A review of the paper 'The Sources of Ismāīlī Law'

I am currently reading the article ‘The Sources of Ismāīlī Law by Wilferd Madelung’ (see the reference). I thank the brother who provided me with the article (you know who you are).

Summary of the paper

Apparently Daim al-Islam is not the only work by Qadi al-Numan b. Muhammad b. Hayyun. He also wrote the following books, al-Iqtisar, al-Idah, al-Ikhbar 

• Daim al-Islam is the book of the Islamic laws for Tayyibi Ismailis (Dawoodi Bohras, Sulaymani and Alevi Bohras) and other Ismaili sects. The collection of hadeeths in this book is without the chain of narrators.
• al-Iqtisar is a short compendiums of law.
• al-Idah was Qadi al-Numan first legal work. The book is a collection of hadeeths from Ahl al-Bayt with evidence and proofs and point of consensus and disagreement. The author believes that the chains of narrators are fully quoted in this book.
• al-Ikhbar: An extraction from al-Idah with the removal of chain of narrators.

The book al-Idah (Kitab al-Idah) was believed to have been completely lost. However, some new evidences are suggesting that that may not be the case.

Al-Numan used books written by Shias/Imamiyyah and others as the source for his work (hadeeth book). This approach of extracting tradition of Imams of Ahl al Bayt from books is different from the common practice of that time. The usual practice back then was to trace narrations from a person to another person (who heard it/wrote it down) until to the Imams of Ahl al-Bayt who heard it from the Holy Prophet (May the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him and his pure family) or Imam Ali (may peace be upon him) (who heard it from the Holy Prophet).

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Reference

Madelung, W., The Sources of Ismāīlī Law, The University of Chicago Press, Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Vol. 35, No. 1 (Jan., 1976), pp. 29-40