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Are there commentaries of Hadith collections outside the 7 most known books?

Islam Asked on October 4, 2021

When we check the hadith literature we may find out that commentators in first place focussed on the two sahihs and al-Muwatta’ for which one may find much more than ten known (or famous and printed) commentaries, when we move to the so called sunan-books (sunan ibn Majah, abi Dawood, an-Nasa’i) and Jami’ at-Tirmdhi we may find less commentaries (explaining in first place the meaning of the hadith content and maybe addressing it’s chain etc.) and often the commentators rely on comments of either the sahihs or al-Muwatta’. However I think that one of both sunan books of an-Nasa’i we find out that the book which was (more?) commented is rather his as-Sunan as-Sughra (the small sunnan) than as-Sunnan al-Kubra (the big sunnan).

Of course many efforts and books have surely disappeared or have not yet been printed! So we may miss a lot of the efforts of early scholars.

My question is are there any known commentaries on other books – not single ahadith from one of these books or different sources–(Examples to make a kind of focus) like:

  • Musnad Ahmad.

  • Musnad ad-Darimi
    which would complete the 9 sunnan books (minimum requirement) and

  • At-Tabarnis three encyclopaedias (al-Majma’ as-Saghir, al-Majma’ al-Awsat, al-Majma’ al-Kabir)

  • Musnad al-Bazzar.

  • al-Mustadrak of al-Hakim

  • as-Sunan al-Kubra of al-Bayhaqi

  • Musanaf ibn Abi Shaibah

  • Musanaf ‘Abdurrazzaq

which might also be rather known. There of course much more books which are more or less known like the musnad’s of a-Shafi’i, abu Hanifa many books of ibn abi Donya and ibn al-Mubarak.

If there are not it would be nice if you could provide an explanation why this is the case?

To clarify even more because the amount of half answers of @Harun gets more and more lengthy: What I’m not looking for are books:

  • like Mashariq al-Anwar of Qadi ‘Iyad which is a commentary on specific arguable ahadith from al-Muwatta’ and the two Sahihs (because it is not a commenatry on one single book).
  • Commentaries on "Ahadith compilations from other books": Like The 40 Ahadith or Riyadh as-Saliheen of imam an-Nawawi or at_Targheeb wa at-Tarheeb of imam al-Mundiri and similar books. (Because these books refer to earlier sources and I want commenatries on original hadith sources).

To give the other case more of a focus: An answer would be satisfactory if you could at least provide some titles commentaries (more on the content) of Musnad Ahmad and Sunan ad-Darimi anything else would be a bonus.

4 Answers

  1. Silsilah Sahih (Madkhali)

  2. Shu'ab Al-Iman (Jibran and Khandhalwi which is difficult to find a copy of)

  3. Jawami Al-Akhbar (Sa'di and Khudhayr)

  4. Hadith Qudsi (Munawi)

  5. Adhkar (Ibn Allan)

  6. Sunan Al-Bayhaqi (Ibn Turkmani but this is mostly Isnad commentary)

  7. Shihab Al-Quda'i (Munawi which is difficult to find a copy of)

  8. Muntakhab Kanz Al-Umal (Unknown explainer, exists only in manuscript form in India)

For more information on the explanation of Hadith literature see my thesis, Exegetes and Exegesis: An Anthology of Hadith Exegesis in which I brought 250 titles from 130 authors from the third century (H) to the present.

Answered by Harun on October 4, 2021

You will be able to find about 2000 explanations of Hadith from Abu Ya'la, Tabarani, Bazzar, Abdur-Razzaq, Ibn Abu Shaybah and Asbahani in Barabankwi's Sharh Hayat As-Sahabah. There are 900 explanations (some of which can be found in the titles mentioned above) in Madkhali's Sharh Silsilah Sahihah. Ibn Athir's Gharib Al-Hadith has 17000 Hadith in it but he only explains a few words in each Hadith. This book has some narrations from the books mentioned above but not many.

