The Topos of the Unborn in Early Islamic Predestination Debates: A Study of the hadīth of Hudayfa Ibn Asīd in Sahīh Muslim
The Topos of the Unborn in Early Islamic Predestination Debates: A Study of the hadīth of Hudayfa Ibn Asīd in Sahīh Muslim

Summary/Abstract: This article provides an isnād cum matn analysis of a ḥadīṯ transmitted by Ḥuḏayfa Ibn Asīd describing how an angel visits the unborn in the womb. During the visit, several things are predestined. The ḥadīṯ has a prominent position at the beginning of the chapter on predestination in the ḥadīṯ collection of Muslim. The article shows, how the arrangement of the material in that opening section, which has to be dated to the 9th century CE, had the effect of closing a debate whether the individual’s destiny in the hereafter is predestined.

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