What is the book "Kanzul Ummal"?

[Sunni_Student786]

As salaamu alaykum.

I have seen the book "Kanzul Ummal" quoted in various places, at various times, and I was wondering exactly what type of book it is?

Is it a book of Hadith? Stories related to us about the companions and those who have gone before us? A book of exhortation to good works such as Faza'il e Amaal? A combination of all the above mentioned types of works? Or something entirely different?

If some of my more knowledgeable brothers and sisters could answer the question(s) above, I would appreciate it.

Jazakallahu Khair.

Wa'salaam.

[Zubair]

salam

shaykh mentioned this book and he said that Imam Suyuti started to collect every hadith in a book but he didn't finish it and then SOme other shaykh by name of Shaykh Sindhi finished it.

i could be wrong

salam

[Abul Hasan]

As salaamu alaykum.

I have seen the book "Kanzul Ummal" quoted in various places, at various times, and I was wondering exactly what type of book it is?

Is it a book of Hadith? Stories related to us about the companions and those who have gone before us? A book of exhortation to good works such as Faza'il e Amaal? A combination of all the above mentioned types of works? Or something entirely different?

If some of my more knowledgeable brothers and sisters could answer the question(s) above, I would appreciate it.

Jazakallahu Khair.

Wa'salaam.

Wa alaikum salam

Kanz al-Ummal fi Sunan wal Aqwal wal Afwal, is the largest available unique collection of Ahadith/Athar by the Hanafi Imam: Ali ibn Husamud-Din al-Muttaqi al-Hindi, who died in the year 975 AH. It contains more than 46,000 narrations composed from many individual earlier collections. It is in essence a continuation of Imam al-Suyuti's Hadith collections, Jami al-Saghir, its Zawa'id and Jami al-Kabir (Jam al-Jawami). The Kanz was printed more than 100 years ago in Hyderabad, India. I have seen that earliest printed copy in Birmingham University, UK, more than 12 years ago during my student days. It is very bulky and the pages are huge in size.


Here follows Imam al-Hindi's introduction:

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
الحمد لله الكبير المتعال، والصلاة والسلام على سيدنا محمد المتبع في الأقوال والأفعال والأحوال، وعلى سائر الأنبياء، وآله وصحبه التابعين له في كل حال.
(أما بعد) فيقول أحقر عباد الله علي بن حسام الدين الشهير عند الناس بالمتقي: لما رأيت كتابي الجامع الصغير وزوائده، تأليفي شيخ الإسلام جلال الدين السيوطي عامله الله بلطفه ملخصا من قسم الأقوال من جامعه الكبير وهو مرتب على الحروف، جمعت بينهما مبوبا ذلك على الأبواب الفقهية، مسميا الجمع المذكور (منهج العمال في سنن الأقوال) ثم عن لي أن أبوب مابقي من قسم الأقوال، فنجز بحمد الله وسميته (الإكمال لمنهج العمال). ثم مزجت بين هذين التأليفين كتابا بعد كتاب وبابا بعد باب وفصلا بعد فصل، مميزا أحاديث الإكمال من منهج العمال. ومقصودي من هذا التمييز أن المؤلف رحمه الله ذكر أن الأحاديث التي في الجامع الصغير وزوائده أصح وأخصر وأبعد من التكرار، كما يعلم من ديباجة الجامع الصغير. فصارا كتابا سميته (غاية العمال) في سنن الأقوال. ثم عن لي أن أبوب قسم الأفعال أيضا فبوبته على المنهاج المذكور وجمعت بين أحاديث الأقوال والأفعال. وأذكر أولا أحاديث منهج العمال، ثم أذكر أحاديث الإكمال، ثم أحاديث قسم الأفعال، كتابا بعد كتاب، فصار ذلك كتابا واحدا مميزا فيه ماسبق بحيث أن من أراد تحصيل قسم الأقوال أو الأفعال منفردا أو تحصيلهما مجتمعين أمكنه ذلك، وسميته (كنز العمال في سنن الأقوال والأفعال). فمن ظفر بهذا التأليف فقد ظفر بجمع الجوامع، مبوبا مع أحاديث كثيرة ليست في جمع الجوامع، لأن المؤلف رحمه الله زاد في الجامع الصغير وذيله أحاديث لم تكن في جمع الجوامع.
وها أنا أذكر ديباجة المؤلف رحمه الله من الجامع الصغير وذيله (ن - زوائده) ومن الجامع الكبير، حتى لا أكون تاركا ولا مغيرا ألفاظه إن شاء الله تعالى. (ن - الا بعض رموز وألفاظ يسيرة تركها الشيخ رحمه الله تعالى فيهما اقتصارا فتركت ذلك للضرورة فليعلم.)

Wassalam

Abul Hasan

[Sunni_Student786]

Jazakallahu Khair for the info brother Abul Hasan.

After reading your reply, another question comes to mind, that being have any of the Ulema undertaken the task of critically examining and classifying the reports contained therein on the basis of their authenticity?

I have heard certain people quote "Kanzul Ummal" at times, although those Hadith are usually of disputed authenticity when they are found nowhere else save for the Kanzul Ummal, so I'd like to know if anyone has done a "Tahqiq" of its hadith.

And I would also like to know whether Ali ibn Husamud-Din al-Muttaqi al-Hindi ever mentions the individual, earlier collections, from which he took many of this hadith/athar, especially those that are not to be found anywhere else these days.

