Musnad Abi Bakr al-Siddiq - li Ibn Kathir
- Author died
- 774 AH
- Editions
- Maktabat al-Warrāq
Musnad Abi Bakr al-Siddiq (also titled Musnad al-Imam Abi Bakr al-Siddiq wa-Ayyamihi wa-Ahkamihi) is a hadith work compiled by the Syrian Shafi'i scholar Ibn Kathir (d. 774 AH / 1373 CE), collecting the prophetic narrations and reports (athar) transmitted by and concerning the first caliph, Abu Bakr al-Siddiq .
Purpose and Sources
Ibn Kathir compiled the work to bring together the narrations, legal rulings, and biographical reports concerning Abu Bakr from the standard compendia of Islamic tradition . He drew his material from the major canonical and primary reference works, including the Six Books (Sahih al-Bukhari, Sahih Muslim, and the Sunan works of Abu Dawud, al-Tirmidhi, al-Nasa'i, and Ibn Majah), Ahmad ibn Hanbal's al-Musnad, Malik ibn Anas's al-Muwatta', Abu Ya'la al-Mawsili's al-Musnad through its two well-known transmissions, the Mu'jam of al-Tabarani, and the Musnad of al-Bazzar, along with other collections .
Method and Structure
Unlike traditional musnad collections that group narrations solely under the Companion's name regardless of subject matter, Ibn Kathir organized the narrations according to legal topics (abwab al-fiqh) so that readers could easily locate specific rulings and themes . Throughout the collection, he examined the various transmission paths (turuq) and supporting narrations (shawahid), providing critical commentary on hidden defects ('ilal), biographical and chain evaluations, and jurisprudential deductions .
The standalone work contains 148 attributed narrations and historical reports, and it was authored prior to Ibn Kathir's Musnad Umar, Musnad Aisha, and his comprehensive compendium Jami' al-Masanid wa-al-Sunan . While Ibn Kathir included a section for Abu Bakr within Jami' al-Masanid, the standalone Musnad differs by providing detailed critical rulings and evaluations on most narrations, compared to the 142 narrations in Jami' al-Masanid, which contain minimal commentary .
Transmission and Publication
After having been regarded as lost for centuries, a manuscript copy transcribed during Ibn Kathir's lifetime was identified in the private collection of Sayyid Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Busa'idi in Oman . This exemplar was copied from Ibn Kathir's original autograph by the scribe Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Fa'id al-Hanafi on 9 Sha'ban 740 AH . The work was edited from this manuscript by Ghaliyah bint Salim Al Sa'id as a master's thesis and printed by Maktabat al-Warraq al-Ammah .
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