PREFACE
to each section. He also added much to the value of the original compilation by quoting the authorities whence the various Traditions were derived. This revised edition is now known as the Mishkátuʾl-Maṣábáḥ.
The Mishkát was translated into English, with many omissions however, by Captain Matthews in 1809. That work is long since out of print, and now unobtainable. Matthews' translation suffers by being paraphrastic to a degree, and loses in value by its omission of the names of the authorities from whose compilations the various Traditions have been taken.
Some slight variations exist in different editions of the Mishkát in the headings to books and sections. The present translation of selections was made from a Lahore edition of 1321 A.H.
No attempt is here made to discuss the question of the authenticity and integrity of the Traditions. The reader will find the whole subject critically discussed in the translator's The Traditions in Islam, and to that work he is referred.
It is hoped that this book of Selections will enable the English reader to form an adequate idea of the general character and scope of Muslim Tradition, and will help missionaries in particular to a more sympathetic approach to the followers of the Arabian Prophet.
For typographical reasons diacritical letters such as ḏẖ ṯẖ have not been used.
I have not dealt with the question of the authenticity and genuineness of the Traditions.[1] In modern days, intelligent Muslims place less reliance on many of them. It is known that in the first century of Islam Traditions were forged for political and religious reasons. The late Sir Sayyed Aḥmad accepted very few as genuine ones. The Hon'ble Sir ʿAbduʾr-Raḥím says: 'Nothing has been a more fruitful source of conflicting opinions in matters of law among the Sunni jurists than the question whether a particular tradition is to be regarded as genuine or not, though it may be one for whose authority one
- ↑ For a statement on this subject see Appendix A in Sell's Faith of Islám (Fourth Ed.)
