Rusukh al-Ahbar fi Mansukh al-Akhbar
- Author died
- 732 AH
- Editions
- Mu'assasat al-Kutub al-Thaqafiyyah
Rusukh al-Ahbar fi Mansukh al-Akhbar (The Firmness of Scholars regarding Abrogated Reports) is a specialized treatise on the science of hadith abrogation (nasikh al-hadith wa-mansukhuh) by the Shafi'i scholar and Quran reciter Burhan al-Din Ibrahim ibn Umar al-Jabari (d. 732 AH / 1332 CE) .
Subject and Methodology
The work is dedicated to identifying and analyzing conflicting Prophetic reports to determine which rulings were superseded and which remained operative . In the tradition of hadith abrogation literature, scholars categorize the text alongside Abu Bakr al-Hazimi's (d. 584 AH / 1188 CE) al-I'tibar fi al-nasikh wa-l-mansukh min al-athar (Consideration of Abrogating and Abrogated Transmissions), distinguishing their shared approach from the broader tradition represented by Ibn Shahin (d. 385 AH / 995 CE) and Ibn al-Jawzi (d. 597 AH / 1201 CE) . Unlike authors who broadly applied the label of abrogation (naskh) to forms of specification (takhsis) or qualification, al-Jabari followed al-Hazimi’s strict delimitation, restricting abrogation to confirmed instances while employing textual reconciliation (jam'), hermeneutical restriction (haml al-mutlaq 'ala al-muqayyad), or legal preference (tarjih) where abrogation had been claimed erroneously . Throughout the text, al-Jabari's presentation is characterized by conciseness .
Structure and Scope
The book is arranged topically according to the standard chapters of Islamic jurisprudence (kutub al-fiqh), addressing key disputed legal topics across multiple domains :
- Purification (al-Taharah): covers issues such as the volume of two large pitchers (qullatayn), changes in water properties, and the abrogation of wiping over the feet in favor of washing them .
- Prayer and Funerals (al-Salah wa-l-Jana'iz): examines the delayed dawn prayer (al-isfar bi-l-fajr), the latecomer's prayer (al-masbuq), reciting behind the imam, audible recitation of the basmalah, and the fear prayer (salat al-khawf) .
- Fasting (al-Sawm): discusses fasting three days of each month prior to the obligation of Ramadan, pre-dawn meals (al-suhur), and the effect of vomiting on fasting and ritual purity .
- Pilgrimage (al-Hajj): addresses entering ihram while bearing traces of perfume, stipulating conditions in ihram, the status of entering Mecca, and whether the obligation of pilgrimage encompasses women's jihad .
- Transactions, Marriage, Penal Law, and Warfare (al-Buyu', al-Nikah, al-Hudud, al-Jihad): treats earnings of cuppers, sales of dogs, agricultural leasing contracts, revocable divorce, suckling regulations, penal lashes prior to stoning, warfare in sacred months, handshakes during pledges, and the distribution of wartime spoils (salab) .
Attribution and Manuscript Tradition
The author documented the book under this title in his autobiographical bibliography al-Hibat al-Haniyyah fi al-Musannafat al-Ja'bariyyah . It was also recorded by his student Ibn Jabir al-Wadi Ashi in his Barnamaj, cited by al-Sakhawi in Fath al-Mughith, and mentioned by Ibn al-Qadi in Durrat al-Hijal .
The text was preserved in a unique manuscript held in the Taymuriyyah collection at the Egyptian National Library in Cairo, where a modern hand had penned the general heading al-Nasikh wa-l-Mansukh on its opening folio . It was edited by Hasan Muhammad Maqbooli al-Ahdal as a doctoral dissertation submitted to the Islamic University of Madinah in 1405 AH / 1985 CE and published in 1409 AH / 1988 CE by Mu'assasat al-Kutub al-Thaqafiyyah in Beirut and Maktabat al-Jil al-Jadid in Sanaa .
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