Answered by Harun on October 4, 2021

Secondary compilations like Jami Saghir, Mishkat, Targhib and Muntaqah are the only places you can find explanations of narrations of the titles in question (ie. Tabarani's three books, Bayhaqi's two books, Ibn Abu Shaybah, Al-Bazzar, Abdur-Razzaq, Al-Hakim, Abu Ya'la, etc.). Giving the titles of 50 explanations (or even some of them) would be quite lengthy as some titles are a sentence (or 2) long like "Nayl Al-Awtar Min Asrar Sharh Muntaqah Al-Akhbar". A simple search of the Matn and the name of the explainer will return the title, if you speak Arabic, otherwise its unnecessary because these titles aren't available in English. Every Sharh in the list is in print except for the 2 by Ar-Rajihi which can be found transcribed on Shamela. Furthermore, these titles are referred to as Sharh An-Nawawi, Sharh Al-Munawi, Sharh Ali Qari, Sharh Ar-Rifa'i, Sharh Ibn Hajar (etc.) and are only referred to by their names in the footnotes of books. Lastly, unless you have a better answer than what I provided or something to add to it, you should keep your comments to yourself. I notice on this website certain people who always criticize in their comments, never (or rarely) provide meaningful answers.

Answered by Harun on October 4, 2021

In this list I included 1 or 2 famous commentaries on the books of Hadith although some of them, like Bukhari have over 130 explanations others are not explained at all. There are many reasons for this including: famousness, authenticity, usefulness, simplicity, age of the text, availability and how much repetition it has. Lastly, not all commentaries were preserved and some that were preserved exist only in manuscript form. The scholars avoided explaining books full of weak Hadith and those that were lengthy like Musannaf Ibn Abi Shaybah which has 39K reports in it. Even the two commentaries on Ahmad's Musnad by As-Sindi and As-Sa'ati reduced the narrations to 11K and 13K from 27K respectively. The most repeated commentaries after Bukhari include Muslim, Muwatta, Riyadh As-Salihin, Mishkat and 40 Hadith. Contemporary scholars began giving attention to books unexplained.

  1. Musnad Abu Hanifah (Ali Qari and As-Sindi)
  2. Muwatta Malik (Ibn Abdil-Bar and Ibn Al-Arabi)
  3. Musnad Shafi'i (Ar-Rifa'i and Ibn Athir)
  4. Musnad Ahmad (As-Sindi and As-Sa'ati)
  5. Sahih Bukhari (Ibn Hajar and Al-Ayni)
  6. Sahih Muslim (An-Nawawi and Al-Qurtubi)
  7. Sunan Abu Dawud (Al-Adhimabbadi and Al-Khattabi)
  8. Jami At-Tirmidhi (Al-Mubarakpuri and Ibn Al-Arabi)
  9. Sunan An-Nasa'i (As-Suyuti and As-Sindi)
  10. Sunan Ibn Majah (As-Suyuti and As-Sindi)
  11. Sunan Ad-Daraqutni (Al-Adhimabbadi)
  12. Athar At-Tahawi (Al-Ayni)
  13. Adab Al-Mufrad (Ar-Raslan and Al-Madkhali)
  14. Ash-Shama'il (Ali Qari and Al-Abbad)
  15. Sahih Ibn Hibban (Ar-Rajihi)
  16. Sahih Ibn Khuzaymah (Ar-Rajihi)
  17. Bulugh Al-Maram (As-San'ani and Al-Bassam)
  18. Umdah Al-Ahkam (Ibn Mulaqqin and Al-Bassam)
  19. Muntaqa Al-Akhbar (Ash-Shawkani and Al-Uthaymin) where you can find many Hadith from Ad-Darimi, Ad-Daraqutni and Al-Bayhaqi's Sunan.
  20. Mishkat Al-Masabih (Ali Qari and At-Teebi) where you will find some Hadith from Ahmad, Ad-Darimi, Ad-Daraqutni and Bayhaqi's Shu'ab.
  21. Riyadh As-Salihin (Ibn Allan and Al-Uthaymin)
  22. Jami Saghir (Al-Munawi and As-San'ani) where you will find many Hadith from Sunan Al-Bayhaqi, Musnad Bazzar, Musnad At-Tayalisi, Musnad Abu Ya'la, Musannaf Abdur-Razzaq, Mustadrak Al-Hakim, Musannaf Ibn Abi Shaybah, At-Tabarani's three books and others like Ibn Hibban and Ibn Khuzaymah.
  23. 50 Hadith An-Nawawi (Ibn Rajab and Al-Abbad)
  24. Targhib Tarhib (Muhammad Khalil Harras)

Answered by Harun on October 4, 2021

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