Majlis min Amali Abi Musa al-Madini
- Author died
- 581 AH
- Editions
- Manuscript published in the free Jawāmiʿ al-Kalim program affiliated with Islamweb website
Majlis min Amālī Abī Mūsā al-Madīnī (A Session from the Dictations of Abu Musa al-Madini) is a short hadith tract preserving a dictation session delivered by the Persian hadith scholar and traditionist Abu Musa al-Madini (501–581 AH / 1107–1185 CE) .
Transmission and Provenance
The session was transmitted directly from Abu Musa al-Madini through his student Sharaf al-Islam Abu al-Faraj 'Abd al-Rahman ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab al-Ansari . Subsequent transmission continued through Levantine and Syrian chains of audition, including Shihab al-Din Muhammad ibn Abi al-'Izz ibn Musharraf al-Ansari and Jamal al-Din 'Abd Allah ibn Ibrahim al-Sinjari (known as Ibn al-Sharayikhi) in Damascus in 811 AH . It was transmitted further down to 9th-century AH scholars, including Kamal al-Din Muhammad ibn al-Barizi and the Shafi'i jurist Jalal al-Din Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Rahman al-Zuhri, who heard it recited at al-Salihiyya in Damascus in 866 AH .
Sessions from Abu Musa's dictations were preserved and referenced across bibliographical and biographical works. Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani recorded his transmission of two sessions from Abu Musa's Amālī in al-Mu'jam al-mufahras, through chains stemming from Abu al-Hasan 'Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Abi al-Majd and the daughters of Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Hadi . Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti likewise cited his transmission of two sessions in Anshāb al-kuthub fī ansāb al-kutub .
Content and Structure
The tract contains a collection of prophetic traditions narrated by Abu Musa al-Madini, all going back through chains of transmission terminating at the Companion Anas ibn Malik . In these narrations, Abu Musa transmits through several prominent authorities and chains, including Abu Nu'aym al-Isfahani, Abu Zakariyya Yahya ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab ibn Manda, Abu Ghalib Ahmad ibn al-'Abbas al-Kushidhi, Abu 'Ali al-Hasan ibn Ahmad al-Haddad, and Abu al-Qasim Hibat Allah ibn Muhammad ibn al-Husayn al-Shaybani in Baghdad .
The narrations in the text address several distinct themes and events:
- Rulings and prophetic conduct, including the Prophet's ﷺ cupping by Abu Tayba, his handling of a broken dish caused by domestic jealousy, and legal retribution (qiṣāṣ) concerning the tooth of al-Rubayyi' bint al-Nadr .
- Virtues and theological tenets, including the reward shared with those prevented by valid excuses from joining the expedition to Tabuk, the glad tidings given to Mu'adh ibn Jabal that whoever dies without associating partners with God enters Paradise, and reports concerning Abu Bakr al-Siddiq .
- Ethical and social anecdotes, such as the Prophet's ﷺ playful interactions with the young Abu 'Umayr over his deceased pet bird, wisdom regarding child behavior, and the arrival of the Ash'arite tribe in Medina singing poetry in anticipation of meeting the Prophet ﷺ and his companions .
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