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Ibn al-Mubarrad

Maarif al-Inam wa Fadl al-Shuhur wal-Ayyam

Author died
909 AH
Editions
Dār al-Nawādir

Maarif al-Inam wa Fadl al-Shuhur wal-Ayyam (The Knowledge of Graces and the Virtues of Months and Days) is a devotional and hortatory work on the merits of the sacred seasons, months, days, and righteous deeds of the Islamic calendar, composed by the Hanbali scholar Ibn al-Mubarrad (Yusuf ibn Hasan ibn Abd al-Hadi, 841–909 AH / 1438–1503 CE).

Composition and Sources

Ibn al-Mubarrad wrote the work in his early youth at approximately nineteen years of age, and it is regarded as one of his earliest writings. The work belongs to the genre of seasonal devotion and homilies, drawing heavily upon the tradition established by earlier Hanbali scholars, most notably Ibn Rajab's Lata'if al-Ma'arif and Ibn al-Jawzi's al-Tabsira, adopting their exhortative style, spiritual counsels, and moral admonitions.

Structure and Contents

The author arranged the book into eighteen primary chapters (fasl):

  1. What is related regarding Ramadan, generosity during it, Quran recitation, and the Night of Power (Laylat al-Qadr).
  2. The month of Shawwal.
  3. The Hajj pilgrimage and its virtues.
  4. The month of Dhu al-Qi'dah.
  5. Dhu al-Hijjah and its blessed ten days.
  6. Ashura and its virtues.
  7. The arrival of the pilgrims.
  8. The month of Safar.
  9. The month of Rabi' al-Awwal.
  10. The death of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ.
  11. The month of Rajab.
  12. The month of Sha'ban.
  13. What is transmitted regarding the night of mid-Sha'ban (Laylat al-Nisf min Sha'ban).
  14. Friday (Yawm al-Jumu'ah).
  15. Thursdays and Mondays.
  16. The White Days (Ayyam al-Bid).
  17. The Heavenly Ascension (al-Mi'raj).
  18. A comprehensive final section containing twenty sub-chapters on ethical and spiritual themes:
    • Opposing the Jews in their festivals.
    • The night and the day, and their obligations.
    • God's mercy and benevolence toward His servants.
    • Paradise.
    • Prayer (al-Salah).
    • Obligatory charity (al-Zakah).
    • Repentance (al-Tawbah) and abandoning transgressions.
    • Patience (al-Sabr).
    • Gratitude (al-Shukr).
    • Fear of God (al-Khawf).
    • Reflection and contemplation (al-Tafakkur).
    • Reliance upon God (al-Tawakkul).
    • Performing good deeds, and the censure of backbiting and tale-bearing.
    • Curbing the desires of the stomach and the private parts.
    • Censure of worldly attachment and prolonged hopes.
    • Censure of stinginess, envy, and anger.
    • The stratagems of Satan and warnings against self-delusion.
    • Death and the Day of Resurrection.
    • Cold and heat.
    • Miscellaneous sections.

Transmission and Publication

The work is preserved in a unique autograph manuscript preserved in the Zahiriyya Library in Damascus (no. 1463), dated 857 AH. The manuscript consists of 74–75 folios and exhibits a lacuna at the beginning encompassing part of the opening chapter on Ramadan. It records certificates of audition (sama'at) written in the author's own hand at the end, documenting that the book was read in his household in the al-Sahm al-A'la quarter of al-Salihiyya to his brothers Abu Bakr Hasan and Ahmad, among other family members and students.

The text was edited by a specialist committee supervised by Nur al-Din Talib and published by Dar al-Nawaadir in 1432 AH / 2011 CE in a single volume.

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