Risala fi Bayan ma Lam Yathbut Fihi Hadith Sahih lil-Fayruzabadi

Risala fi Bayan ma Lam Yathbut Fihi Hadith Sahih min al-Abwab (A Treatise Clarifying the Subject Chapters in Which No Authentic Hadith Is Established) is a concise hadith-critical treatise by the lexicographer and scholar Majd al-Din al-Fayruzabadi (729–817 AH / 1329–1415 CE) Risala fi Bayan ma Lam Ya…+1. The work surveys thematic subject headings (abwab) in Islamic literature under which narrations circulate but for which no authentic (sahih) hadith has been established according to critical hadith scholars Risala fi Bayan ma Lam Ya….

Purpose and Method

In his introduction, al-Fayruzabadi defines the work as a brief pointer to subject chapters where hadiths have been transmitted yet nothing has attained authenticity among expert hadith scholars, noting that despite its extreme brevity, it encompasses wide-ranging disciplines Risala fi Bayan ma Lam Ya…. Rather than evaluating narrations through full isnad analyses, he provides concise negative verdicts on whole topical headings, occasionally contrasting false reports with the specific sound narrations that actually exist on the topic or tracing widespread statements to the sayings of Companions and Successors rather than the Prophet ﷺ Risala fi Bayan ma Lam Ya…+1. In its method of identifying chapters lacking authentic reports, the work aligns with earlier critical compilations, such as Umar ibn Badr al-Mawsili's al-Mughni 'an al-Hifz wa-al-Kitab Diwan al-Sunna - Qism al-….

Structure and Contents

The treatise consists of eighty numbered thematic chapters spanning theology, ritual law, personal virtues, and social transactions Risala fi Bayan ma Lam Ya…+1:

• Theological topics and sects: Al-Fayruzabadi asserts that no prophetic hadith is authentic regarding definitions of faith (iman) increasing and decreasing (attributing such formulations instead to the Companions and Successors), the sects of the Murji'ah, Qadariyyah, and Ash'ariyyah, or the formula that God's speech is pre-eternal (kalam Allah qadim) Risala fi Bayan ma Lam Ya….
• Virtues of persons, scriptures, and localities: He dismisses hadiths concerning the virtues of naming children Muhammad or Ahmad, the intellect ('aql), the continued survival of al-Khidr and Ilyas, and chapter-by-chapter Quranic virtues attributed to Ubayy ibn Ka'b (which he identifies as fabricated by consensus) while citing the handful of specific Quranic surahs whose virtues are authentic Risala fi Bayan ma Lam Ya…+1. He also rejects specific reports on the virtues of Abu Bakr, Ali ibn Abi Talib (such as the collection known as al-Wasaya al-Nabawiyyah), Abu Hanifa, al-Shafi'i, and various cities and sites beyond the three sacred mosques Risala fi Bayan ma Lam Ya….
• Legal and ritual chapters: He rules that no authentic hadith exists for practices such as wiping the neck, wiping the ears, or running fingers through the beard during ablution; reciting the Basmala aloud in prayer; specific invented prayers like Salat al-Ragha'ib and mid-Sha'ban prayers; fasting specifically for Rajab; or certain non-obligatory practices associated with Ashura, such as applying kohl Risala fi Bayan ma Lam Ya…+2.
• Methodological and end-time reports: The text addresses rulings on backbiting open sinners, the authority of consensus (ijma') and analogical reasoning (qiyas), tribulations, and the fabricated report commanding hadiths to be checked against the Quran Risala fi Bayan ma Lam Ya…+2. It concludes with the chapter on the division of the community into seventy-two sects Risala fi Bayan ma Lam Ya….

Manuscripts

Manuscripts of the treatise are preserved in several collections:

• A manuscript copy in the El Escorial Library (MS 1702/12) consisting of five folios, copied in 990 AH al-Bulgha fi Tarajim Aimm….
• A copy in the library of Masjid A'zam (MS 1032) Mujam Tarikh al-Turath al….
• A manuscript transcribed on Friday, 14 Ramadan 1185 AH, by Isma'il ibn Shaykh Muhammad Khalifa for Sa'id ibn Ahmad al-Halabi al-'Attar Risala fi Bayan ma Lam Ya….