At a glance
- Era
- The Early Abbasid Caliphate
- Region
- Levant & Iraq · Persia & Central Asia
CreedScripture and its sciencesSects and schools
Summary
Kitab al-Sunna by the hadith master Abu Bakr Ahmad ibn Amr Ibn Abi Asim al-Dahhak ibn Makhlad al-Shaybani (d. 287 AH) is a book of creed that gathers hadiths and reports, with the author's own chains, under the headings of belief. 1 Its publisher says people had long awaited it "for its renown in transmitting matters of belief and the foundations of religion", given the many hadiths and reports it gathers on the meaning of verses and hadiths and on how the early scholars understood them. 2
Its transmission
The text opens with the chain by which the book reached later hadith scholars: from Safi al-Din Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Ansari al-Madani, from Shams al-Din al-Ramli, from Zakariyya al-Ansari, from Ibn Hajar and Ibn al-Furat, up to the hadith master Abu Musa al-Madini of Isfahan, then to Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Abd Allah ibn Shadhan al-A'raj, from Abu Bakr Abd Allah ibn Muhammad ibn Furak al-Qabbab, from Ibn Abi Asim. 3 4
Its chapters
Part 1
It opens with a chapter on blameworthy whims, then hadiths forbidding newly invented matters and innovations, the command to follow the Sunna and the way of the rightly guided caliphs, the community's division into seventy-two sects, and "the community is mercy and division is punishment". 5 6 Then the chapters on destiny: the Pen as the first thing God created, contentment with destiny, the debate of Moses and Adam, the hadiths on the writing of the wretched and the happy, the covenant taken from Adam's offspring, the children of idolaters, and the Qadariyya and the prohibition on sitting with them. 7 8 Then the chapters on the attributes: hearts between two fingers of the Merciful, the vision of God, God being in His heaven and not on His earth, the descent, speech, laughter, the Throne and the spirit. 7 9 10
Part 2
It begins with the chapter on the Prophet's Basin, then the Balance, intercession, the passing over the Fire, the grave and its punishment, the well of Badr and belief in resurrection; then those who leave the community, the chapter on "the Mariqa, the Haruriyya and the Kharijites", a chapter on irja', the Murji'a and faith as words and deeds that increase and decrease, the promise and the threat, and a chapter on the Rafida; then chapters on hearing and obeying and counsel to rulers; then the caliphate of the rightly guided Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman and Ali, their virtues, and the virtues of Talha and other Companions. 11 12 The chapter on Ali includes the report "Whoever I am his mawla, Ali is his mawla" through many chains. 13 14
Its method
In each chapter Ibn Abi Asim gives hadiths and reports with his chains, and closes some chapters with a statement of his own, as at the end of the chapter on the Basin, where he says that the reports he has given "yield knowledge" and that he believes them without doubt. 15 The chapters bring together reports of differing strength: the chapter on Abu Bakr's caliphate opens with a report al-Albani judges fabricated, followed by others whose chains he accepts. 16 17 See Did the Prophet indicate Abu Bakr as successor?
The edition present
The al-Maktab al-Islami printing (Beirut and Damascus), first edition 1400 AH / 1980, in two parts, with Zilal al-Janna fi Takhrij al-Sunna by Muhammad Nasir al-Din al-Albani, who grades the chain after each hadith. 1 18 19 The publisher Zuhayr al-Shawish relates in his preface that the first discussion about publishing it took place between him and al-Albani, that Shaykh Abd al-Aziz ibn Baz wrote to ask about the manner of publication and the method of editing and then met al-Albani about it, and that obstacles delayed its appearance. 2 20 The contents of part 1 are a summary list made by the publisher because al-Albani was unable to prepare one. 5
