Ḥadīth Qudsī
("Sacred Hadith)
= Ḥadīth ilāhī
(Divine Hadith) = Ḥadīth rabbani (Lordly Hadith)
IN PROGRESS
2008-9
Stephen Lambden (Univ.
California - Merced)
The extra-qur'ānic Ḥadīth Qudsī
("Sacred Sayings") or "Divine Ḥadīth"
(Ḥadīth ilāhī) constitute a very
important body of extra-qur'anic, sometimes post-qur'anic
sacred statements attributed to the Prophet Muhammad, various pre-Islamic
prophets, sages and worthies, and to certain of the (twelver)
Shi`i Imams. Such highly valued traditions are found in numerous Sunni and
Shi`i sources and literatures. They are frequently found in early suhuf compendia and in Sufi literatures. It was sometimes the case that
attributing pre-Islamic sacred writ or traditions to persons deemed
recipients of waḥy ("divine revelation") or special guidance enabled converts from pre-Islamic
religions to continue to embrace the sacred within an Islamic universe of
discourse. Biblical and post-biblical texts and traditions as well, for
example, as Hellenistic philosophical materials are enshrined in
numerous hadith qudsi.
Numerous compilations and
commentaries upon individual items or groups of Ḥadīth Qudsī were made from
early Islamic times right up to the Safavid period and beyond (see Graham
1977 Appendix A).
"Some of these
[hadith qudsi] traditions quite clearly have their source in the Bible.
For example, "what eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has entered into
the heart of man" (cf. Isaiah lxiv, 4; 1 Cor. ii, 9), and a tradition
telling that on the Day of Resurrection God will say, "O son of Adam, I
was sick and you did not visit me", continuing on the lines of Matthew
xxv, 41 ff." (Robson EI2 III: ).
"Hadith Qudsi
37: On the authority of Abu Hurayrah.. who said that the Messenger of
Allah.. said: Allah said: I have prepared for My righteous servants what
no eye has seen and no ear has heard, not has it occurred to human
heart. Thus recite if you wish (1): And no soul knows what joy for them
(the inhabitants of Paradise) has been kept hidden [Quran Chapter 32
Ayat 17]. (1) The words "Thus recite if you wish" are those of Abu
Harayrah. It was related by al-Bukhari, Muslim, at-Tirmidhi and Ibn
Majah.
SELECT HADITH QUDSI COMPILATIONS
Zahir
ibn Tahir al-Shahhāmī al-Dīn
al-Naysābūrī
(d. 538/1138).
Ibn
al-`Arabī, Muḥyī al-Dīn = Muhammad ibn 'Abd-Allāh
Abū Bakr ibn al-'Arabī
(b.
Murcia 560/1165- d.
638/1240).
"A collection of
101 ķudsi traditions entitled Mishkāt al-anwār by Muhyi 'l-Dīn Ibn
al-'Arabī (d. 638/1240) was published in Aleppo (1346/1927) along
with a collection of 40 compiled by Mullā 'Aī al-Ķāri" (d.
1014/1605). Ibn al-'Arabī, who divides his collection into three
parts, two of 40 traditions and one of 21, gives a full isnād in the
first, sometimes in the second and usually in the third..." (Robson,
EI2 III: 28)
- Mishkāt al-Anwār.
Aleppo 1346/1927. Completed 599/1209.
[Muḥyīddīn Ibn 'Arabī] /
Ibn, Stephen Hirtenstein + Martin Notcutt translators.,
- Divine Sayings : The
Mishkāt al-Anwār, 101 Hadith Qudsi, Arabic text and
English translation Stephen Hirtenstein and Martin Notcutt ,
Oxford: Anqa Publishing, 2003 (146+59 Arabic text pp.).
An English
translation of Ibn Arabi's Mishkat al-Anwar, a collections of hadith
qudsi transmitted by Muhammad. Contains a 90-page introduction,
bibliography, indexes on the individual hadith, the names of the
important transmitters, and two appendices on the manuscript sources
and chains of transmission"
al- Nawawī
= Muhyī al-Dīn Abū Zakariyyā Yahyā ibn Sharaf al-Nawawī (1233-1277).
