Episode 3: Books on parables

Some scholars wrote books on parables in the Sunnah such as Abu Al Hasan Ar-Ramahrmizzy who named his book “Parables of Hadith reported from the Messenger (peace be upon him)” and Abu Muhammad `Abdullah ibn Muhammad ibn Ja`far ibn Hayyan who named his book “The book of parables in the Prophetic Hadith.” Some scholars dedicated a chapter or part of their compilations to that purpose such as Abu `Isa At-Tirmidhy who wrote a chapter in his compilation under “Chapters on parables reported from the Messenger (peace be upon him).”

Al Qady Abu Bakr ibn Al `Araby said: “No one from the scholars of Hadith wrote a chapter on the parables like Abu `Isa. May Allah reward him because he opened a door and built a palace or a house (in this regard). However he contributed little in this great field, but we are content with it and thank him for it.”

The method of studying parables:

Because of the importance of parables in the Prophetic Sunnah, we chose a good branch from the books of the Sunnah according to the following methodology.

1- Reporting narrations with authentic chain of narration because they are sufficient.

2- Attributing Hadiths to the accredited Sunnah books.

3- Explaining ambiguous words mentioned in the Hadith along with full explanation to the Hadith when needed.

4- Mentioning the most important benefits taken from the parable.

5- Referring to the main resources such as the books of Hadith commentaries, the books of ambiguous words mentioned in Hadith, and linguistic books along with referring to that in the footnotes.

We ask Allah (Glory be to Him) to make this work beneficial for Muslims for He is the Most Generous, and praise be to the Lord of the worlds.

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