Qatf al-Azhar: Harvesting Scattered Flowers

Imam Jalal ad-Din as-Suyuti
(tr.)  Nasir Abdussalam

Qatf al-Azhar is a very rare type of hadith collection dedicated to an even rarer type of hadith - the mass-transmitted (mutawarir) hadith - in which a piece of information is corroborated by a multitude of eyewitnesses whose relative abundance precludes a conspiracy to lie; it is then transmitted continuously by similar multitudes from the original witnesses to the present. One of the salient qualities of Islam is its concern with certainty with regards to establishing the fundamentals of the religion. The mass-transmitted report is a means of acquiring certainty and as such deserves our profound attention in an age in which the authenticity of the whole hadith corpus has come under attack. The text was abridged by its author, Imam Suyüti, specifically to suit the needs of the lay reader and this English translation incorporates the text of all 113 hadiths listed by the Imam, along with helpful explanatory notes and a layout that visually reinforces the authoritativeness of each mass-transmitted report.

 "The mutawatir report is that which reaches you from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ via a transmission containing no doubt, such that it is as if you hear it from an eyewitness. This is due to its great number of narrators whose collusion cannot be countenanced, owing to their uprightness and clearly different locations." - Imam Bazdawi