- al-Ahādīth al-Qudusiyya
- al-Ahādīth al-Qudusiyya...
haqqaqa ahādīthaha wa-qaddama lahā wa-‘allaqa ‘alayhā Mustafá ‘āshūr.
Cairo : Maktabat al-I‘tisām, 1978-
- al-Ahādīth al-Qudusiyya...
Muhammad
al-Madanī / al-Madyanī (d. 881/1476)
- al-Itḥāfāt al-saniyya fi
'l-ahādith al-Qudsiyya. Haydarābād: ADD, 1323/1905
"The hadith ķudsi do not
form a separate group in the books of tradition, but some
collections have been compiled from the six Sunnī books and, more
commonly, from others. The largest collection, al-Ithāfāt al-saniyya
fi 'l-ahādith al-ķudsiyya, by Muhammad al-Madanī, or al-Madyanī (d.
881/1476), publ. Haydarābād 1323/1905, contains 858 traditions
divided in three groups: (1) those beginning with ķāla; (2) those
beginning withyaķūlu; (3) those given alphabetically, this last
containing 603. The isnād is not given, but as the collection from
which each tradition comes is mentioned, [III 29a] those who desire
can find its isnād there" (Robson, EI2 III: 28)
Qārī al-Harawī,
Mulla ‘Alī ibn Sultān Muhammad (d. 1014/ 1605-6).
- Kitāb al-Ahādīth al-Qudusīyah
al-arba‘īnīyah... kharraja ahādīthahu Abū Ishāq al-Huwaynī al-Atharī.
al-Sharafiyyah, Jiddah : Maktabat al-Sahābah + al-Zaytūn Cairo :
Maktabat al-Tābi‘īn, c. 1992 (103pp.)
-
Kamal ibn Basyuni,
Mujam al-ahadith al-qudsiyah al-sahihah wa-maaha al-Arbaun al-qudsiyah
: li-Abi al-Hasan Nur al-Din Ali ibn Sultan Muhammad al-Qari al-maruf
bi-Mulla Ali al-Qari. Beirut: Muassasat al-Kitab al-Thaqafiyah,
1993. 438pp.
- "[there is] a collection
of 40 [Hadith Qudsi] compiled by Mullā 'Aī al-Ķāri" (d.
1014/1605)... 'Alī al-Ķāri" merely mentions the Companion
reputed to have heard the tradition from the Prophet..." (Robson EI2
III:29)
'Abd al-Ra'ūf
Muhammad b. Tādj. al-Dīn al-Munāwī (d. 1031/1621)
"Another
collection, not published, is by 'Abd al-Ra'ūf Muhammad b. Tādj. al-Dīn
al-Munāwī (d. 1031/1621). It is divided into two parts (cf. Hādjdjī
Khalīfa, ed. Flügel, i, 150 f.), the first with traditions beginning
with ķāla and the second arranged in alphabetical order. It would appear
that al-Munāwī, whose smaller work has the same title as al-Madanī's,
was largely dependent on that work." (Robson EI2 III:29).
Muhammad ibn al-Ḥasan al-Ḥurr al-`Āmilī (d. 1104/1694).
Important Shi`i writer
- al-Jawahir al-saniyah fi
al-ahadith al-qudsiyah / jama'ahu Muhammad ibn al-Hasan ibn 'Ali ibn
al-Husayn al-Hurr al-'Amili. 2nd printing. Baghdad : al-Maktabah
al-'Ilmiyah, 1964. 376pp.
- Jawāhir al-saniyya fī al-aḥādīth al-qudsiyya.
Beirut: Mu`assat al-A`lami Lil-Matbu`at,. 1402/1982
.
- Jawāhir al-saniyya fī al-aḥādīth al-qudsiyya
("The Essences-Jewels of the Splendours in the Sacred Traditions").
Beirut: Mu`assat al-Wafā’. 1405/1984.
(written 1046/1645). This important work sets down over 100 sacred
hadith attributed to prophets from the time of Adam until that of
Muhammad and beyond.
-
Kulliyyat Hadith Qudsi, Tarjumah-i Kitab Jawāhir al-saniyya,.
[by] Fiqhiyya Buzurgvar va Muhaddith Shaykh Muhammad Ibn Hasan al-Ḥurr
al-`Āmilī. Persian trans. Zayn al-Abidin Kazemi Khalkhālī. Tehran:
Intisharat-i Dehqan, 1385 Sh/2007. Includes the Arabic text and a
full Persian translation. 740pp. ISBN 964-90437-1-3.
