Musnad al-Shafii - Tartib al-Sindi
- Author died
- 204 AH
- Editions
- دار الكتب العلمية
Musnad al-Shafii (Tartib al-Sindi) is a rearrangement of the hadith collection attributed to al-Shafii (d. 204 AH / 820 CE), organized according to the chapters of Islamic jurisprudence by the hadith scholar and Hanafi jurist Muhammad Abid al-Sindi (d. 1257 AH / 1841 CE) .
Background and Purpose
The original Musnad al-Shafii was not compiled by al-Shafii himself; rather, it was gathered from the narrations transmitted by Abu al-Abbas Muhammad ibn Yaqub al-Asamm from al-Rabi ibn Sulayman al-Muradi from al-Shafii's works, principally Kitab al-Umm . The extraction of these hadiths was carried out by Abu Amr Muhammad ibn Jafar ibn Matar al-Naysaburi (also referred to as Abu Jafar), or, according to an alternative report, by al-Asamm himself .
Because the original compiler recorded the reports as they came without organizing them systematically by legal chapters or transmitters, hadiths appeared under chapter headings derived from source treatises—such as Ikhtilaf Malik wa-l-Shafii, al-Risalah, and Ibtal al-Istihsan—or under loose headings with widespread repetition across different sections . Al-Sindi noted in his introduction that this lack of arrangement made locating narrations arduous for students, prompting him to reorganize and edit the text . He completed the arrangement after the afternoon prayer on Thursday, the eve of 20 Rabi al-Awwal 1230 AH (1815 CE), relying on an authenticated manuscript preserved by earlier scholars .
Structure and Method
Al-Sindi systematically reorganized the hadiths across the standard subjects of jurisprudence (abwab al-fiqh) :
- He excised narrations that were duplicated in both wording and meaning .
- He structured the opening sections by placing Kitab al-Iman wa-l-Islam first, followed by Kitab al-Ilm, then Kitab al-Itisam bi-l-Kitab wa-l-Sunnah, and then Kitab al-Taharah divided into ten chapters, proceeding thereafter through the remaining fiqh subjects .
- When encountering problematic readings in his base manuscript, he adhered strictly to the transmitted text while recording necessary corrections and explanatory notes in the margins .
Commentary and Reception
Al-Sindi commenced an extensive commentary on his rearranged text titled Masad al-Almai al-Muhadhdhab fi Hall Musnad al-Imam al-Shafii al-Murattab, though he only completed approximately half of it before his death . The manuscript of this commentary was preserved in the Mahmudiyyah library at the Prophet's Mosque in Medina .
The rearranged Musnad was received as an accessible resource for studying the textual proofs (adillah) underlying the Shafi'i legal school . The work was published in Cairo under the encouragement of Muhammad Zahid al-Kawthari, who provided an introduction, with editorial collaboration from Yusuf Ali al-Zawawi and Muhammad Izzat al-Attar al-Husayni .
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