But if you desire God and His Messenger : The concept of choice in Sahih al-Bukhari

The aim of this dissertation is to discuss the concept of choice in the most important collection of Islamic traditions, Sahih al-Bukhari. The author of the collection, Muhammad ibn Isma'il al-Bukhari, lived between 810-870. My starting point is the collection of texts as it is now in its normative, established form. I read the hadiths as pieces of reality, not as statements about reality. The historicity of the texts has no role at all in my analysis. Part I sketches out the hagiography of the life and work of the author and provides a short history of the development of hadith literature and the processes of collecting and classifying the texts are discussed briefly. Part one ends with the presentation of my way of using rhetorical analysis as a methodological tool. Part II introduces my analysis of the concept of choice. It is divided into ten chapters, each concentrating on one hadith cluster. Part II ends with a discussion of the philosophy of free will and predestination in early Islam. Hadith literature is often considered as a representative of predestinarian theology compared to the Qur'an which emphasises the reponsibility of people of their own acts. In my conclusions I suggest that accoding to the texts in Sahih al-Bukhari, people do deal with real choices in their lives. The collection includes both strictly predestinarian texts but it also compises texts which claim that people are demanded to make real choices, even choices concerning life and death.

Al-Mahdi - Gestalt och budskap : En litteraturstudie jämförande sudanesisk Mahdi och indisk Mahdi inom islam

Followers of three world religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam are waiting for the Messiah. Muslims are even waiting for aspiritual leader al-Mahdi. Two different persons claimed the title of al-Mahdi, at the end of the nineteenth century. Theyappeared almost at the same time, at the totally different places of the earth, with a completely different message and underthe rule of the British colonial power. The aim of the study is to compare the both religious figures, Mirza Ghulam Ahmadfrom India and Muhammad Ahmad from Sudan regarding their different messages, to illustrate the social, political andreligious factors that lead to the entirely different profile and image of these two men and how their organizations havedeveloped after their death up till today. The result shows that the Sudanese Mahdi Muhammad Ahmad claimed hisMahdiship in the year 1881. He became a political leader in a time when Sudan was under the rule of a colonial power. Hetook advantage of the religion for personal purposes and tried to liberate his native country Sudan. The contemporaryMuslim clergy criticized him for his claim because the content of the Hadith traditions did not support his claim ofMahdiship. He maintained his sole right for the interpretation of religion and of the laws of Sharia. He made changes even inthe chief pillars of Islam by asserting that Jehad with sword was more imperative than the pilgrimage journey to Mecca. Heasserted that the Prophet Muhammad himself had entrusted him to launch the holy war against the non-believers. He hadimmense ambitions which were never fulfilled since he suddenly died four years after his claim for Mahdiship, in June 1885.This day his followers are organized as a political party in Sudan with a modest roll in the Sudanese politics. The IndianMahdi Mirza Ghulam Ahmad claimed in 1889 to be Mahdi, Mujaddid, Muhaddas, Messiah and a Prophet at a time of socialand political peace, though Islam as a religion was firmly pushed by the Hindu and Christian missionaries. He had no politicalambitions at all and was utterly loyal to the British colonial power. His mission was to crush the Cross and to demonstrateIslam’s excellence over all the religions of the world through overwhelming arguments. He proclaimed that Jesus was humanand a Prophet and not the son of God. Jesus survived from the cross and died a natural death after he had lived for manyyears. Ahmad claimed that God had commanded him to put stop to the religious wars. The contemporary Muslim clergyblamed him for being an imposter, melancholic and hypochondriac who had self invented the divine revelations. He died year1908, nineteen years after his claim and the communion he found is established today in more than hundred countries of theworld. Reasons for the breakdown of mission of the Sudanese Mahdi were that his objectives were political and he challengedthe colonial power with the sword. Another decisive factor was his sudden death merely four years after the beginning of hismission. Reasons for the success of Indian Mahdi were that his objectives were purely religious and he was wholly loyal to theforeign government. He survived nineteen years after the beginning of his mission which made it possible for him to create acommunion based on solid grounds. His followers continued on the same path and never engaged in local politics where everthey lived. For further studies it will be of great interest to study the life of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad and objectively examine thearguments he presented in support of his divine appointment. Furthermore it is enriching to study the organization andactivities of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community to explore if they are in accordance with the basic principles of Ahmad.

Hādhā kitāb Kashf al-labs ʻan ḥadīth waḍʻ al-yad ʻalá al-raʼs

li-ʻAbd al-Ḥayy ibn Abī al-Makārim ʻAbd al-Kabīr al-Kattānī.

al- Kawkab al-ḥathīth sharḥ durrat al-Ḥadīth

taʼlīf Muḥammad Amīn Afandī ibn al-Sayyid Muḥammad al-Safarjalānī al-Dimashqī.

Hādhihi Ḥāshiyat al-Sharīf al-faqīḥ al-ʻallāmah al-shāriḥ al-Mahdī ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Khiḍr al-Wazzānī ʻalá Sharḥ Abī ʻAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn ʻAbd al-Qādir al-Fāsī li-naẓm Alqāb al-ḥadīth li-Abī ʻAbd Allāh al-ʻArabī al-Fāsī

Lithograph.

