As-Suyuti’s Jami al-Jawami

السلام عليكم,

I took some time yesterday to put together the next couple of posts in order to pay my respects to the Imam, the Shaykh, the Muhaddith Jalal ad-Din as-Suyuti and his very beneficial compilation entitled Jami al-Jawami, which is, in fact his two books Jami al-Kabir and Jami as-Saghir in one.

The books is a great tool and reference for anyone wanting to know very quickly what statements are from the Prophet, peace upon him, and what major collection has the narration. As-Suyuti provides anecdotal information and oftentimes quotes from other Muhaddithin regarding the narration, as will be shown.

A summary about the book and as-Suyuti’s approach to its compilation.

As-Suyuti intended to collect in his Jami’ all narrations on authority of the Prophet, peace upon him, transmitted by a Companion, may Allah be pleased with them, whether 1 or 10 Companions transmitted it. He also intended to collect all narrations be they weak, fair, or authentic and arrange them in the form of a Musnad, or according to the Companion who transmitted the narration. As-Suyuti also omitted all the chains.

Jami’ al-Jawami was intended as a reference for all the narrations compiled by the following Muhaddithin. Following each scholar is the abbreviation intended to take the place of the name of the scholar or the title of the book referenced:

Al-Bukhari (خ)

Muslim (م)

Ibn Hibban (حب)

Al-Mustadrak of al-Hakim (ك)

Al-Mukhtarah of adh-Dhiya’ al-Maqdisi (ض)- [as-Suyuti says in his introduction that all of what is in these 5 are ascribed authenticity]

Abu Dawud (د – if he remained silent about a narration it was strong, and whatever Abu Dawud declared weak, as-Suyuti reported it)

At-Tirmithi ( ت – with the comments of at-Tirmithi)

An-Nasa’i (ن)

Ibn Majah (هـ)

Abu Dawud at-Tayalisi (ط)

Ahmad ( حم) and the additions of Abd Allah are notated with عم)

Sa’id bin Mansur (ص)

Ibn Abi Shaybah (ش)

Abi Ya’la (ع)

All 3 books of at-Tabarani (al-Kabir طب; al-Awsat طس; as-Saghir طص)

Ad-Daraqutni (قط)

Al-Hilyah of Abu Nu’aym (حل)

Sunan al-Kubra of al-Bayhaqi (ق), (if it was from another book then he said so, and Sha’b al-Iman is هب; and in this book are authentic, fair and weak narrations, and mostly al-Bayhaqi clarified which was which)

[As-Suyuti mentions here that all of what is in Musnad Ahmad is Maqbul or accepted, thus indeed the weak which is in it is closer to fair]

Al-Uqayli from adh-Dhu’afa (عق)

Ibn Adee in al-Kamal (عد)

Al-Khatib (خط- if it was from his Tarikh Baghdad nothing is said, and if not then he clarifies it)

Ibn Asakir (كر- from his Tarikh Dimashq)

[And everything from these previous 4 books, or to al-Hakeem at-Tirmithi in Nawadir al-Usul, or al-Hakim in his Tarikh, or ad-Daylami in Musnad al-Firdaws– then if it is weak then the grade was dispensed with, if it also came from a higher chain then it was clarified]

Whatever is ascribed to Ibn Jarir is from Tahthib al-Athar, and if it was his Tafsir or his Tarikh, he clarified it.

Next In Sha Allah, I’ll take a narration and use Jami al-Jawami to find out the source texts, and then breakdown the entry for the narration, explaining the references and quotes.