While studying at Darul Uloom Bury in the 90s, I saw an advert in the back of an Urdu book published in Pakistan, advertising Intikhab-i-Bukhari, a partial Urdu translation by Ml Zafar Ahmad Uthman (d.1394H) of Shaykh Ibn Abi Jamrah's (d.675H) Bahjat al-Nufus.
The concept of a Sufi explanation of Sahih Bukhari caught my attention and I searched high and low for this book. The advert mentioned that Hakim al-Ummah Ml Ashraf Ali Thanawi liked Bahjat al-Nufus and so instructed Ml Zafar Ahmad to render it in Urdu.
Years later in 2007, having attended one of Hadhrat Mawlana Abdul Hafeez Makki Sahib RA's Etikaf in Faisalabad, I discovered a copy at Maktabah Kashmir in the city's Chiniot Bazar and so became a proud owner of this treasure of a book.
Ibn Abi Jamra was an Andalusian hadith expert and Sufi. He admired Imam Bukhari's Sahih and so with the view of making its benefit widespread carried out an abridgement by reducing the isnad and removing repetitive hadith, his final Mukhtasar contained around 300 hadith.
Ibn Abi Jamra actually named his Mukhtasar Jam' al-Nihayah fi Badi al-Khayr wa al-Ghayah. Dar al-Minhaj beautifully published the Mukhtasar a few years ago and added footnotes from Ibn Hajar's Fath al-Bari and Allamah al-Sharnubi's Sharh al-Mukhtasar. A beautiful work.
Ibn Abi Jamra has been mentioned by Imam Suyuti in Husn al-Muhadarah, and Allamah Abdul Wahhab al-Sha'rani in Al-Tabaqat al-Kubra in which he mentions that he came to live in Egypt, established a Zawiyah / Khanqah and was diligent on following the Sunnah.
Ibn Abi Jamra then decided to write a commentary of his Mukhtasar which he named Bahjat al-Nufus. Hafiz Ibn Hajar often quotes Bahjat in his Fath al-Bari, something that lends weight to its erudition.
I'd been after a copy of Bahjat al-Nufus for some time, and was thrilled recently to stumble on a non-muhaqqaq but decent copy published in Turkey costing 100 lira (£5).
Ml Zafar Ahmad only translated commentary on 100 hadith out of the 300 as he only had two volumes of Bahjat. However, what makes his Urdu version intriguing are the additional notes under the letter fa in which he provides useful pointers and the Tasawwuf of Hakim al-Ummah.
Shukran to @ahqaruibadillah hi as just shared a tweet that a muhaqqaq version of Bahjat al-Nufus is to be soon published.
Lastly, as a final Tweet, here's a brilliant article on Ibn Abi Jamra and his Bahjat al-Nufus!
en.islamonweb.net/the-prophets-f…
