Sharh al-Arba'in al-Nawawiyya li-Ibn Raslan al-Ramli شرح الأربعين النووية لابن رسلان الرملي

Sharḥ al-Arbaʿīn al-Nawawiyyah by Ibn Raslān al-Ramlī — First Published from a Unique Manuscript

Sharḥ al-Arbaʿīn al-Nawawiyyah is a previously unpublished commentary by the distinguished Palestinian Shāfiʿī scholar Shihāb al-Dīn Aḥmad ibn Raslān al-Ramlī (773–844 AH / 1371–1440 CE), one of the leading jurists and ḥadīth scholars of the ninth Islamic century. Ibn Raslān is best known for his celebrated Ṣafwat al-Zubad (Matn al-Zubad), a foundational didactic poem on Shāfiʿī jurisprudence, as well as his extensive commentary on Sunan Abī Dāwūd.

A particularly notable feature of this work is its sharḥ mazjī, or blended commentary style. Rather than separating the original ḥadīth from its explanation, Ibn Raslān seamlessly incorporates the Prophetic wording into his own commentary, providing linguistic clarification, grammatical analysis, and juristic explanation within a continuous text. In this edition, the text of the ḥadīths is printed in red, while Ibn Raslān’s commentary is printed in black. Thus, although the matn and sharḥ form part of the same continuous sentence, they can be distinguished immediately and effortlessly by their contrasting colors. This preserves the elegance and continuity of the sharḥ mazjī method while making the text particularly accessible to the reader. 

This publication fills an important gap in late Mamluk Shāfiʿī ḥadīth literature, providing students and researchers with direct access to Ibn Raslān’s nuanced legal, linguistic, and spiritual perspectives on foundational Prophetic traditions.

The commentary covers not only the famous 42 ḥadīths of Imām al-Nawawī's al-Arbaʿīn, but also the eight additional traditions incorporated by al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Rajab al-Ḥanbalī in Jāmiʿ al-ʿUlūm wa’l-Ḥikam, bringing the collection to fifty ḥadīths. It thus provides a valuable early classical commentary on the expanded collection of Prophetic traditions associated with Ibn Rajab.

Most significantly, this edition is being published for the first time from a unique surviving manuscript (nuskha farīdah), bringing an important previously inaccessible work of Ibn Raslān to modern readers. Its combination of ḥadīth commentary, Shāfiʿī jurisprudence, Arabic linguistic analysis, and ethical and spiritual insights makes it a valuable addition to the libraries of students and researchers of ḥadīth, fiqh, and the classical Islamic scholarly tradition.