Book Review: al-Taḥqīq al-Bāhir Sharḥ al-Ashbāḥ wa ʾl-Naẓāʾir

Bilal Ali2 Comments


Book review by Mawlana Abu Asim Badrul Islam

AL-TAḤQĪQ AL-BĀHIR SHARḤ AL-ASHBĀHI WA ‘L-NAẒĀ̕IR
التحقيق الباهر شرح الأشباه والنظائر (للإمام ابن نجيم المصري – 926-970 هـ)

للإمام العلامة هبة الله التاجي (1151-1224 هـ)

المؤلف : الإمام العلامة هبة الله التاجي

المحقق : د. الشيخ أسامة محمد شيخ

الموضوع : الأشباه والنظائر في المذهب الحنفي

الناشر : دار اللباب (إسطنبول ، دمشق ، بيروت)

سنة النشر : 1443 هـ _ 2021م

رقم الطبعة : 1

عدد المجلدات : 8

Title:  Al-Taḥqῑq al-Bāhir Sharḥ Al-Ashbāh wa ‘l-Naẓā̕ir

Author:  Imām ῾Allāmah Hibat Allāh al-Tāji (1151-1224 AH)

Editor:  Mawlana Dr. Osama Muhammad Sheikh

Genre:  Ḥanafi legal maxims/legal analogy/jurisprudence

Publisher:  Dār al-Lubāb (Istanbul/Beirut)

Year of publication:  1443/2021 (1st edition)

Number of volumes:  8

Imām ῾Allāmah Ibn Nujaym’s (926-970 AH) Al-Ashbāh wa ‘l-Naẓā̕ir is a key work that is taught and studied by scholars of the ḥanafi legal school, who specialise in the issuing of legal rulings/edicts (fatwa). It is a work that has received much praise from jurists of the school throughout the centuries (Al-Taḥqῑq al-Bāhir, 1:31-33). Until now, there has been no good print of a commentary on this book. Extending over eight large volumes, Al-Taḥqῑq al-Bāhir is the only complete and detailed commentary on Al-Ashbāh wa ‘l-Naẓā̕ir – although, about 30 other works have been written on Al-Ashbāh wa ‘l-Naẓā̕ir, including several marginalia, most of which are incomplete, or do not include the entire text of Al-Ashbāh wa ‘l-Naẓā̕ir within the commentary and explanatory notes. Written by Imām ῾Allāmah Hibat Allāh al-Tāji (1151-1224 AH), Al-Taḥqῑq al-Bāhir is the only work on Al-Ashbāh wa ‘l-Naẓā̕ir that has commentated on every part of the author’s text in a detailed yet clear and simple style. The importance of this cannot be overemphasised – especially, considering the challenging and often ambiguous nature of the text.

In bringing this publication to fruition, the researcher-editor, Mawlana Dr. Osama Sheikh[1] spent seven years working from manuscripts of the book. He mentions in his introduction (1:60-64) that he accessed four complete manuscripts of the work, of which he used two as the principal manuscripts. He also mentions two incomplete manuscripts (1:64-65), which he also used in this critical edition.

The author of Al-Taḥqῑq al-Bāhir, Imām ῾Allāmah Hibat Allāh al-Tāji, has consulted tens of works of the ḥanafi masters in his work. These include principal texts (mutūn), commentaries (shurūḥ), fatāwā (legal rulings/edicts) and uṣūl (jurisprudence). However, when referencing or quoting other works, he often does so through the intermediary of secondary sources (1:57). In critically editing the work, Mawlana Dr. Osama Sheikh has endeavoured to visit the original published source of most of these references to verify the accuracy of the quotation. This proved to be a challenging and cumbersome task, as not all the references that the author mentions have been published, while some may not even be available anywhere in any format. In addition to this, Mawlana Dr. Osama Sheikh also used three commentaries of Al-Ashbāh wa ‘l-Naẓā̕ir in manuscript form. These are ῾Umdat al-Nāẓir, Tanwῑr al-Adhhāni wa ‘l-Ḍamā̕ ir, Kashf al-Khaṭā̕ir. During the course of his critical editing, Mawlana Dr. Osama Sheikh discovered that the author has often been casual in quoting from earlier works, not prioritising accuracy. This has in some places altered the meaning of what the author of the original source had intended. In addition to this problem, all the manuscripts of Al-Taḥqῑq al-Bāhir are filled with errors by the copyists. This made it more important to visit the original source of each reference quoted by the author.

