Talkhis al-Mustadrak

Al-Mustadrak alaa al-Sahihain or Mustadrak al-Hakim (Arabic: المستدرك على الصحيحين Al-Mustadrak 'ala al-Sahí®hayn) is a five volume hadith collection written by Hakim al-Nishaburi d. 405H.

History

He wrote it in the year 393 AH (1002-1003 CE), when he was 72 years old. It contains 9045 hadith ^[1]. He claimed all hadith in it were authentic according to the conditions of either Sahih Bukhari or Sahih Muslim or both ^[2]

Authenticity

The statement of authenticity was not accepted by a number of prominent later Sunni scholars. Al-Dhahabi, a 14th century Sunni Shafi'i Islamic scholar made an abridged version of the collection named Talkhis al-Mustadrak where he commented on its authenticity. It has become the habit of scholars today working in the field of hadí®th, when compiling them and determining their authenticity, to say things like "It is authenticated by al-Hí¢kim and al-Dhahabí® concurs". In doing so, they are referring to al-Dhahabi's Talkhí®s, his abridgement of the Mustadrak that is often published along with it in its margins. ^[3].

Dhahabi also wrote ^[4]:

The Mustadrak contains a lot of hadí®th that conform to the conditions of authenticity of both (al-Bukhí¢rí® and Muslim) as well as a number of hadí®th conforming to the conditions of either one of them. Perhaps the total number of such hadí®th comprises a third of the book or less. A lot of the book is hadí®th that appear on the surface to be on the conditions of one or both of them, but that have hidden within them subtle but substantial defects. A portion of the book contains chains of transmission that are good and acceptable. This is about a fourth of the book. The rest of the book is rejected and extremely strange hadí®th. At the same time, there are about one hundred hadí®th that the heart declares to be false...

adh-Dhahabi lamented:

It would have been better if al-Hakim had never compiled it."^[5]

Ibn Hajar Asqalani, a 15th century Sunni Islamic scholar states that Mawdu'at al-Kubra is as unreliable in its attributing the grade of being "forged" to certain ahadith as al-Hakim's Mustadrak is unreliable in its declaring the grade of "sound" or Sahih to many ahadith ^[6].

Abridgment

Talkhis al-Mustadrak' is an abridged version of Al-Mustadrak alaa al-Sahihain, written by Al-Dhahabi. Al-Dhahabi in his Talkhis al-Mustadrak made an abridged version (a version with omitted material of the collection where he commented on its claimed authenticity). In that version, he added his comments on 1182 hadith. Al-Dhahabí® in his encyclopedic Tí¢rikh al-Islam "The History of Islam" says the following in his biographical entry on al-Hí¢kim, wherein he speaks about his Mustadrak: "Some of those are fabrications. I came to know of them when I prepared an abridgement of the Mustadrak and pointed them out." al-Dhahabí® says in Siyar A`lí¢m al-Nubalí¢' (17/176): "|It is a useful book. I had made an abridgement of it that is in considerable need of work and editing."

On at least three other occasions, he citicised hadith he had not commented on in his Talkhí®s. For example, when speaking about Mu`í¢wiyah b. Sí¢lih in Mí®zí¢n al-I`tidal (4/135), he writes: "He is among those narrators whom Muslim accepts but not al-Bukhí¢rí®. You can see al-Hí¢kim relating this narrator's hadí®th in his Mustadrak and say: 'This is according to the conditions of al-Bukhí¢rí®.' He repeatedly makes this mistake." However, when the same statement comes up in his Talkhí®s, he says nothing about it .

There have been many prominent scholars who have assumed that al-Dhahabí®'s silence in his Talkhí®s indicates his tacit approval of al-Hí¢kim's ruling, scholars of the caliber of Suyuti in al-Nukat al-Badí®`í¢t (197) (15th century CE), al-Maní¢wí® in Fayd al-Qadí®r, and al-Husayní® in al-Bayí¢n wa al-Ta`rí®f . Many contemporary scholars follow this view as well, but some question that stance based on detailed arguments .

References

Arabic Wikisource has original text related to this article: Al-Mustadrak alaa al-Sahihain

1. ^ These figures are taken from the editorial introduction of Ibn al-Mulaqqin's Mukhtasar Istidrí¢k al-Dhahabí®, 8-9 [1]
2. ^ Major Collections of Hadith
3. ^ Islamtoday.Com - Al-Hakim's Mustadrak & al-Dhahabí®'s Talkhis
4. ^ in his biographical encyclopedia entitled Siyar A`lí¢m al-Nubalí¢' "Biographies of Outstanding Personalities" [2]
5. ^ Al-Hakim Al-Naysaburi
6. ^ stated in al-Qawl al-Musaddad fil-Dhabb `an Musnad al-Imam Ahmad (published by Shaykh Ahmad Shakir in his edition of the Musnad) [3]