Nazm al-Mutanathir
- Author died
- 1345 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-Kutub al-Salafiyyah
Nazm al-Mutanathir min al-Hadith al-Mutawatir (The Order of the Scattered: Mass-Transmitted Traditions) is a hadith compilation by the Moroccan scholar Muhammad ibn Ja'far al-Kattani (1274–1345 AH / 1857–1927 CE) dedicated to assembling mutawatir (mass-transmitted) prophetic reports.
Background and Composition
Al-Kattani initially began collecting mass-transmitted hadiths from notebooks and registers of his peers to preserve them from loss, gathering a substantial corpus that he named Nazm al-Mutanathir min al-Hadith al-Mutawatir. This initial work occurred before he had access to Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti's al-Azhar al-Mutanathirah fi al-Akhbar al-Mutawatirath. After obtaining al-Suyuti's text, al-Kattani incorporated all of its hadiths into his own compilation without omission.
Al-Kattani surveyed earlier treatises in the genre, noting that Badr al-Din al-Zarkashi was mentioned by al-Sakhawi as having dedicated a monograph to the subject, followed by al-Suyuti's comprehensive al-Fawa'id al-Mutakathirah fi al-Akhbar al-Mutawatirath and its abridgment al-Azhar al-Mutanathirah. He also recorded subsequent works by Ibn Tulun al-Dimashqi (al-La'ali al-Mutanathirah fi al-Ahadith al-Mutawatirath), Murtada al-Zabidi (Laqt al-La'ali al-Mutanathirah), and Siddiq Hasan Khan (al-Hirz al-Maknun).
Structure and Method
The work opens with an introduction defining tawatur (mass transmission) in its linguistic usage and technical hadith terminology, citing authorities such as Ibn al-Salah, al-Nawawi, and al-Sharif al-Jurjani. Al-Kattani addresses the debate regarding the prevalence of mutawatir traditions, clarifying that while verbatim mass transmission (tawatur lafzi) is limited, conceptual mass transmission (tawatur ma'nawi) encompasses numerous topics, such as the wiping over leather socks, the raising of hands in supplication, the prophetic pond (al-Hawd), intercession, and the beatific vision of God in the afterlife.
In presenting individual traditions, al-Kattani identified entries taken from al-Suyuti by stating "he cited it in al-Azhar on the authority of so-and-so," noted the Companions or Successors listed by al-Suyuti while omitting al-Suyuti's detailed source citations, and introduced his own additional narrations or remarks with the formula "I say" (qultu). Traditions gathered independently were presented directly without reference to al-Suyuti.
The text contains a total of 310 hadiths encompassing both verbal and conceptual mass transmission. It concludes with an epilogue (khatimah) examining disputed reports whose mass transmission was asserted by some scholars but contested by others, including narrations on the rights of the neighbor, looking at Ali, the Prophet being born circumcised, and the permissibility of consuming horse meat.
Reception and Publication
The compilation was printed with the patronage of the Moroccan Sultan Abd al-Hafiz ibn al-Hasan. In modern scholarship, Nazm al-Mutanathir has been recognized as a primary rectification and expansion upon al-Suyuti's earlier work, and it served as a foundation for subsequent supplements, such as Abd al-Aziz al-Ghumari's Ithaf Dhawi al-Fada'il al-Mushtahirah.
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