Abstract:

Abū Sa‛īd Muḥammad al-Khādimī was one of the leading Ottoman scholars during the eighteenth-century. Having come to the fore among the Ottoman scholars with his views, thought, and works, Khādimī has also been recognized, alongside his identity as a faqīh (jurisconsult), uṣūlī (legal methodologist), and Sufi, as an eminent scholar in other fields of study. The author’s full name is Abū Sa‛īd Muḥammad (Mehmed) b. Muṣṭafā b. ‛Uthmān al-Ḥusaynī al-Ḥanafī al-Naqshbandī al-Qūnawī al-Khādimī. He was born in 1113/1701 in Konya. His father, a mudarris (professor), was Fakhr al-Rūm Muṣṭafā Efendi. The lineage of his family, who had migrated from Bukhara to settle in Anatolia, extended back to the Prophet. He received his primary education from his father. Later he continued his education at the Konya Karatay Madrasah. He subsequently went to Istanbul, and there he completed his education at Tokat/Kazovalı (Kazābādī) Ahmed Efendi. Afterward, he returned to Khādim. Until his death he taught at the Khādim Madrasah and found himself also active in Sufi irshād (teaching and guiding). Within this period, in 1732, he was invited by the sultan to the Huzur Dersi (Imperial lecture) at the hands of Hacı Beşir Ağa (d. 1159/1746) during the time of Sultan Mahmud I (1730−1754). Having demonstrated his competence in the presence of the sultan, Khādimī was invited by the sultan to give a lesson at the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, to which the sultan also wanted other scholars to take part. Khādimī taught hundreds of students over the course of his 37 years of teaching. Khādimī died in the year 1176/1762 and was buried in the western part of town in what today is known as the Khādim Cemetery. There are extant works of Khādimī in various fields of tafsīr, ḥadīth, ‛aqā’id, kalām, taṣawwuf, manṭiq, etc. Süleyman Kırkağacī, a student of Khādimī, mentions that there are close to 80 works of Khādimī. Among Khādimī’s most well-known works include Barīqah maḥmūdiyyah fī sharḥ ṭarīqah Muḥammadiyyah wa sharī‛ah nabawiyyah fī ṣirāt Aḥmadiyyah (Cairo 1257/1840, 1268/1852; Istanbul 1266/1854, 1287/1871, 1318/1905, 1326/1914), Majām‛i al-ḥaqā’iq wa al-qawā‛id wa jawām‛i al-rawā’iq wa al-fawā’id min al-uṣūl (Istanbul 1273, 1303, 1318), Risālah al-Naqshbandiyyah (Tuḥfah al-mulūk fī irshād ahl al-sulūk, trans. Hasan Alakase, Istanbul: İnsan Yayınları, 2002) and Risālah al-basmalah (Istanbul: Matbaa-i Āmire, 1201/1787 and 1304/1892). A large number of his treatises are in manuscript form. He had trained many a scholar. In this study, one of the author’s treatises which include discussions concerning the subject of ‛amal (action) and khabar al-wāḥid (solitary report) has been evaluated and prepared for publication. In this treatise, which is on the subject of worship and on weak and fabricated ḥadīths, Khādimī subjects his analysis on the ḥadīth concerning the recitation of āyahs that begin with “Shahīdallāhu” alongside “Qulillāhumma” both in terms of the techniques of uṣūl al-ḥadīth (methodology and principles of Hadith) as well as by way of Sufi kashf (disclosure). The author has emphasized in the assessments that he has conducted the investigation of the source of the riwāyah (narrations) which are to be acted upon, and accordingly, he has suggested that certain narrations of which have been the object of debate should be analyzed in terms of the criteria of Hadith. As a part of this study, this work, which has been presented for your deliberation, is supplemented with a short biography of the author alongside the sources and primary features of the treatise, followed by a critique of the original text. The subject of the treatise is on the following narration that has been transmitted from the Prophet: “Indeed, from the āyahs in Ṣūrah al-Fātiḥah, Āyah al-Kursī, Ṣūrah Āli ‛Imrān that begin with “Shahīdallāhu” and the two āyahs ending with “Inna al-dīn ‛inda Allāh al-Islām” and “Qulillāhumma mālik al-mulk” until the part “bi ghayrī ḥisāb” are among the shafā‛ī (intercession possessing) āyahs (or are connected with the throne). There is no veil between those āyahs and God Most High. When God Most High was about to reveal these āyahs, they clung to the throne and said the following: “O our Lord! Are you sending us down to Your world and to those who rebel against You? God said thusly: “I swear by My name that whosoever, regardless of their whereabouts, recites you (i.e. āyahs) after the obligatory prayers, I have prepared for them Paradise; I will place them in the paradise of my sanctuary, gaze at them seventy times a day, and gratify seventy of their needs. Among the least of these is maghfirah (remission of sins); He will protect them from enemies and enviers, and will help them against adversaries” There are, in this treatise, based on the analysis of a ḥadīth narration, various references to classical narrations and ḥadīth sources. Treatises that were utilized; Daylamī’s (d. 509/1115) Al-Firdaws, Baghawī’s (d. 516/1122) Ma‛ālimah al-tanzīl, Ibn Jawzī’s (d. 597/1201) Al-Mawḍū‛āt, ‛Alī al-Samarqandī’s (d. 860/1456) Baḥr al-‛ulūm, Suyūṭī’s (d. 911/ 1505) Al-Durr al-Manthūr; these have been expressly mentioned in the text. Furthermore, as a part of the critique of the rāwī (narrator), references to Ibn Ḥibbān, Ibn Khuzaymah, and Abu Ḥātim were made in the text without mentioning the name of the work. Nevertheless, Ibn Ḥajar’s Nukhbah al-fikr, Yāfi‛ī’s Al-Durr al-naẓīm, Ṭībī’s (d. 743/1343) Al-Khulāṣah fī uṣūl al-ḥadīth are alluded to in the marginal notes. Also, a work entitled Mishkāt al-anwār is mentioned in the text. This work is most probably Ghazzālī’s Mishkāt. The treatise in question is contained in the work entitled Majmū‛āt al-rasā’il (pp. 229‒231), which was printed during the Ottoman period, for which 3 manuscript copies have been identified. One of the copies is located at the Süleymaniye Library in the Reşid Efendi collection, number 1017, folios 127a‒128a (numbers in the same copy in folios 100a‒101a have been added later on). Information found in some of the transcriptions, and in folios 100a‒101a in number 998 from the same collection, are inaccurate. Another manuscript copy of the work is located at the Beyazıt Devlet Library, number 3824, folios 103b‒104b. The final copy is found at the Amasya İl Public Library, number 1545, folios 6b‒7b. These four copies, of which one is printed and three are in manuscript form, have been included in this publication as a part of the critique. The printed copy is designated with the letter (ط), and from the manuscript copies, the one at the Süleymaniye Library in the Reşid Efendi collection is designated with the letter (ش), the one at the Beyazıt Devlet Library with the letter (ب), and the one at the Amasya State Public Library with the letter (م).

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