Majlis min Amali Ibn Mandah riwayat ibnihi Abd al-Rahman
- Author died
- 395 AH
- Editions
- Majlis min Amali Ibn Mandah riwayat ibnihi Abd al-Rahman
Majlis min Amali Ibn Mandah riwayat ibnihi Abd al-Rahman (A Session from the Dictations of Ibn Mandah, Recension of His Son Abd al-Rahman) is a hadith dictation transcript by the Persian traditionist Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Ishaq ibn Mandah (d. 395 AH / 1004–1005 CE), preserved through the transmission of his son Abu al-Qasim Abd al-Rahman ibn Muhammad ibn Mandah .
Composition and Transmission
The text records a single dictation session (majlis) delivered by Ibn Mandah during the month of Ramadan in 388 AH (998 CE) . It was transmitted from him by his son, Abu al-Qasim Abd al-Rahman, and later passed down through subsequent generations of scholars, including Ibn Mandah's grandson Abu Zakariyya Yahya ibn Abd al-Wahhab ibn Mandah . The work represents one of several distinct dictation sessions preserved from Ibn Mandah under various transmission lines, such as those transmitted by Abu al-Fadl al-Mutahhar ibn Abd al-Wahid al-Bazzani .
Contents and Theological Discourse
The session comprises thirty-three narrated traditions with full chains of transmission (isnad), opening with ethical and ritual matters before focusing primarily on creed (aqida) and divine attributes (sifat) . The initial reports address themes such as good character, modesty, fasting, prayer, and sending blessings upon the Prophet's family .
The core of the dictation turns to the theological interpretation of God's names and attributes. Ibn Mandah cites prophetic traditions and early authorities concerning the vision of God in the afterlife, God's laughter, the establishment over the Throne (istiwah), and divine foreordainment . Interspersed within the narrations are theoretical expositions by Ibn Mandah:
- Divine Names and Attributes: He argues that God's names and attributes are eternal and uncreated, asserting that God's actions derive from His eternal names, unlike created beings whose names derive from their actions .
- Critique of Dialectical Theology: He rejects figurative interpretation (ta'wil), anthropomorphism (tashbih), and cognitive questioning into the modality (kayfiyya) of divine attributes, citing earlier stances against speculative theology (kalam) from Ibn Khuzayma, Malik ibn Anas, and Abu Zur'ah al-Razi .
- Polemical Defense: He defends the transmission of the early hadith scholars (ashab al-athar), maintaining that the Companions and Successors conveyed these texts while forbidding speculation into their reality, and accusing opponents of fabricating extreme anthropomorphic claims to discredit traditional transmitters .
Manuscript and Audition Records
The work is preserved in manuscript format within the Majami' al-Umariyya collection housed at the Zahiriyya Library in Damascus (Majmu' 41, fols. 48–54) . The manuscript contains auditory transmission notes (samāʿāt), including readings transcribed by the Qur'an reciter Abu Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Abi Ahmad al-Attar at Isfahan in Jumada al-Ula 516 AH (1122 CE) at the hospice (khanqah) of Abu Bakr al-Zayyati, and another reading in Jumada al-Ula 526 AH (1132 CE) .
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