People and things also explored
Dreams (ahlam)· The Imamate· The Higher Assembly· The Creation and Nature of Angels· Raj'a (the return to the world)· Sihr (sorcery)· Adam's disobedience and Iblis· The recantation of Abu'l-Wafa' Ibn 'Aqil
Sources
- Kitab al-Sunna of Ibn Abi Asim, with Zilal al-Janna fi Takhrij al-Sunna by Muhammad Nasir al-Din al-Albani, al-Maktab al-Islami, 1st ed., 1400 AH / 1980 (2 parts) , p. 1
- Kitab al-Sunna of Ibn Abi Asim, with Zilal al-Janna fi Takhrij al-Sunna by Muhammad Nasir al-Din al-Albani, al-Maktab al-Islami, 1st ed., 1400 AH / 1980 (2 parts) , p. 3
- Kitab al-Sunna of Ibn Abi Asim, with Zilal al-Janna fi Takhrij al-Sunna by Muhammad Nasir al-Din al-Albani, al-Maktab al-Islami, 1st ed., 1400 AH / 1980 (2 parts) , p. 5
- Kitab al-Sunna of Ibn Abi Asim, with Zilal al-Janna fi Takhrij al-Sunna by Muhammad Nasir al-Din al-Albani, al-Maktab al-Islami, 1st ed., 1400 AH / 1980 (2 parts) , p. 6
- Kitab al-Sunna of Ibn Abi Asim, with Zilal al-Janna fi Takhrij al-Sunna by Muhammad Nasir al-Din al-Albani, al-Maktab al-Islami, 1st ed., 1400 AH / 1980 (2 parts) , p. 307
- Kitab al-Sunna of Ibn Abi Asim, with Zilal al-Janna fi Takhrij al-Sunna by Muhammad Nasir al-Din al-Albani, al-Maktab al-Islami, 1st ed., 1400 AH / 1980 (2 parts) , p. 308
- Kitab al-Sunna of Ibn Abi Asim, with Zilal al-Janna fi Takhrij al-Sunna by Muhammad Nasir al-Din al-Albani, al-Maktab al-Islami, 1st ed., 1400 AH / 1980 (2 parts) , p. 309
- Kitab al-Sunna of Ibn Abi Asim, with Zilal al-Janna fi Takhrij al-Sunna by Muhammad Nasir al-Din al-Albani, al-Maktab al-Islami, 1st ed., 1400 AH / 1980 (2 parts) , p. 311
- Kitab al-Sunna of Ibn Abi Asim, with Zilal al-Janna fi Takhrij al-Sunna by Muhammad Nasir al-Din al-Albani, al-Maktab al-Islami, 1st ed., 1400 AH / 1980 (2 parts) , p. 312
- Kitab al-Sunna of Ibn Abi Asim, with Zilal al-Janna fi Takhrij al-Sunna by Muhammad Nasir al-Din al-Albani, al-Maktab al-Islami, 1st ed., 1400 AH / 1980 (2 parts) , p. 313
- Kitab al-Sunna of Ibn Abi Asim, with Zilal al-Janna fi Takhrij al-Sunna by Muhammad Nasir al-Din al-Albani, al-Maktab al-Islami, 1st ed., 1400 AH / 1980 (2 parts) , p. 657
- Kitab al-Sunna of Ibn Abi Asim, with Zilal al-Janna fi Takhrij al-Sunna by Muhammad Nasir al-Din al-Albani, al-Maktab al-Islami, 1st ed., 1400 AH / 1980 (2 parts) , p. 674
- Kitab al-Sunna of Ibn Abi Asim, with Zilal al-Janna fi Takhrij al-Sunna by Muhammad Nasir al-Din al-Albani, al-Maktab al-Islami, 1st ed., 1400 AH / 1980 (2 parts) , p. 604
- Kitab al-Sunna of Ibn Abi Asim, with Zilal al-Janna fi Takhrij al-Sunna by Muhammad Nasir al-Din al-Albani, al-Maktab al-Islami, 1st ed., 1400 AH / 1980 (2 parts) , p. 605
- Kitab al-Sunna of Ibn Abi Asim, with Zilal al-Janna fi Takhrij al-Sunna by Muhammad Nasir al-Din al-Albani, al-Maktab al-Islami, 1st ed., 1400 AH / 1980 (2 parts) , p. 360
- Kitab al-Sunna of Ibn Abi Asim, with Zilal al-Janna fi Takhrij al-Sunna by Muhammad Nasir al-Din al-Albani, al-Maktab al-Islami, 1st ed., 1400 AH / 1980 (2 parts) , p. 546
- Kitab al-Sunna of Ibn Abi Asim, with Zilal al-Janna fi Takhrij al-Sunna by Muhammad Nasir al-Din al-Albani, al-Maktab al-Islami, 1st ed., 1400 AH / 1980 (2 parts) , p. 547
- Kitab al-Sunna of Ibn Abi Asim, with Zilal al-Janna fi Takhrij al-Sunna by Muhammad Nasir al-Din al-Albani, al-Maktab al-Islami, 1st ed., 1400 AH / 1980 (2 parts) , p. 2
- Kitab al-Sunna of Ibn Abi Asim, with Zilal al-Janna fi Takhrij al-Sunna by Muhammad Nasir al-Din al-Albani, al-Maktab al-Islami, 1st ed., 1400 AH / 1980 (2 parts) , p. 316
- Kitab al-Sunna of Ibn Abi Asim, with Zilal al-Janna fi Takhrij al-Sunna by Muhammad Nasir al-Din al-Albani, al-Maktab al-Islami, 1st ed., 1400 AH / 1980 (2 parts) , p. 4
Cite this page
islam.museum contributors. “Kitab al-Sunna (Ibn Abi Asim)”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/work/kitab-al-sunna-ibn-abi-asim/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-11-06.
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