even more concise selection from the book, summarizing it into brief quires under the title al-Muntaqa min Khulasat al-Badr al-Munir .
The exhaustive material compiled in Ibn al-Mulaqqin's takhrij works on al-Rafi'i served as the foundational source for his student Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, who produced Talkhis al-Habir, abridging al-Badr al-Munir and augmenting it with additional critical benefits from other works such as al-Zayla'i's Nasb al-Rayah .
Khulasat al-Badr al-Munir was edited by Hamdi Abd al-Majid al-Salafi and published in Riyadh by Maktabat al-Rushd (1410 AH) .
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