Tuhfat al-Abrar Sharh Masabih al-Sunnah
- Author died
- 685 AH
- Editions
- Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs in Kuwait
Tuhfat al-Abrar Sharh Masabih al-Sunnah (The Gift of the Righteous: Commentary on the Lamps of the Sunnah) is a multi-volume hadith commentary authored by the Shafi'i jurist and scholar Nasir al-Din al-Baydawi (d. 685 AH / 1286 CE; other reports give 691 AH or 696 AH) on the hadith collection Masabih al-Sunnah by Abu Muhammad al-Husayn ibn Mas'ud al-Baghawi (d. 516 AH) .
Background and Transmissions
In his introduction, al-Baydawi states that his purpose in writing the commentary was to clarify the difficult expressions of Masabih al-Sunnah, resolve obscure points, elucidate hidden meanings, and caution against the misinterpretations of theological sects that deviated from orthodoxy .
He established his authority to transmit Masabih al-Sunnah through several chains of transmission (isnad) :
- The primary chain was through his father, the chief judge Abu al-Qasim Umar ibn Muhammad al-Baydawi, who narrated it via his father Fakhr al-Din Muhammad, his uncle Shams al-Din Abu Nasr Ahmad ibn Ali, Abd al-Muhsin ibn Abi al-Amid al-Abhari, Fannakhusraw ibn Fannakhusraw Firuz al-Shirazi, and Zayn al-Din Ali ibn Ibrahim al-Baydawi, all tracing back through Abu Musa Muhammad al-Madini to al-Baghawi .
- Additional transmissions included licenses (ijazah) from his maternal uncle Shihab al-Din Abu Bakr ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Baydawi, Ghiyath al-Din Abu Mudar Muhammad ibn As'ad al-Uqayli al-Yazdi, and Jamal al-Din Ahmad al-Hamadani (known as 'Aj) .
- A direct transmission wherein al-Baydawi heard parts of the work and received an ijazah for the rest from Jamal al-Din Uthman ibn Yusuf al-Makki, through Abu Mansur ibn Hafdah al-Tusi from al-Baghawi .
Structure and Introductory Treatises
Al-Baydawi opens the work with four introductory treatises (muqaddimat) before addressing the base text :
- Chains of Transmission: Detailing his routes of transmission for Masabih al-Sunnah .
- The Primacy of Hadith: Demonstrating how other Islamic sciences—such as theology (kalam), legal theory (usul al-fiqh), jurisprudence (fiqh), Sufism (tasawwuf), and history—branch out from the Quran and the Sunnah, establishing hadith as the foundational religious discipline .
- The Interrelation between the Quran and Sunnah: Establishing that both are revelation (wahy), while outlining key differences such as the Quran's textual inimitability (i'jaz), the strict impermissibility of substituting Quranic wording, and the permission according to most scholars of narrating hadiths by meaning (naql bi-l-ma'na) .
- Hadith Nomenclature and Classification: Defining terms such as mutawatir, mawdu', sahih, hasan, mashhur, gharib, da'if, munkar, mursal, munqati', mu'dal, and majhul, while also contextualizing al-Baghawi's specific division between sihah (hadiths from Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim) and hisan (narrations from works such as the Sunan of Abu Dawud and al-Tirmidhi) .
Method and Contents
In the main commentary, al-Baydawi follows the topical organization of Masabih al-Sunnah. He analyzes individual terms, clarifies syntax, explains doctrinal and legal implications, and discusses why specific Companions were named in certain transmissions—referencing his own legal and methodological treatises, such as al-Minhaj and al-Mirsad . He also addresses objections regarding why al-Baghawi recorded certain weak (da'if) or unusual (gharib) narrations despite omitting fabricated reports .
Reception and Publication
Tuhfat al-Abrar became a recognized source for later hadith commentators who studied Masabih al-Sunnah and its expanded revision, Mishkat al-Masabih. Scholars including al-Taybi in al-Kashif 'an Haqa'iq al-Sunan and Abd al-Ra'uf al-Munawi relied directly on al-Baydawi's explanations .
The work has been edited by a committee of researchers under the supervision of Nur al-Din Talib and published in multi-volume form by the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs in Kuwait (1433 AH / 2012 CE) .
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