Sufi Contributions to Hadith Commentary

While many studies have looked at Sufi Qurʾan commentaries, little attention has been given to Sufi hadith commentaries. The first aim of this present study is to introduce some of the most important works of hadith commentary that were written by Sufis and that either use Sufi terminology or contain a significant amount of Sufi themes. The second aim is to investigate the motivations behind the writing of such works, and if it would be correct to label them as Sufi hadith commentaries. The study will attempt to answer the question of what makes a hadith commentary a Sufi hadith commentary and whether it is purposeful to speak of a genre of Sufi hadith commentary. Finally, the influence of Sufi hadith commentaries will be discussed, especially their use in some of the major works of the hadith commentary genre.