Sifat al-Jannah - al-Diya al-Maqdisi - al-Mukhtasara
- Author died
- 643 AH
- Editions
- Dār Balansiyah
Sifat al-Jannah (The Description of Paradise) is a specialized hadith work compiled by the Hanbali traditionist Diya al-Din al-Maqdisi (567/569–643 AH / 1171/1173–1245 CE) detailing prophetic traditions and reports concerning Paradise, its attributes, and its delights .
Subject and Structure
The book collects transmitted reports and prophetic traditions arranged topically around eschatological descriptions of Paradise . In its abridged version (al-Mukhtasara), the text presents sections including:
- The first person for whom the gate of Paradise will be opened and the first to knock on it .
- The width and expanse of the gates of Paradise .
- The distance between each of the gates of Paradise .
- The key to Paradise, under which the author also recorded a dream he experienced while researching the tradition .
- That no one enters Paradise except with a permit (jawaz) .
Method and Reception
In compiling the traditions, al-Maqdisi frequently provided hadith gradings, authenticating transmissions or noting when their chains of narration met the standards of earlier authorities or the Sahih compilations . Later scholars—including Ibn al-Qayyim, Ibn Kathir, and al-Suyuti—utilized and cited al-Maqdisi's Sifat al-Jannah in their respective hadith, exegetical, and theological treatises .
The work has been preserved in both abridged form and partial manuscripts of the unabridged chain-supported (musnad) compilation, with an edition prepared by Sabri bin Salamah Shahin and published by Dar Balansiyyah in Riyadh (1423 AH / 2002 CE) .
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