Utilizing Jami al-Jawami

السلام عليكم

This is a small instructional document in a planned series of documents on how to use various texts to conduct a preliminary investigation for a statement found in an Islamic text or lecture. What is important is to have the right references available and to interpret the statements found in the texts in accordance with how the scholars intended them.

In no way are these document intended to produce results about specific narrations that supersede the conclusions of one or another Muhaddith. This document is not intended to take the place of true scholarship.

Rather the intention behind the compilation of these documents is to exhibit for the readers the possibility of alternative methods of investigation utilizing agreed upon texts in the sciences to arrive at a preliminary conclusion regarding narrations.

The first document will deal with finding out the provenance of a narration. Subsequent posts shall deal with the views of the various scholars on grading a narration, reviewing whatever linguistics are involved, explanations provided by the Fuqaha, and finally if the narration has any applications. I would like to stress at this point, this post is only the first step in conducting a preliminary investigation.

Here is the scenario:

Your reading a book or listening to a lecture and the speaker or author mentions a statement and attributes it to the Messenger of Allah, peace upon him, and you have never heard it before. You want to know first- is this authentically attributed to the Prophet, peace upon him, and second- what is the position of the scholars on this narration, i.e. how do they explain or implement it.

So let’s begin with a statement attributed to the Prophet, peace upon him.

أخوف ما أخاف على أمتي كل منافق عليم اللسان

“Most frightening is what I fear for my Ummah from every eloquent hypocrite”.

If the lecture is in Arabic, it makes the search a bit easier, however if the lecture or book is in english, then the search terms must be reverse translated- meaning various combinations of potential Arabic terms must be alternately searched until the statement closest in meaning to the english is found.

There will be a separate document detailing methods of reverse translation, In Sha Allah.

So let’s assume the quote being searched is in Arabic for the sake of brevity and purposes of this document.

What we want to know is, what major texts quote this statement.

First we want to search for any variants of the narration, and so we take a phrase from it to both open and limit the search results at the same time. If we take too much of the statement, then it will eliminate potential matches with small differences in wording. If we take phrases that are too common in narrations, then we will end up with hundreds of results.

In this statement I select the wording: كل منافق عليم اللسان.

If the statement is indeed attributed to the Prophet, peace upon him, and if there is one book that would most likely contain the reference, then it is Jami al-Jawami by as-Suyuti. The book does not contain all the narrations, but is the most likely to reference it if indeed the sought after quote is in a major scholarly collection of narrations.

Once we find all the references to major collections, we can then narrow our search to specific explanations provided by the scholars who verified those texts, or we can then refer to the judgments of those scholars who graded the narrations in any given collection.

Jami al-Jawami is not intended as the begining and end point of an investigation, rather it is the beginning. Of course if we find a reference with an exact wording in Jami al-Jawami, and it is to the Shaykhayn, then we need look no further for the grade, however we still need the explanation. If we find references to collections which are known to collect both weak and authentic narrations, then the search goes on for the grade and explanation.

Jami’ al-Jawami of as-Suyuti has 6 results:

احذروا كل منافق عليم اللسان (أحمد ، وأبو يعلى ، والبزار عن عمر) [المناوى

أخرجه أحمد (1/22 ، رقم 143) ، والبزار (1/434 ، رقم 305) . قال الهيثمى (1/187) : رواه البزار ، وأحمد ، وأبو يعلى ، ورجاله موثقون.

وللحديث أطراف أخرى منها : “إن أخوف

#763- “Be cautious of every every eloquent hypocrite”– Ahmad, Abu Ya’la, and al-Bazzar on authority of Umar [al-Manawi]

Ahmad came out with it in 1/22 #143, al-Bazzar in 1/434 #305, and al-Haythami said in 1/187: ‘Al-Bazzar, Ahmad, and Abu Ya’la transmitted it, and its men are verified’.

And for the narration is another variation from it: “Indeed most frightening…”

أخوف ما أخاف على أمتى كلُّ منافق عليمُ اللسان -ابن عدى عن عمر. أخرجه ابن عدى (3/104 ، ترجمة 640 ديلم بن غزوان أبو غالب) . وأخرجه أيضًا : الفريابى فى صفة المنافق (ص 52 ، رقم 24) ، والبزار كما فى كشف الأستار (1/97 ، رقم 168) ، والضياء (1/343 ، رقم 235) . قال الهيثمى (1/187) : رواه الطبرانى فى الكبير ، والبزار ، ورجاله رجال الصحيح.

وللحديث أطراف أخرى منها : “إن أخوف ما أخاف” ، وسيأتى فى مسند عمر

#943- “Most frightening is what I fear for my Ummah from every eloquent hypocrite”– Ibn Adee on authority of Umar. Ibn Adee came out with it in 3/104, biography #640 of Daylam bin Ghazwan Abu Ghalif. Al-Firyabi came out with it in Sifat al-Munafiq p. 52, #24, al-Bazzar came out with it just as in Kashf al-Astar 1/97, #168; adh-Dhiya’ 1/343, #235. Al-Haythami said in 1/187: “at-Tabarani transmitted it in al-Kabir, and al-Bazzar, and its men are men of the Sahih”.

