This Book of Faith is divided into five chapters dealing with sins (dhunub), signs of a hypocrite (‘alamat al-munafiq), Satan (al-shaytan), the belief in predestination (al-qadr), the proof of punishment in the grave (ithbat al-‘adhab fi al-qabr), and steadfastness to the teachings of the Qur’an and the Sunnah. The first book is entitled Kitaab al-Imaan (The Book of Faith). It has in all a total number of three hundred and twenty-seven chapters. Thereafter each chapter is further divided into three sections (fasl). Mishkat al-Masabih is divided into twenty-nine books (kutub) and each book is divided into several chapters (abwab). The additions and technical improvements which he incorporated in his revised version were indeed significant and made his Mishkat al-Masabih an academically popular work. Thus, al-Tabrizi succeeded admirably well in accomplishing the task assigned to him by his teacher. Thus, by doing so, he managed to overcome al-Baghawi’s shortcoming of not mentioning the isnad (chain of authorities of the Hadith). The reason that is cited for this change from the first section to the second is related to the untraceability of these particular Ahadith in their original sources.Īl-Tabrizi has identified at the end of every Hadith the source or sources from where the particular Hadith was taken. Likewise, certain Ahadith which had appeared in the first section of Masabih al-Sunnah have been moved to the second section of mishkat al-Masabih. Some Ahadith which appear in the second section of Masabih al-Sunnah have been moved to the third section of Mishkat al-Masabih. However, the sequence of the Masabih chapters remains unchanged. In these sections he recorded additional Ahadith from the works of al-Bukhari, Muslim and other sources which he deemed relevant to the topics covered in the respective chapters. Al-Tabrizi has added a third section (al-Fasl al-Thalith) to most of the chapters in Masabih al-Sunnah. The first included only those Ahadith taken from al-Bukhari and Muslim and the second from other sources. It may be inferred that he chose to do that primarily because al-Tirmidhi had commented more, in comparison to the other compilers, on the quality of the Ahadith that are to be found in his compilation.Īl-Baghawi had divided his work into two sections. He did not explain as to why this was done. It is interesting to note that al-Tabrizi devoted more attention to giving his views on the quality of the Ahadith which have been taken from the compilation of al-Tirmidhi. Al-Tabrizi, on the other hand, corrected the discrepancy by re-classifying these Ahadith and gave reasons for the same. Likewise, he remained absolutely silent and gave no explanation as to why he had classified them as such. At times, however, he would declare certain Ahadith to be sahih (sound) although such Ahadith were not found in the compilations of al-Bukhari and Muslim. A plausible explanation may be that he felt that these additions would further his interpretation and were pertinent to the topics discussed in the Mishkat al-Masabih.Īl-Baghawi was somewhat hesitant in passing his own judgment on the quality of the Ahadith which he included in his work. He only mentions that he was motivated to do so for an important reason, but fails to explain. He does not give any particular reason as to why he chose to increase the number of Ahadith. Al-Tabrizi is to be commanded for successfully improving upon Masabih al-Sunnah.Īl-Tabrizi added 1 511 Hadith to the original number of Hadith in Masabih al-Sunnah, thus raising the total from 4 434 to 5945. It is unfortunate, however, that not much is known about his life. He was well-versed in the intricacies of the Arabic language and rhetorics. Al-Tabrizi responded to the call of his teacher and his efforts bore fruit and the improved version of Masabih al-Sunnah came to be known as Mishkat al-Masabih.Īl-Tabrizi was a renown muhaddith (scholar of Hadith) of his time. 749/1348) to write a commentary on Masabih al-Sunnah, and to ameliorate all its shortcomings. He therefore advised one of his students, Wali al-Din ibn ‘Abd Allah al-Tabrizi (d. One such scholar who held this view was ‘Allamah Husayn ibn ‘Abd Allah ibn Muhammad al-Tibi who lived in the eight century Hijri. However, the later scholars felt that this work should be revised and modified in order to increase its utility and to make it accessible to the common man who does not possess a sound knowledge of the science of Hadith. As discussed in the previous chapter, Masabih al-Sunnah was an important contribution to the Hadith literature and its value was acknowledged by prominent scholars of Hadith of the time when it made its appearance.
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