Nihayat al-Sul fi Ruwat al-Sitta al-Usul
- Author died
- 884 AH
- Editions
- t Abd al-Munim Ibrahim · t Abd al-Qayyum - Naqis
Nihayat al-Sul fi Ruwat al-Sitta al-Usul (The Attainment of the Goal Concerning the Transmitters of the Six Foundational Books) is a biographical dictionary of hadith transmitters by the Shafi'i hadith scholar Sibt Ibn al-Ajami (Burhan al-Din Ibrahim ibn Muhammad ibn Khalil al-Halabi, 753–841 AH / 1352–1438 CE) . The work focuses on the narrators found in the chains of transmission of the six canonical hadith collections .
Composition and Structure
Sibt Ibn al-Ajami completed the compilation of the book in Aleppo in 829 AH . The work was preserved in an autograph manuscript penned in fine script, held at the Raza Library in Rampur, India (MS 1019), spanning 500 leaves (amounting to 1,000 pages) filled with margin notes and corrections in the author's own hand .
Following the introductory preface, the author opens the text with a concise summary of the Prophet's biography . He then provides a glossary clarifying technical terminology and hierarchical grades of disparagement and commendation (al-jarh wa-l-ta'dil), as well as theological affiliations and doctrinal labels such as al-irja', al-tashayyu', al-qadariyya, al-jahmiyya, al-nasb, and the Kharijites . The bulk of the book comprises biographical entries evaluating the transmitters of the Six Books—Sahih al-Bukhari, Sahih Muslim, and the Sunan collections of Abu Dawud, al-Tirmidhi, al-Nasa'i, and Ibn Majah .
Methodology and Reception
The book is characterized as a comprehensive work of moderate length that avoids excessive elongation or brevity . Sibt Ibn al-Ajami incorporated detailed vocalizations and orthographic precision for proper names, patronymics (kunya), titles (laqab), genealogical nisbas, and toponyms, alongside critical remarks regarding the reliability of narrators and their dates of death .
The work was utilized and noted by contemporary and later scholars. Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani read the book and recorded it among Sibt Ibn al-Ajami's writings in al-Majma' al-Mu'assas . Al-Sakhawi described it as a voluminous single-volume work, and it was also cataloged by al-Maqrizi, Ibn al-Imad, and Hajji Khalifa (who recorded it under the variant title Nihayat al-Sul fi Riwayat al-Sitta al-Usul) . In modern scholarship, Abd al-Fattah Abu Ghudda praised its rare hadith benefits and accurate vocalizations of narrator names . Modern editions include those edited by Abd al-Qayyum Abd Rabb al-Nabi (Umm al-Qura University, 1421 AH) and Abd al-Mun'im Ibrahim (Dar al-Fikr, Beirut, 1423 AH) .
Answer updated