Kitab al-Mawahib al-'Aliyyah fi al-Jam'i bayn al-Hikam al-Qur'aniyyah wa al-Hadithiyyah : the topical index of wisdom in the qur'an and hadith by Ali Al-Muttaqi Al-Hindi : an annotated translation and edition of the manuscript

Abstract

This dissertation attempts to study Kitab al-Mawahib al-aliyyah fi al-jami bayn al-Hikam al-Qur’aniyyah wa al-Hadithiyyah written by Ali al-Muttaqi al-Hindi, a 16th century Islamic scholar who is known for writing Kanz al-Ummal. The manuscript of Kitab al-Mawahib of al-Muttaqi is a compilation of one thousand wisdom in Qur’an and hadith in which five hundred of them are from the Qur’an and the rest from hadith. The wisdom of the Qur’an is identified in this manuscript as ‘al-Iqtisabit’ (quotations) and hadith as ‘al-Tadminat’ (inclusion or embodiment). The author has listed all the wisdom in alphabetical order, and he presents the Qur’anic and hadith wisdom together where both are relevant under one topic, otherwise, Qur’an or hadith are only presented vice versa. A hundred leaves of the manuscript which is one of the earliest works in the area of wisdom in Qur’an and hadith. Working on this manuscript, safeguarding and publishing with textual editing can be considered as one of the greatest contributions to Islamic heritage. As an academic tool, textual editing (tahqiq) could bring into knowledge a wealth of academic research. Given this, the dissertation comprises of three major parts, namely the analysis, the translation of the manuscript and the critical edition of its Arabic text. The analysis and discussion part emphasis on the authorship of Kitab al-Mawahib and its significance, theme, other copies, editing methods and so on. This is followed by the translation part, which comprises a complete translation of the entire Kitab al-Mawahib of al-Muttaqi with annotation and commentary. The most important part is the critical edition of the complete Arabic text of Kitab al-Mawahib of al-Muttaqi, which would be the first critical edition ever. In translating the text, the researcher has endeavoured to capture the spirit of the original contents without compromising the text to accommodate the various semantic and linguistic nuances that may or may not differ between both these languages.