Regardless, thank you once more for the info.

[Mansy]

assalamulaikum everyone, jazakallah sidi Abul Hasan for your enlightening answer, I hope our beloved sheikh Abul Hasan doesn't mind if I make a slight amendment to his answer. The kanzul ummal is not a continuation of imam Suyuti’s work; in fact it is a replica of the three books of imam suyuti mentioned by sheikh Abul Hasan, but only in a different form. let me give the history of this book

Imam Suyuti wrote a book where he collected more than a hundred thousand hadiths (excluding the isnad), he called this book jamul jawami (also known as jamiul kabir). His intention was to collect as many hadiths as he can and give easy access to them. He divided the book into 2 sections. section 1 is to do with the sayings of the prophet (saw). The hadiths in this section were arranged in alphabetical order. the second section he dedicated to the actions and tacit approvals of the prophet. the hadiths in this section were arranged according to the names of sahabas starting with the ashara mubashara. Imam suyuti's sources for this work numbers over a hundred. he developed an abbreviation system when alluding to his sources, e.g. kh = Bukhari, hb = ibn Hibban, ts = tabrani fil awsat, q = bayhaqi sunan al-kubra etc. It should be noted that hadiths found in this book range from sound to fabricated

Imam suyuti then extracted all the concise sayings of the prophet (saw) (section 1 in his jamul jawami) which he thought to be acceptable (from sahih to daeef) and added a few more which are not found in his jamul jawami, and arranged them alphabetically. he called this jamius saghir. he still maintained the same sources and same abbreviation system, with the exception of the letter q. where the letter qaf in jamul jawami meant bayhaqi, in jamius saghir it means muttafaq alahy,and bayhaqi sunan al-kubra is abbreviated as hq.

He then collected a few more of the sayings of the prophet (saw) from jamul jawami and added a few more from himself, and called this book zawaid ala jamius saghir.

Sheikh ali muttaqi al-hindi saw this excellent piece of work; however, he found that alphabetically arranging the hadiths might lead to finding hadiths in this book to be extremely excruciating because:

1. someone might not know the words of the hadith in arabic
2. someone might not know the beginning of a hadith
3. someone might know a hadith, however the version of the hadith that he knows might be different from the one used by imam suyuti.

therefore sheikh ali muttaqi decided to re-organise the works of imam suyuti according to subject matter of fiqh such as tahara, salat, zakat, haj etc. he did this in 5 phases, as sheikh abul hasan has mentioned.

the end product of which is kanzul ummal fi sunanil aqwal wal afal.

As for the strenght of the hadiths in this book, then it follows imam suyutis system.

Imam Suyuti rahmatullahi alayh in his jamul jawami has made very broad categories for the strength of hadiths. the reason why he did this was because he was too busy in compiling the book, critically analysing every hadith would have taken too much of his time.

the broad categories of imam suyuti:

1. Hadith sahih: all hadiths found in: Bukhari, muslim, muwatta malik, mustadrak hakim, sahih ibn hibban, al-mukhtara by diya al-maqdasi, sahih ibn khuzayma, sahih abi awana, sahih ibn sakan, al-muntaqa ibn jarud, and the mustakhrajat on the sahihayn such as isfrayini and ismaili.

2. Hadith daeef: all hadiths found in: al-duafa uqayli, al-kamil ibn adi, tarikh baghdad kahtib, tarikh dimishq ibn asker, nawadir al-usul hakim tirmizi, tarikh nisapur hakim, tarikh ibn al-jarud, musnad al-firdaws daylami.

3. other than the above books, hadiths coming in any other books such as the sunans, imam Suyuti has mentioned the strength, however, he is not always correct in his analysis.

Sheikh ali muttaqi used this very system per se.

Although i haven't heard of anybooks written on the verification of hadiths in kanzul ummal, imam Abdur Rauf Manawi has critically analysed the hadiths of jamius saghir in his commentary of jamius saghir known as al-faydul al-qadir. Also sheikh Albani has done some work on the jamius saghir, in his sahihul jami and daiful jami. As far as the hadiths of the actions of the prophet in jamiul kabir is concerned, and the same goes for the hadiths of actions in kanzul ummal and the section called al-ikmal in kanzul ummal are concerned then unfortunately the analysis of these hadiths are scattered in the works of the hadith scholars such as Iraqi and Ibn hajr.

Note: kanzul ummal is not a primary source therefore it is not enough to mention a hadith and give reference to it.

hope that answers the question
wassalam

[Mansy]

salam

shaykh mentioned this book and he said that Imam Suyuti started to collect every hadith in a book but he didn't finish it and then SOme other shaykh by name of Shaykh Sindhi finished it.

i could be wrong

salam

Assalamualikum, i haven't heard about the collection of sheikh sindhi, but i do know that Allama Abdur Rauf Manawi attempted to collect the hadiths missed out by Imam Suyuti, the name of Imam Manawi's book is al-jami al-azhar, it is also seen as a critique to Imam suyuti's work.

I friend of mine has just analaysed the isnad of 300 hadiths of al-jamiul al-azhar for his masters thesis at Al-azhar university.

wassalam

[Sunni_Student786]

Jazakallahu Khair brothers Abul Hasan and Mansy.

My question(s) have been thoroughly answered.

May Allah bless you both and give you, and all the Muslims, happiness in this life and the hereafter.