Nuzhat al-Albab fi Qawl al-Tirmidhi «Wa fi al-Bab»
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- Dār Ibn al-Jawzī lil-Nashr wa-al-Tawzī‘
Nuzhat al-Albab fi Qawl al-Tirmidhi «Wa fi al-Bab» (The Promenade of Minds Regarding al-Tirmidhi's Statement "And in the Chapter...") is a six-volume hadith reference work by the contemporary Yemeni scholar Abu al-Fadl Hasan ibn Muhammad ibn Haydar al-Wa'ili al-San'ani . The book provides an exhaustive attribution and critical analysis (takhrij) of the companion narrations referenced by Abu Isa al-Tirmidhi across his Jami' under the phrase wa fi al-bab ("and regarding this chapter [there are narrations from...]") .
Background and Purpose
In his Jami', after narrating a hadith with its transmission chain, al-Tirmidhi frequently points to corroborating or related narrations on the same legal or thematic topic by listing the names of other Companions . Tracing these referenced narrations to primary sources and establishing their exact texts and chains was historically regarded by hadith scholars as one of the most demanding tasks in commenting on the Jami' . Ahmad Shakir noted that exhaustively locating every hadith signaled by al-Tirmidhi had proven beyond the reach of later commentators, and that Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani had begun a compilation on the subject—titled al-I'jab fi takhrij ma yaqulu fihi al-Tirmidhi wa-fi al-bab (or al-Ujab)—of which he wrote only about six quires without completing it .
Al-Wa'ili, who memorized Jami' al-Tirmidhi with its chains of transmission, spent roughly twenty-five years collecting the material to complete this comprehensive takhrij . He chose the title Nuzhat al-Albab taking an auspicious omen (tayammunan) from Ibn Hajar .
Method and Scope
The work is organized sequentially following the chapters and headings of Jami' al-Tirmidhi, beginning with Kitab al-Taharah (The Book of Purification) . For each chapter:
- The author identifies every narration indicated by al-Tirmidhi under wa fi al-bab and locates it within primary hadith compilations that record reports with original chains of transmission (asānīd) .
- He details the transmission pathways (ṭuruq) through each named Companion, evaluates differences in transmission, and analyzes hidden defects (ʿilal) and textual variants .
In total, the compilation includes approximately 4,000 hadiths, and al-Wa'ili succeeded in tracing all of al-Tirmidhi's referenced narrations across the entire Jami' except for fewer than ten hadiths .
Publication and Reception
The work includes a commendatory preface (taqrīẓ) written on 10 Dhu al-Qi'dah 1425 AH by Abdullah ibn Muhammad al-Hashidi, professor of hadith at Iman University and the Scientific Da'wah Center in Sana'a, who praised the compilation as a monumental service to Jami' al-Tirmidhi and Prophetic tradition .
Nuzhat al-Albab was published in its first edition in 1426 AH (2005 CE) by Dar Ibn al-Jawzi in Saudi Arabia in six volumes with continuous pagination .
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