Sada al-Dujna fi Fasl al-Bida an al-Sunna - ضمن "Athar al-Muallimi
- Author died
- 1386 AH
- Editions
- Dār ʿĀlam al-Fawāʾid lil-Nashr wa-al-Tawzīʿ
Sada al-Dujna fi Fasl al-Bida an al-Sunna (Cleaving the Gloom in Separating Innovation from Sunnah) is a concise theological treatise by the Yemeni scholar Abd al-Rahman al-Muallimi al-Yamani (d. 1386 AH / 1966 CE), dedicated to defining religious innovation (bid'ah) and establishing its boundaries in relation to the prophetic model (Sunnah) .
Title and Purpose
The title Sada al-Dujna draws on classical Arabic lexicography, where al-sad' signifies a split or fissure and al-dujna means intense darkness or gloom, metaphorically denoting the dispelling of ignorance by clarifying the distinction between Sunnah and bid'ah . Al-Muallimi composed the treatise to explain the boundary lines separating established Sunnah from illicit innovation in terms accessible to both students of Islamic knowledge and discerning general readers . In the prologue, he laments the spread of innovations, the confusion of the praiseworthy with the blameworthy, and the retreat of scholars from championing the truth .
Contents and Method
In the treatise, al-Muallimi examines the various classical definitions of bid'ah and the scholarly objections raised against them, presenting illustrative examples and analytical commentary . He also evaluates the status and arguments of Abu Ishaq al-Shatibi's treatise al-I'tisam . At the conclusion of his analysis, al-Muallimi presents his preferred technical definition of innovation as: «أمرٌ أُلْصِق بالدِّين، ولم يكن من هَدي النَّبي (صلى الله عليه وآله وسلم)، لا بالفعل ولا بالقوَّة» ("A matter appended to the religion that was not part of the Prophet's guidance, neither in act nor in potential validity") .
Transmission and Publication
The work survived in a single holograph draft manuscript in al-Muallimi's handwriting, preserved in the Library of the Holy Mosque in Mecca (Maktabat al-Haram al-Makki, MS 4658/1) . The manuscript consists of seven folios (nineteen lines per page, measuring 27 × 15 cm) and contains authorial crossings-out and revisions, with a misplaced final sheet attached from his work al-Ibadah .
The treatise was edited alongside another tract by al-Muallimi, Risala fi Tahqiq al-Bida, and published by Adwa al-Salaf in Riyadh in 1425 AH / 2004 CE under the care of Uthman Muallim Mahmud and Ahmad Hajj Muhammad . It was later incorporated as the third treatise in the sixth volume of the collected works project, Athar al-Muallimi, which gathers ten of his theological treatises . In its printed format, the text spans approximately fifteen pages .
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