Takhir al-Zalama ila Yawm al-Qiyama
- Author died
- 911 AH
- Editions
- مخطوط ينشر لأول مرة بالمكتبة الشاملة
Takhir al-Zalama ila Yawm al-Qiyama (Deferring Grievances to the Day of Resurrection) is a short Arabic treatise by the Shafi'i polymath al-Jalal al-Suyuti (d. 911 AH / 1505 CE) that compiles Prophetic hadiths and early Islamic reports (athar) on enduring injustice and deferring worldly retribution or redress to the Day of Judgment .
Composition and Context
The bibliographer Haji Khalifa recorded the work as a short epistle written by al-Suyuti as a complaint against those who harmed him . Its composition is historically linked to the conflicts al-Suyuti faced during his tenure as the supervisor (nazir) of the Baybarsiyya Sufi lodge (al-Khanqah al-Baybarsiyya) . After he informed the resident Sufis that they failed to meet the founder's stipulations (shart al-waqif), they revolted against him, carried him out, and threw him into the water basin while he was wearing his robe and turban . Following this trial, al-Suyuti retreated to Rawdat al-Miqyas on the Nile, secluded himself from public life to focus entirely on writing, and penned this work .
Scholars note that the treatise reflects a marked shift in al-Suyuti's later life from aggressive polemical replies toward forbearance, calm, and patience under trials, comforting himself by emulating the early generations (al-salaf al-salih) who refrained from exacting revenge in this world in reliance on God's ultimate justice .
Structure and Content
The treatise consists of a collection of twenty-two narrated traditions, arranged without extensive personal commentary, illustrating instances where wrongs were left unsettled in the worldly life :
- Prophetic Narrations: It opens with the report regarding Tha'laba ibn Hatib, whose refusal to pay zakat led the Prophet ﷺ, and subsequently the Caliphs Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, Umar ibn al-Khattab, and Uthman ibn Affan, to decline receiving his charity until he died . It also includes narrations regarding individuals who misappropriated war spoils (ghulul) and were told that their returns could not be accepted after the distribution of the army's shares, leaving them to carry their burdens on the Day of Resurrection .
- Reports from the Companions and Successors: It relates stories such as al-Hasan ibn Ali refusing to name the person who poisoned him, observing that God's punishment is more severe; al-Hasan declining to retaliate verbally against Marwan ibn al-Hakam's insults, deferring their reckoning to God; and the son of a slain Companion refusing to execute his father's murderer in this world so that retribution would be exacted on the Sirat in the hereafter . It also records Ammar ibn Yasir refusing compensation, retaliation, or pardon after a physical altercation, insisting on bringing his grievance before God .
- Legal Analogies: The work concludes with legal narrations concerning someone who repeatedly hunts while in the state of ritual consecration (ihram); early jurists held that while an initial or mistaken act is expiated through the prescribed penalty (jaza'), deliberate repeated violations leave the transgressor subject directly to divine retribution, as expressed in the Quran: وَمَنْ عَادَ فَيَنْتَقِمُ اللَّهُ مِنْهُ ("And whoever repeats it, Allah will take retribution from him" [al-Ma'ida: 95]) .
Transmission and Manuscripts
The attribution of the treatise to al-Suyuti is established on manuscript title leaves and recorded by bibliographers including Haji Khalifa in Kashf al-Zunun and Ismail Pasha al-Babani in Hadiyyat al-Arifin .
Manuscript copies are preserved in several repositories:
- Dar al-Kutub al-Misriyya (MS 22729 B) .
- The Qawla collection (MS 25, folio 290) .
- Al-Azhar Library (MS 305716), a four-folio manuscript bound alongside another text by al-Suyuti .
The treatise has been edited and published with takhrij of its narrations by Mahmud ibn Muhammad ibn Mustafa al-Minyawi .
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