Ijāzat Aḥmad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Tūnisī al-Miṣrī li-Muḥammad ibn Shaʻbān al-Ḥalabī : manuscript, 1691

Contains an ijāzah issued by Aḥmad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Tūnisī al-Miṣrī al-Azharī al-Ḥanafī to Muḥammad ibn Shaʻbān ibn Sharaf al-Dīn ibn ʻAbd al-Wahhāb al-Ḥalabī al-Sarmīnī (?) al-Muʻaddil (?) and another one issued by Muḥammad ibn Shaʻbān to two brothers named Ṣāliḥ and ʻAbd al-Raḥmān.

Ijāzat Aḥmad ibn ʻUbayd Allāh al-ʻAṭṭār li-Muḥammad ibn Shafīʻ Sulṭān : manuscript, [ca. 1780-1800]

An ijāzah issued by Aḥmad ibn ʻUbayd Allāh al-ʻAṭṭār to his student Muḥammad ibn Shafīʻ Sulṭān. The student's name is mentioned on fol. 1v; the master's name on fol. 6r. In the ijāzah al-ʻAṭṭār traces his authority back to al-Qasṭallānī's al-Mawāhib al-ladunnīyah, then to al-Shāfiʻī, and then gives his isnād of a musalsal ḥadīth.

Kitāb al-Arbaʻīn ʻan arbaʻīn min arbaʻīn li-arbaʻīn fī arbaʻīn / taʼlīf al-Imām al-Ḥāfiẓ Muḥaddith al-Shām Nāṣir al-Sunnah afḍal al-Mutaʼakhkhirīn awḥad al-ʻUlamāʼ ʻAlī ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Hibat Allāh ibn ʻAbd Allāh ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn ʻAsākir al-Dimashqī al-Shāfiʻī : manuscript, 1287

Written in one column, from 17 to 23 lines per page, in black.

Sharḥ Arbaʻīn ḥadīth Imām Nawawī : manuscript, undated

Written in one column framed within double red lines, from 15 (ff. 1r-16v) to 19 (ff. 17r-63v) lines per page, in black and red.

Hādhā Kitāb fī uṣūl al-dīn / lil-Imām al-Nasafī : manuscript, undated

1. Kitāb fī uṣūl al-dīn (ff. 1r-38v) -- 2. al-ʻAqīdah al-Ṭaḥāwīyah (ff. 39r-47r) -- 3. Muqaddimat Abī al-Layth (ff. 47v-63v) -- 4. Kitāb al-Arbaʻīn lil-Mundhirī (ff. 64r-70v) -- 5. Fāʼidah wa-mimmā naqalahu al-Shaykh Zarrūq al-Maghribī al-Mālikī ʻalá Sharh asmāʼ al-ḥusná manāfiʻ al-asmāʼ al-Idrisīyah al-Suhrawardīyah (ff. 71r-78r) -- 6. Fāʼidah jalīlah fī faḍāʼil ṣawm Ramaḍān (ff. 78r-96r).

Hādhihi Risālah fī al-ijāzah / lil-Imām al-Ḥāfiẓ al-Awḥad al-Mutqin Abū al-Muẓaffar Manṣūr ibn Salīm al-Hamadānī al-Iskandarī al-Shāfiʻī : manuscript, 1865 or 6

Cream laid paper.

Hādhā Arbaʻūn ḥadīthan : manuscript, 1824 or 5

According to the colophon (f. 117v), copy completed in the hand of ʻAbd al-Razzāq ibn Muḥammad Ḥusayn al-Yazdī in 1240 AH [December 1824-5 AD].

Sharḥ al-Nukhbah fī uṣūl ʻilm al-ḥadīth / lil-ʻAllāmah Ibn Ḥajar : manuscript, 1725 or 1726

Title from f. 1r.

Hādhihi risālat al-ʻIqd al-thamīn fī sharḥ al-ḥadīth al-musalsal bi-al-Dimashqīyīn / taʼlīf al-Shaykh al-Imām al-ʻĀlim al-ʻĀmil al-Shaykh Ismāʻīl al-ʻAjlūnī : manuscript, [1749 or 1750]

Ownership statements on f. 1r signed ʻAlī al-ʻImādī, 1175 AH [1761 or 62 AD]; Ḥāmid al-Bakrī, 1192 AH [1178-9 AD]; Muḥammad ibn Saʻīd ibn Amīn al-Munayyir (or: al-Munīr), Jumādá al-Thānī 1243 [1827-8]. On fly leaf [1]: Muḥammad Saʻīd ... al-Ḥusaynī al-Dimashqī, Rabīʻ al-Awwal [1]282 [1865]; Muḥammad Abū al-... al-Ḥusaynī al-..., 17 Jumādá al-ūlá 1317 [1899];.

Hādhihi risālat Iḍāʼat al-badrayn fī tarjamat al-Shaykhayn / lil-ʻAllāmah Sayyidī al-Shaykh Ismāʻīl al-ʻAjlūnī. manuscript, undated

Holograph copy. f. 61r: "hādhihi bi-khaṭṭ al-muʼallif raḥimahu allāh."