Masa'il al-Imam Ahmad riwayat ibnihi Abi al-Fadl Salih
- Author died
- 241 AH
- Editions
- al-Dar al-'Ilmiyyah
Masa'il al-Imam Ahmad riwayat ibnihi Abi al-Fadl Salih (Inquiries of Imam Ahmad Transmitted by His Son Abu al-Fadl Salih) is a source collection of theological, legal, and hadith responsa recorded from Ahmad ibn Hanbal (164–241 AH / 780–855 CE) by his eldest son, Salih ibn Ahmad ibn Hanbal (203–266 AH / 818–880 CE) .
Background and Transmission
Salih was born in 203 AH, and his father closely supervised his education, waiting for him when he was absent so that he would not miss instructional sessions . As noted by Abu Bakr al-Khallal, people from regions such as Khurasan wrote to Salih asking him to submit their queries to his father, resulting in an extensive compilation of rulings and answers .
The surviving copies of the book do not contain an opening chain of transmission (isnad) on the title folio . However, biographical records indicate that the principal transmitter of the complete text from Salih was the ascetic Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Bashar, who heard all of Salih's Masa'il directly from him and transmitted them to others, whereas other students, such as Ibn Abi Hatim and al-Khara'iti, recorded and cited only portions of Salih's material in their own writings .
Content and Methodology
The work covers a broad range of scholarly fields, encompassing jurisprudence, hadith, traditions of early authorities (athar), Quranic exegesis (tafsir), hadith defects (ilal), biographical criticism and evaluation of narrators (al-jarh wa-l-ta'dil), creed (aqidah), history, explanations of rare words and technical terms, and notes on biographical traits such as which traditionists dyed their hair or beards .
The text is not arranged systematically by standard jurisprudential subject headings, nor does it segregate legal rulings from hadith criticism, creed, or exegesis . Instead, Salih recorded inquiries directly during Ahmad's gatherings as they occurred, whether posed by himself or by other attendees . Salih introduced the inquiries with varying transmission phrases, such as "I asked my father about such-and-such", "I asked: which opinion do you adopt?", "He was asked about such-and-such and said...", or "I heard my father say...", and occasionally recorded his father's answers in abbreviated form without explicit transmission terms . In transmitting prophetic hadiths and historical reports from Salih, the narrator consistently employs the phrase "Salih related to us" (haddathana Salih), while frequently omitting it when relaying purely jurisprudential or biographical inquiries .
Manuscripts and Editions
The surviving manuscript heritage includes:
- A manuscript preserved at Dar al-Kutub al-Misriyya (no. 21681 B) consisting of 99 folios, with 21 lines per page .
- An incomplete manuscript copy comprising 76 folios (21 lines per page), originally from the library of Shaykh Abd al-Razzaq Hamza at Dar al-Hadith in Mecca, of which a photographic reproduction is preserved at the Islamic University of Medina (no. 5706/1) .
The text was first edited and studied by Fadlur Rahman Din Muhammad and published by al-Dar al-Ilmiyya in Delhi, India in 1408 AH / 1988 CE . A subsequent edition was published by Dar al-Watan under the supervision of Tariq ibn Awad Allah ibn Muhammad .
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