Silsilat al-Dhahab
- Author died
- 852 AH
- Editions
- Dr. Abd al-Mu'ti Amin Qal'aji
Silsilat al-Dhahab (Arabic: سلسلة الذهب, lit. 'The Golden Chain'), fully titled Silsilat al-Dhahab fīmā rawāhu al-Imām al-Shāfiʿī ʿan Mālik ʿan Nāfiʿ ʿan Ibn ʿUmar, is a specialized hadith compilation by the Shafi'i scholar and hadith master Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani (773–852 AH / 1372–1449 CE) . The work gathers prophetic traditions and legal reports transmitted through one of the most celebrated and rigorously authentic chains of narration in Islamic tradition .
Background and Significance of the Chain
In hadith terminology, the isnad Malik ibn Anas from Nafi' from Abdullah ibn Umar was designated by Muhammad ibn Isma'il al-Bukhari as the soundest of all chains of transmission (aṣaḥḥ al-asānīd) . Hadith critics and scholars, including Abu Mansur al-Tamimi, reasoned that because Muhammad ibn Idris al-Shafi'i was widely regarded as the most eminent scholar to transmit directly from Malik, the pathway al-Shafi'i from Malik from Nafi' from Ibn 'Umar represented the most venerable of isnads . Some later scholars further incorporated Ahmad ibn Hanbal as the most distinguished narrator from al-Shafi'i, referring to this sequence of major jurists and traditionists as Silsilat al-Dhahab . Ibn Hajar highlighted this chain as one that bridges the methodologies of both the jurists (fuqahāʾ) and the hadith specialists (muḥaddithūn) .
Content and Structure
In this work, Ibn Hajar documents narrations transmitted along this single line of authority, tracing his own isnad through Muwaffaq al-Din Abd al-Latif ibn Yusuf al-Baghdadi back to al-Rabi' ibn Sulayman al-Muradi from al-Shafi'i from Malik from Nafi' from Ibn 'Umar .
The collection comprises both marfūʿ (attributed directly to the Prophet ﷺ) and mawqūf (reports and legal rulings of Abdullah ibn 'Umar) traditions across a wide spectrum of legal topics, including:
- Ritual purity and prayer: Regulations on ablution (wuḍūʾ), wiping over leather socks, the fear prayer (ṣalāt al-khawf), congregational prayer, reciting in prayer, and travel prayers .
- Zakat and Fasting: The obligation of zakāt al-fiṭr, the passage of the hawl for zakat liability, jewelry, and rules regarding involuntary vomiting or cupping while fasting .
- Pilgrimage: Talbiyah formulations, clothing restrictions for the muḥrim, bathing upon entering Mecca, and farewell circumambulation .
- Commercial Transactions and Legal Rulings: Sales options (khiyār), the prohibition of muzābanah and najash, selling unripened fruit, divorce procedures (ṭalāq during menses), oaths, and prescribed legal punishments .
Editions
The text was edited and indexed alphabetically by Abd al-Mu'ti Amin Qal'aji and published in Beirut by Dar al-Ma'rifah (1406 AH / 1986 CE) . It was also published in the same year in Beirut alongside Abu Dawud's al-Marāsīl, reviewed and indexed by Yusuf Abd al-Rahman al-Mar'ashli .
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