Sharh al-Arba'in al-Nawawiyya (Ibn Daqiq al-Id)

Sharh al-Arba'in al-Nawawiyya is a commentary by Taqi al-Din Muhammad ibn Ali ibn Wahb al-Qushayri, known as Ibn Daqiq al-Id (d. 702 AH) (his biography). It is a concise, comprehensive commentary on the hadiths of the Forty Hadith that bears al-Nawawi's name (d. 676 AH). ²

The editor explains that the original core of the Forty was twenty-six hadiths gathered by Ibn al-Salah during one of his teaching sessions. Al-Nawawi added sixteen, making forty-two, and Ibn Rajab later added eight, making fifty in his commentary Jami' al-ulum wal-hikam. ², ³

The editor counts Ibn Daqiq al-Id's commentary among the earliest on the Forty. The commentator was a contemporary of al-Nawawi, about six years older than him, and the editor notes that there is no proof that the two met. ³, ¹

Each hadith opens with its virtue and standing in Islam. The commentary then explains the hadith idea by idea, reports the scholars' differing readings briefly, and states the reading the author prefers. ¹

He relies heavily on the commentaries on hadith, above all Ibn al-Salah's Siyanat Sahih Muslim and al-Nawawi's commentary on Sahih Muslim, and quotes them often. ¹

In the course of the commentary he cites Qur'anic verses on the same meaning and other hadiths that cover part of it, and he clarifies the general and the specific, the absolute and the restricted, and the abrogating and the abrogated. ⁴

The commentary follows al-Nawawi's order. Each hadith has its own heading, "The first hadith", "The second hadith", and so on. The first hadith, on intentions, begins on scan page 67, and the second, on faith, Islam and excellence, on scan page 75. The headings run through the forty-two hadiths to about scan page 313. ⁵, ⁶, ⁷

On the first hadith, the commentary notes its authenticity and fame, quotes al-Shafi'i and Ahmad that it accounts for a third of knowledge, and explains that a person's conduct is by heart, tongue and limbs, and intention is one of these. ⁵, ⁸

A second printing of the commentary, issued by al-Faisaliyya in Mecca, is held as a separate copy with its own pagination. Its title page gives the same author and work, so the record treats it as an edition of the same commentary and does not create a second entry. ⁹

Chains and reports in this record are given as the commentator and editor present them and have not been re-checked against other books. Page numbers are scan pages, which run one higher than the printed folios in the sampled pages. ⁵