Mawlana Dr. Osama Sheikh has very helpfully added headings in square brackets to each section that discusses a new mas῾alah or issue. This enhances the reading experience and makes it much easier to search for discussions on different issues. 

Where deemed necessary, ḥarakāt and i῾rāb have been added throughout the book. For a final thorough proofreading before going to print, the publisher, Dār al-Lubāb (Istanbul/Beirut), employed a team of in-house proofreaders/researchers. However, despite this, the book contains a lot of errors, which could have been easily avoided. Errors are generally of the following categories: typographical errors, errors in i῾rāb, omitted letters or words, and some mistakes made by Mawlana Dr. Osama Sheikh himself.

Another shortcoming of this edition, in my view, is that the actual matn (text) of Al-Ashbāh wa ‘l-Naẓā̕ir has been omitted by Dār al-Lubāb. For such a work, one would normally expect the matn to be at the top of the page, demarcated from the commentary by a line. Instead, all eight volumes of this edition contain continuous, non-stop commentary with words and parts of sentences of Al-Ashbāh wa ‘l-Naẓā̕ir within brackets in red ink. I believe, this was done by Dār al-Lubāb in its desire to keep the number of volumes down. Had Dār al-Lubāb added the matn at the top of the pages, the book may have been in ten volumes and its beauty and usefulness would have been much enhanced.

I have no doubt that the book will, at some point in the future, undergo a revision and we shall see a better second edition. However, given the sheer size of the book and the finances involved, only Allāh Most High knows when that may be. Until then, the serious student of ḥanafi fiqh and the scholar of fatwa find themselves with a difficult decision to make – whether to purchase this first edition of this brilliant work or risk waiting many years for a better revised second edition, or, even worse, see the book go out of print. This is further compounded by the hefty price tag (currently, £130-£150 here in the United Kingdom).

Abu Asim Badrul Islam
Northampton, ENGLAND
22 Jumāda ‘l-Ūlā 1443/27 December 2021
Special thanks to Mawlana Dr. Osama Sheikh.

Front cover of Al-Taḥqῑq al-Bāhir.
All eight volumes of Al-Taḥqῑq al-Bāhir alongside my extremely poor edition of Al-Ashbāh wa ‘l-Naẓā̕ir by the infamous Dār al-Kutub al-῾Ilmiyyah (Beirut).
Sample pages of Al-Taḥqῑq al-Bāhir. The headings in square brackets have been added by the editor, Mawlana Dr. Osama Sheikh.
Sample pages of Al-Taḥqῑq al-Bāhir.

[1] Mawlana Dr. Osama Sheikh completed his Dars-e-Niẓāmi (also known as Shahādat al-῾Ālimiyyah) course/master’s degree at Jāmi῾ah Fārūqiyyah, Karachi in 2007. He then completed a PhD degree at the Umm al-Qura University in Makkah Mukarramah.

A Short Arabic Biography of ʿAllāmah Dr. ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm al-Nuʿmānī Chishtī by ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Zāhidānī

Bilal AliLeave a comment

I am posting a file of an Arabic biography of our shaykh. This is a more detailed biography than the one I wrote many years ago as a preface to one of his works. The work never got published and its title that I suggested but wasn’t completely approved. In fact, I would like to clarify that this piece also lists the title al-Imām al-Bukhārī bayna al-Ifrāṭ wa al-Tafrīṭ, which was my initial suggestion for the piece because I couldn’t think of anything better. Chishtī Ṣāḥib (and I know some of my colleagues) didn’t seem to approve of the title and didn’t feel it represented the purpose of the book, but it stuck and since the book was never published, it remained on the cover of the file. I have worked on several of the discussions of that unfinished work and published some of the research in English for a paper that should be out shortly in Turkey.

This biography, written by one of Haḍrat’s Irani students from Zahedan, does a wonderful job of capturing elements of his character and his thoughts despite its relative brevity.

Lamaḥāt min Ḥayāt al-ʿAllāmah al-Muḥaddith al-Duktūr Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm al-Nuʿmāni by ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Muḥammad Jamāl al-ZāhidānīDownload

Recommended Readings on the Ottoman Empire

Bilal Ali2 Comments

In response to an informal enquiry about the Ottoman Empire, Sidi Firas Alkhateeb of Darul Qasim, provided the following brief response and permitted sharing it with our readers. Keep in mind, that this is not a formal write-up and was intended only to give some basic guidelines and resources. The question emerged from Sidi Firas’s wonderful series on the Ottoman Empire (linked here).

