Tabyid al-Sahifa bi-Usul al-Ahadith al-Daifa
- Author died
- 1429 AH
- Editions
- Maktabat al-Taw‘iyah al-Islāmīyah li-Iḥyā’ al-Turāth al-Islāmī
Tabyid al-Sahifa bi-Usul al-Ahadith al-Daifa (Whitening the Page with the Origins of Weak Hadiths) is a work of hadith criticism by the Egyptian scholar Muhammad Amr ibn Abd al-Latif (d. 1429 AH / 2008 CE), devoted to identifying non-prophetic origins for narrations erroneously attributed to the Prophet Muhammad .
Background and Purpose
The author composed the work to address narrations circulating as prophetic hadiths that are actually weak, baseless, or fabricated, but trace back authentically to early figures among the Companions, Successors, or later generations . He observed that although classical literature addressed weak and widespread narrations, the only dedicated prior treatise he encountered on this specific subject was al-Wuquf ala al-Mawquf by Umar ibn Badr al-Mawsili (d. 624 AH) . Noting that al-Mawsili included only 151 narrations and relied on extreme brevity without detailed evaluation of chains of transmission (asānīd) or hidden defects (ʿilal), Ibn Abd al-Latif sought to provide a comprehensive, practical demonstration of isnad analysis, narrator criticism (al-jarḥ wa-l-taʿdīl), and source attribution .
The book is closely related to the author's other works; while researching material for subsequent parts of Tabyid al-Sahifa, narrations whose non-prophetic attributions also proved unverifiable prompted him to author the companion treatise Takmil al-Naf bi-ma lam Yathbut bi-hi Waqf wa-la Raf .
Method and Structure
The primary condition established by the author is that the chain of transmission must be authentic back to the actual speaker of the statement among the early predecessors . Each entry presents the flawed attributed prophetic version, examines its transmission paths and deficiencies, and then establishes the sound non-prophetic version (mawqūf or maqṭūʿ) .
The work was arranged and published in serialized parts:
- Part One: Contains the first fifty narrations (1–50), completed by the author in Cairo on 18 Shawwal 1408 AH .
- Part Two: Contains the subsequent fifty narrations, bringing the published total to one hundred narrations across two volumes .
Publication
The work was published in Cairo by Maktabat al-Tawiya al-Islamiyya, with the first edition appearing between 1409 and 1410 AH . It is classified among the author's later, mature phase of scholarship, characterized by adherence to the critical methodology of the early hadith masters in authenticating, weakening, and detecting transmission defects .
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