OTHER COMPILATIONS
-
al-Ahadith al-qudsiyya . 2 vols. Cairo: XXXX, 1969.
-
Ahadith al-qudsiyya . 2 vols (?). Cairo:
Majlis al-A'la lil-Shu'un al-Islamiya. 1969
-
al-Ahadith al-qudsiyya. . Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-'Ilmiya.
1983.
Ahmed Saeed Dehlvi. Translated by
Rahm Ali al-Hashmi.
-
Hadees-e-qudsi (Signs of
Allah); English translation of Urdu book, Khudaki baatein, by Ahmed
Saeed Dehlvi. Trans. by Rahm Ali al-Hashmi. [1st ed.]. Delhi, Dini
Book Depot [1972].
Shaykh
Zakariyya `Amīrwan (comp.?)
Munawi, Abd al-Ra uf ibn Taj
al-Arifin
- al-Ithafat al-saniyah
bi-al-ahadith al-Qudsiyah : al-kitab al-farid alladhi jumia hadithan
qudsiyah usluban wa-ikhtiyaran, ed. talif Zayn al-Din Abd al-Rauf
ibn Taj al-Arifin ibn Ali ibn Zayn al-Abidin al-Haddadi thumma al-Munawi
al-Qahiri ; sahhahahu wa-allaqa alayhi wa-nasharahu Muhammad Afif
al-Zubi,. Beirut: Muassasat al-Risalah, 1974.
121pp.
SECONDARY
SOURCES
Brockelmann,
GAL I, 571 f., S I, 791 (Ibn al-
'Arabī),. S II, 151 (al-Madanī), II, 393 f., S II, 417 (al-Munāwī), 517
f., S II, 539 ('Alī al-Ķāri").
Chaaban, Fawzi.
- Al-ahadiths al-quoudoussias
[sic.] : (les hadiths divins) = al-Ahādīth al-qudsīyah,
traduit en français par Fawzi Chaaban Publish info Beyrouth, Liban :
Dar Al Kutub Al-Ilmiyah, [1990?] ( 335 pp.)
Graham, Willam A.
- Divine Word and Prohetic
Word in Early Islam: A Reconsideration of the Sources, with Special
Reference ton the Divine Saying or ḥadīth Qudsī. The Hague: Moulton.,
1977.
"Prof. Graham's work is by
no means exhaustive of the hadith qudsi included in the canonical
collections; a recent collective survey of the "Six Books," al-Ahadith
al-Qudsiya, (Cairo: Wizarat al-Awqaf… , 1400/1980), cites in full
some 400 examples, including full references to the original
sources. Many of these hadith qudsi, not included in the Mishkat al-Anwar,
are likewise repeatedly cited and interpreted in Ibn 'Arabi's
works.." James Morris `Ibn 'Arabi and his Interpreters Part 1 :
Recent French Translations ...
Robson, J.
"(sacred, or holy
tradition), also called
hadīth ilāhī,
or
rabbani
(divine tradition), is a class of traditions which give words spoken
by God, as distinguished from
hadith nabawi
(prophetical tradition) which gives the
words of the Prophet. Although
hadith ķudsī
is said to contain God's words, it differs
from the Ķur'ān
which was revealed through the medium of Gabriel, is
inimitable, is recited in the
salāt, and
may not be touched or recited by the ceremonially unclean.
Hadith
ķudsī does
not necessarily come through Gabriel, but may have come through
inspiration
(ilhām), or in a dream...."
Subhī al-Sālih,
- `Ulūm al-hadith
wa-muştalahuhu, Damascus 1379/1959, 122-5
Tayyib Okiç, M
- Bazı hadis meseleleri
üzerinde tetkikler, Istanbul 1959, 13-6
Muhammad Djamāl al-Dīn al-Ķāsimī,
- Ķawācid al-tahdith
min funūn muştalah al-hadith2, Cairo 1380/1961, 64-9
Zwemer, S.M.
- The so-called hadith
qudsi, in MW, xii (1922), 263 ff. = Das sogenannte Hadit qudsi
(trans. of above) in Isl., xiii (1923), 53 ff.
