Sharh al-Ilmam bi-Ahadith al-Ahkam
- Author died
- 702 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-Nawādir
Sharh al-Ilmam bi-Ahadith al-Ahkam (Explanation of the Comprehension of Legal Hadiths), also referred to as al-Imam fi Sharh al-Ilmam, is an extensive legal hadith commentary by the Egyptian scholar Ibn Daqiq al-Id (625–702 AH / 1228–1302 CE) . The work is a detailed explanation of the author's own legal hadith compendium, al-Ilmam bi-Ahadith al-Ahkam, which he had originally abridged from his larger work al-Imam fi Ma'rifat Ahadith al-Ahkam .
Composition and Scope
Ibn Daqiq al-Id composed al-Ilmam after observing that some of his contemporaries found his earlier compendium, al-Imam, too lengthy . He then began this elaborate commentary on al-Ilmam, but did not complete it, halting at the end of the chapter on the description of ablution (bab sifat al-wudu') . In another account, Ibrahim al-Biqa'i reported that the author completed the commentary, but only a small portion remained extant after his death . Al-Dhahabi noted that had the entire commentary been finished and fair-copied, it would have reached fifteen volumes . The surviving portion covers fifty-seven hadiths, from which nearly three thousand scholarly benefits and legal issues are derived .
Methodology and Sources
The author opened the commentary with an introduction addressing the status of jurisprudence in religion, the necessity of prioritizing textual revelation over conflicting analogies or opinions, and an explanation of the preface to al-Ilmam . In analyzing each hadith, Ibn Daqiq al-Id drew upon four interrelated scholarly disciplines: hadith criticism, legal theory (usul al-fiqh), substantive jurisprudence (fiqh), and the Arabic language sciences .
His method for each narration includes:
- Briefly identifying the narrators, Companion transmitters, and hadith compilers .
- Assessing hadith authenticity and occasionally noting why a particular transmission variant was selected for the chapter .
- Explaining unusual vocabulary (gharib), grammatical parsing (i'rab), and rhetorical features .
- Applying logical principles, rational rules, and legal theoretical guidelines to the text .
- Deriving legal rulings directly from the wording of the hadith while avoiding extraneous questions not rooted in the text .
- Examining the arguments of various legal schools (madhahib) without partisan bias, evaluating prior commentators' positions, and offering independent scholarly assessments .
The commentary relies on more than 230 major Islamic reference works from late seventh-century AH scholarship and earlier .
Reception
Scholars praised the depth of deduction and critical analysis in the work. Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani remarked that in this commentary, Ibn Daqiq al-Id produced remarkable insights demonstrating the breadth of his learning, particularly in legal derivation (istinbat) . The author's student Qutb al-Din al-Halabi stated that no scholar had spoken on hadith in such a comprehensive manner from the era of the Companions until his own time, citing as an example the author's commentary on the hadith of al-Bara' ibn 'Azib— أمرنا رسول الله صلى عليه وسلم بسبع، ونهانا عن سبع ("The Messenger of Allah ﷺ commanded us with seven and forbade us from seven")—from which he derived four hundred separate benefits . Ibn Taymiyyah described the underlying collection as "the book of Islam," stating that no one had produced its equal, including Diya' al-Din al-Maqdisi and his own grandfather Majd al-Din Ibn Taymiyyah .
Manuscripts and Publication
The commentary has been edited and published by Muhammad Khalluf al-Abdullah based on three manuscript copies, including a primary copy preserved at al-Azhar .
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