Al-Tawdhih

Al-Tawdhih li-Sharh al-Jami' al-Sahih
	An old manuscript
Author	Ibn al-Mulaqqin
Original title	التوضيح لشرح الجامع الصحيح
Language	Arabic
Subject	Sahih al-Bukhari
Genre	Commentary
Published	14th century
Media type	Print

Al-Tawdhih li-Sharh al-Jami' al-Sahih (Arabic: التوضيح لشرح الجامع الصحيح), often referred to as Al-Tawdhih, is a classical commentary on Sahih al-Bukhari written by the Shafi'i scholar Ibn al-Mulaqqin. It is the largest and most detailed commentary on Sahih al-Bukhari. Modern printed editions comprise thirty-six volumes. Ibn al-Mulaqqin worked on this commentary for more than two decades, beginning around 763 AH and completing it in 785 AH.

Composition

Ibn al-Mulaqqin began writing Al-Tawdhih in 763 AH and continued until 785 AH. Records indicate that the manuscript was completed on a Sunday in the month of Muharram 785 AH, while its final annotations (ta'liq) were finished on 13 Jumada al-Akhirah 780 AH.^[1]

According to Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, the work originally consisted of about twenty volumes. He stated that Ibn al-Mulaqqin drew heavily from the commentaries of his teachers Qutb al-Din al-Halabi and Maghlatay ibn Qalij, while adding his own material and interpretations. Manuscripts of different parts of the work are preserved in several libraries, most notably the Millet Library.^[2]^[3]

Some sections from the chapters Anbiya (Prophets) and Manaqib (Virtues) were later edited and published by Ahmad Hajj Muhammad Uthman under the title Qasas al-anbiya wa manaqib al-qaba'il min al-Tawdhih li-sharh al-Jami al-sahih.^[2]

Structure

The printed edition of Al-Tawdhih is organized into thirty-six volumes. The first volume is divided into two main parts: the first is the editor's introduction, and the second contains the author's own introduction. Volumes two to thirty-three form the main body of the commentary, while volumes thirty-four to thirty-six contain the index and table of contents.^[4]

The editor's introduction provides an overview of Sahih al-Bukhari and a short biography of Ibn al-Mulaqqin. The author's introduction includes a biography of al-Bukhari and a discussion of the reliability of narrators mentioned in Sahih Muslim.^[4]

The main commentary begins in the second volume. Ibn al-Mulaqqin starts by analyzing the grammatical structure of the chapter titles, then explains how the Quranic verses cited by al-Bukhari relate to each section.^[4]

Method

Ibn al-Mulaqqin follows a consistent method throughout his commentary. He begins with an explanation of the chapter heading (tarjamah al-bab), analyzes the grammatical and linguistic aspects of key words, and connects their usage to examples from the Quran and Hadith. His discussion of language is often extensive, and sometimes a single word is analyzed across several subsections.^[4]

He then traces the sources (takhrij) of each hadith, identifying its origins and noting where it reappears within Sahih al-Bukhari. The biographies of narrators are discussed in detail, from the earliest generation (tabaqah) to the latest, and he often distinguishes between narrators with similar or identical names.^[4]

His method combines linguistic, textual, and legal analysis. Each section begins with linguistic explanation (lughawi), followed by an analysis of narrators (ruwat), and then the interpretation of the hadith's meaning and its legal or ethical implications. The commentary is highly detailed and includes numerous opinions from early scholars (ulama al-mutaqaddimin).^[5]

The commentary includes a wide range of references from earlier scholars. Ibn al-Mulaqqin cites works from nearly every field of Islamic learning, including hadith, hadith sciences, criticism and validation (jarh wa ta'dil), jurisprudence, legal theory (usul al-fiqh), Arabic grammar, morphology, lexicography, and biography (sirah).^[4]