Majlis al-Rawda - Tirad al-Zaynabi
- Author died
- 491 AH
- Editions
- Arwiqah lil-Dirāsāt wal-Nashr
Majlis al-Rawda (The Session of the Rawdah) is a short hadith compilation dictated by the Abbasid syndic and scholar Tirad al-Zaynabi (398–491 AH / 1008–1098 CE) in Medina .
Composition and Setting
The work records a single dictation session (amālī) delivered by Tirad al-Zaynabi after the Friday prayer on 7 Muharram 490 AH (recorded in some copies as 470 AH) in the Prophet's Mosque in Medina, situated in the noble Rawdah between the Prophet's tomb and minbar facing the minbar . The hadiths were dictated through the reading and assistance of the hadith master Abu Nasr Mahmud ibn al-Fadl al-Isfahani .
Contents and Structure
The text consists of five transmitted reports with their full chains of transmission (asānīd) and critical notes on their concordance with the canonical collections :
- A prophetic hadith transmitted from Anas ibn Malik stating that the Prophet ﷺ will seek entry at the gate of Paradise on the Day of Resurrection, noted by al-Zaynabi as authentic and recorded in Sahih Muslim .
- A hadith on the names of the Prophet ﷺ ("I am Muhammad, and I am Ahmad, and I am al-Māḥī..."), narrated from Jubayr ibn Mut'im, noted as agreed upon by al-Bukhari and Muslim .
- A narration by Anas describing the softness of the Prophet's hand, his pleasant scent, and his noble character during ten years of domestic service, noted as authentic and transmitted in Sahih al-Bukhari .
- A hadith narrated by Anas regarding the Bedouin who inquired about the Day of Judgment, to whom the Prophet ﷺ answered: فإنَّكَ مَع مَن أَحبَبتَ ("You will be with whom you love"), noted as authentic and transmitted in Sahih Muslim .
- A historical report (athar) concerning the Abbasid Caliph al-Mahdi seeking refuge and humbly supplicating during a severe windstorm .
The material of this dictation also constitutes the first session of the compilation entitled Tis'at Majalis min Amali al-Zaynabi, arranged by Abu Ali al-Bardani, though with slight differences in the order and textual follow-ups .
Transmission and Preservation
The session was transmitted through two primary lines:
- An Andalusian transmission directly heard (samā') from al-Zaynabi by Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi, who subsequently passed it on to students such as Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Ibrahim ibn Khalaf al-Ansari (known as Ibn al-Fakhkhar) and Abu Muhammad Abd al-Haqq ibn Abd al-Malik ibn Bunah .
- An eastern line via written authorization (ijāzah) granted by al-Zaynabi to Abu Tahir al-Silafi, who passed it to Abd al-Wahhab ibn Rawaj al-Iskandarani .
The book is recorded in biographical and bibliographical repertories such as the Fihrist of Ibn Khayr al-Ishbili, the Takmila of Ibn al-Abbar, and the Mu'jam al-Mufahras and al-Majma' al-Mu'assis of Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani . Manuscript copies survive in the Escorial Library in Spain (MS 5349) and within the Umariyya collections (MS 63) in Damascus . Modern editions have been published within collected works dedicated to Tirad al-Zaynabi's surviving hadith treatises .
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