Risala fi Sirat al-Nabi - صلى الله عليه وسلم - fi al-Hajj wa al-Kalam ala Wadi Muhassir - ضمن "Athar al-Muallimi
- Author died
- 1386 AH
- Editions
- Dār ʿĀlam al-Fawāʾid lil-Nashr wa-al-Tawzīʿ
Risala fi Sirat al-Nabi fi al-Hajj wa al-Kalam ala Wadi Muhassir (Treatise on the Prophet's Pace during Hajj and Discussion of Wadi Muhassir) is a jurisprudential and hadith study by the Yemeni scholar Abd al-Rahman al-Muallimi al-Yamani (d. 1386 AH / 1966 CE) examining the movements of the Prophet between the pilgrimage sites and the legal status of Wadi Muhassir .
Subject and Content
The author examines the hadith narrations concerning the Prophet’s pace while travelling between the sacred sites of the pilgrimage . He begins by clarifying Arabic terms describing camel gaits, such as al-ʽanaq (a brisk pace) and al-nass (a faster pace above al-ʽanaq) . He demonstrates that between Arafat and Muzdalifah, the Prophet did not hasten beyond normal speed and that there is no specific place between them where slowing down or speeding up is legislated, the pace depending solely on crowd density . Moving from Muzdalifah toward Jamrat al-Aqaba, the Prophet rode at a gentle pace until reaching Wadi Muhassir, where he urged his mount to quicken above normal speed until clearing the valley .
Al-Muallimi analyzes four recorded opinions regarding why hastening in Wadi Muhassir is prescribed :
- That the valley is an abode of devils .
- That Christians used to halt there, so the Prophet hastened in opposition to them .
- That polytheists used to halt there to boast of their ancestors .
- That Wadi Muhassir is a place where divine punishment once descended .
He deems the first three opinions weak and favors the fourth, citing the established precedent of hastening through the land of Thamud . He notes that unfamiliarity with the exact punishment does not undermine this reasoning, reviewing reports that it was the site where the Companions of the Elephant were punished or where a hunter was consumed by fire .
In a dedicated section, the treatise evaluates whether Wadi Muhassir belongs to Mina or Muzdalifah . Reviewing conflicting narrations, al-Muallimi concludes that it belongs neither to Muzdalifah nor to Mina, which is the position of the four Sunni legal schools . He expresses surprise at the view of Ibn Hazm that Muhassir is outside the sacred precinct (hil), and concludes by citing Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn al-Qayyim, who characterized Muhassir as an intermediary buffer (barzakh) between Mina and Muzdalifah .
Manuscripts and Publication
An autograph copy of the treatise is preserved in the Library of the Holy Mosque in Mecca under entry no. 4704 . The manuscript spans four pages of large-format paper (25 × 20 cm) and represents a fair copy (mubayyaḍah) free of the corrections and deletions common in the author’s drafts, though it bears no date of composition or transcription . Another copy was described as spanning six folios (25 × 15 cm) . The work was published as the sixteenth treatise within the jurisprudential collection (Majmuʿ Rasaʾil al-Fiqh) of Athar al-Muʿallimi . Later scholars, such as Muhammad ibn Ali ibn Adam al-Ityubi in his commentary on Sahih Muslim, reproduced the treatise, citing its detailed treatment of the topic .
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