And for the narration is another variation: “Indeed Most Frightening…” and will come in the Musnad of Umar.

إن أخوف ما أخاف على أمتى كل منافق عليم اللسان- أحمد ، وابن أبى الدنيا فى ذم الغيبة ، وابن عدى ، ونصر فى الحجة  والبيهقى فى شعب الإيمان ، والضياء عن عمر.

أخرجه أحمد (1/22 ، رقم 143) وابن أبى الدنيا فى ذم الغيبة (ص 91 ، رقم 8 ) وفى الصمت (ص 109 ، رقم 148) ، وابن عدى (3/104 ترجمة 640 ديلم بن غزوان أبو غالب) ، والبيهقى فى شعب الإيمان (2/284 ، رقم 1777) ، والضياء (1/343 ، رقم 235.

#6024- “Indeed most frightening is what I fear for my Ummah from every eloquent hypocrite”– Ahmad, Ibn Abi ad-Dunya in Thamm al-Ghibah, Ibn Adee, Nasr in al-Hujjah, al-Bayhaqi in Shu’ab al-Iman, and adh-Dhiya’ on authority of Umar.

Ahmad came out with it 1/22 #143, Ibn Abi Dunya in Thamm al-Ghibah p. 91 #8, and in as-Samat p. 109, #148, Ibn Adee 3/104, biography #640 of Daylam bin Ghazwan Abu Ghalib, al-Bayhaqi in Shu’ab al-Iman 2/284 #1777, and adh-Dhiya 1/343 #235.

عن الأحنف بن قيس قال : سمعت عمر بن الخطاب يقول كنا نتحدث إنما هلك هذه الأمة كل منافق عليم اللسان (جعفر الفريابى فى صفة المنافق ، وأبو يعلى فى معجمه ، ونصر ، وابن عساكر) [كنز العمال 29397]

أخرجه الفريابى فى صفة المنافق (1/52 ، رقم 24) ، وابن عساكر (24/310

#30,198- “On authority of al-Ahnaf bin Qays, he said: ‘I heard Umar bin al-Khattab saying: ‘We would say: ‘Indeed every eloquent hypocrite destroys this Ummah”– Ja’far al-Firyabi in Sifat al-Munafiq, Abu Ya’la in his Mu’jam, Nasr, and Ibn Asakir [Kanz al-Amal #29,397]

Al-Firyabi came out with it in Sifat al-Munafiq 1/52 #24, and Ibn Asakir 24/310.

عن الأحنف عن عمر قال : كنا نقول فى عهد النبى  – صلى الله عليه وسلم –  إنما يهلك هذه الأمة كل منافق عليم اللسان فاتق يا أحنف أن تكون منهم (العسكرى فى المواعظ) [كنز العمال 29405

#31,044- “On authority of al-Ahnaf, on authority of Umar, he said: ‘We would say upon the guidance of the Prophet, peace upon him, “Indeed this Ummah would be destroyed by every eloquent hypocrite, so fear Allah, Oh Ahnaf, that you might be from them”– Al-Askari in al-Muwa’ith [Kanz al-Amal #29,405].

عن الحسن قال : لما قدم وفد البصرة على عمر فيهم الأحنف بن قيس سرحهم وحبسه عنده حولا ثم قال : هل تدرى لم حبستك إن رسول الله  – صلى الله عليه وسلم   حذرنا كل منافق عليم اللسان وإنى تخوفت أن تكون منهم ولست منهم إن شاء الله (ابن سعد ، وأبو يعلى) [كنز العمال 29394

أخرجه ابن سعد (7/94

#31,314- “On authority of al-Hasan, he said: ‘When the delegation of al-Basrah arrived to Umar, among them was al-Ahnaf bin Qays; (Umar) pulled him aside from them and kept him back drawing him near, then said: ‘Understand that I did not detain you (except to tell you) that the Messenger of Allah, peace upon him, cautioned us of every eloquent hypocrite, and indeed I fear that you be from them, and may you not be from them, if Allah wills’– Ibn Sa’d, and Abu Ya’la [Kanz al-Amal #29,394]

Ibn Sa’d came out with it in 7/94.

As you can see, we have quite a number of references by as-Suyuti for the quote attributed to the Prophet, peace upon him. I must admit, that there are a couple which I had never heard of before.

So, the next document will look at every single book and author referenced, and In Sha Allah I will give a brief description for each, and we will go from there.

May Allah, Lofty is He, accept this from me, and forgive me any mistakes therein, and let it serve to benefit only.