Safar al-Saada lil-Fayruzabadi
- Author died
- 817 AH
- Editions
- Markaz al-Kitāb lil-Nashr
Safar al-Sa‘adah (سفر السعادة, The Book of Felicity), also known as al-Sirat al-Mustaqim (الصراط المستقيم, The Straight Path), is a concise treatise on the Prophetic sunnah, daily practices, and devotional life by the lexicographer and scholar Majd al-Din al-Fayruzabadi (729–817 AH / 1329–1415 CE; also reported 816 AH) .
Composition and Purpose
Al-Fayruzabadi composed the work in response to a request from a notable descendant of the Prophet Muhammad who asked him to record the verified practices and sunan of the Prophet based on sound narrations (sahih) . In his introduction, the author stated that his aim was to set down an authoritative guide (dustur) for worshippers in acts of devotion based strictly on established prophetic traditions, thereby circumventing secondary legal disputes and sectarian divergences .
Structure and Contents
The work is organized into an opening (Fatihah), core thematic chapters (Abwab) subdivided into sections (Fusul), and an epilogue (Khatimah) :
- Opening (Fatihah): Covers the Prophet’s state prior to the descent of divine revelation, including his solitary devotion in the Cave of Hira and his worship through remembrance (dhikr) .
- Main Chapters: Address the Prophet’s ritual purity, prayers, night vigils, sermons, Eid prayers, recitation of the Quran, weeping, and fasting, alongside the pilgrimage (Hajj) and the newborn sacrifice (‘aqiqah) . They also document his everyday manners, including travel, greetings, clothing, conjugal relations, sleep, riding, walking, speech, laughter, visiting the sick, loans, and prophetic medicine—such as the treatment of plague, pleurisy, and poison, as well as spiritual and natural remedies for grief and distress .
- Epilogue (Khatimah): Dedicated to identifying chapters and topics in which no rigorously authenticated (sahih) hadith exists according to hadith critics, including disputed reports regarding theological groups, the pre-eternity of divine speech, the lifespan of al-Khidr and Ilyas, and specific virtues of names and intellect .
Commentary and Scholarly Assessment
The Indian hadith scholar Abd al-Haqq al-Dihlawi authored an extensive commentary on the work titled al-Tariq al-Qawim fi Sharh al-Sirat al-Mustaqim (also titled Tariq al-Ifadah fi Sharh Safar al-Sa‘adah) .
Later scholars engaged critically with some of al-Fayruzabadi’s hadith claims in the text; for example, Anwar Shah al-Kashmiri observed that al-Fayruzabadi exaggerated when he asserted that certain ritual actions—such as raising the index finger during the tashahhud and raising the hands (raf‘ al-yadayn) in prayer—had reached the level of mass transmission (tawatur) with around two hundred narrations, remarking that the available sound transmissions for those specific issues fall well below that count .
Answer updated