الأبواب المنتخبة من مشكاة المصابيح

al-Abwab al-Muntakhabah min Mishkat al-Masabih

A substantial selection from the celebrated Ḥadīth collection Mishkāt al-Maṣābīḥ of Imām al-Khaṭīb al-Tabrīzī, originally selected by the renowned Indian scholar and reformer Mawlānā Muḥammad Ilyās al-Kāndahlawī (d. 1363 AH) for regular teaching and reading. The selection concentrates particularly on those sections of the Mishkāt dealing with faith, knowledge, worship, virtues, spiritual development, character and Daʿwah, bringing together a large body of Prophetic guidance suitable for both students and those engaged in religious instruction. Library catalogues identify Muḥammad Ilyās as the original selector, while later work on the collection was undertaken by subsequent scholars.

The selected material is drawn principally from eight major books of the Mishkāt: Kitāb al-Īmān (Faith), Kitāb al-ʿIlm (Knowledge), Faḍāʾil al-Qurʾān (Virtues of the Qurʾān), Kitāb al-Daʿawāt (Supplications), Kitāb al-Jihād, Kitāb al-Ādāb (Manners), Kitāb al-Riqāq (Spiritual Softening and Asceticism), and Kitāb al-Fitan (Trials and Tribulations). Within these larger sections, particular chapters relating to Faḍāʾil al-Aʿmāl were chosen for daily instruction. The intention was therefore not to produce another complete edition of the Mishkāt, but a carefully focused curriculum of aḥādīth dealing with the areas most directly connected to Īmān, righteous action, moral cultivation and Daʿwah.

The work subsequently underwent considerable further development. Mawlānā Muḥammad Inʿām al-Ḥasan al-Kāndahlawī gathered and organised the selected material, while Mawlānā Muḥammad Ilyās al-Bārah Bankawī undertook detailed editorial and explanatory work upon it. The edition also carries an introduction by the distinguished scholar and historian Sayyid Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī al-Nadwī.

The editorial work makes this considerably more useful than a bare selection from Mishkāt al-Maṣābīḥ. The aḥādīth were collated against their original sources, textual errors and omissions corrected, and necessary wording restored. References are supplied to the relevant books and chapters, while a number of narrations requiring further discussion receive additional takhrīj, including the gathering of supporting routes and corroborating narrations. Explanatory annotations have also been added, so that Dār Ibn Kathīr describes the finished work as effectively a self-contained, critically prepared and explained Ḥadīth work in its own right.

It is particularly suited to students seeking a large but focused anthology from the Mishkāt, and to teachers and those engaged in Daʿwah who want Prophetic material centred upon the virtues of deeds and the practical cultivation of faith and character, without having to work through every legal and technical section of the complete Mishkāt.