Question: (abbreviated)

I’ve been wanting to delve into Ottoman history for a while now, and the recent decision regarding the Ayasofya has really sparked my interest.
I’m wondering if there are any books you can recommend that provide an Islamic history of the Ottoman Empire. It is such a well-studied topic, with many books written on it, so I am hoping you can recommend whatever resources you have found beneficial. 

Answer (also abbreviated):

There is of course a ton of resources, both academic and otherwise on Ottoman history that are available. Navigating them is a bit of challenge, particularly keeping in mind the various shifts in historiography over the past 50 years or so.

Some general guidelines I would offer are:

  • Recognize that historical writing is entirely dependent on one’s framework. An economic historian will analyze his subject through the lens of economics and present it as the primary factor in answering why historical events occurred as they did. Similarly a social historian will prioritize social history, and same for intellectual, political, and military historians. Any book you read is only giving you a part of the picture.
  • Ottoman history is particularly problematic because of the languages necessary to study it. Ottoman Turkish was heavily influenced by Persian and Arabic and most Ottoman historians don’t really do their due diligence in studying those languages, so their readings can suffer. Furthermore, in the realm of Ottoman intellectual history, almost everything written by Ottoman ulema was written in Arabic proper, which many historians are not proficient in.
  • Recognize the gap between popular history and academic history. Popular history is mostly what you will find on the bookshelves at Barnes and Noble or on Amazon. It’s usually written by non-specialists and exhibits a very rudimentary (and often plainly incorrect) understanding of historical events and processes. On the other hand, academic history is written by experts in the field but can be overly specialized, and aimed at other experts to the point that it is mostly nonsensical to those not in the field.
  • Lastly, and most importantly, you should never accept any conclusions about the religion of Islam itself from non-Muslim academics under any circumstances. Western academia has an entirely divergent framework that is directly at odds with our tradition and beliefs. It is designed to be secular and atheist. It should never inform your own beliefs. Unfortunately even many Muslims who work in academia are heavily influenced by this framework and their conclusions about Islam are not to be trusted. At the end of the day, you have to take your deen from the scholars of Islam whose job it is to preserve the religion.

With that as a length disclaimer and introduction, I believe the following books can serve as a good introduction:

  • Halil Inalcik’s The Ottoman Empire: The Classical Age – Not a perfect book, and outdated in some regards (particularly his analysis of intellectual history), but it can be a good starting point
  • Caroline Finkle’s Osman’s Dream – A pretty length overview narrative of Ottoman history from beginning to end. Focus on the political administration and sultans.
  • Abdurrahman Atçıl’s Scholars and Sultans in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire – This is a more academic book and perhaps can be a bit much for a beginner, but he does a great job of illustrating the importance of ulama on the early Ottoman state.
  • Hüseyin Yılmaz’s Caliphate Redefined – Also academic, with an emphasis on the idea of Ottoman political sovereignty. I find it to be a useful tool in understanding how the Ottomans may have conceived of their political project as being pretty different from everything before them.

Insha’Allah, this serves as a good introduction. As always, more important than studying history is learning a proper academic understanding of Islam itself, which should be the framework through which you understand the past anyways.

Firas (Alkhateeb)

Research on the Dominant Views Where Imam Ṭaḥāwī Disagrees with Imam Abū Ḥanīfa in Sharḥ Maʿānī al-Āthār

Faraz Abdul Moid3 Comments

الأقوال الراجحة فيما خالف الطحاوي أبا حنيفة


FOREWARD BY MUFTI EBRAHIM DESAI:

Muḥtaram Mufti Abrar Mirza (may Allah accept and reward him), the Head of Darul Iftaa Chicago, trains students in the field of iftāʾ. One of the challenging aspects of iftāʾ is giving preference to the view of one mujtahid over another. This becomes more challenging when the relationship between both mujtahids is of a very high caliber. While we are nurtured to respect and revere our teachers and seniors, we are also nurtured to maintain academic honesty.

The book al-Aqwāl al-Rājiḥa fī mā Khālafa al-Ṭaḥāwī Abā Ḥanīfa is a case in point. Imam Abū Ḥanīfa (may Allah have mercy on him) is an absolute mujtahid (mujtahid muṭlaq), and Imam Abū Jaʿfar alṬaḥāwī (may Allah have mercy on him) is also a mujtahid in his own right. His book Sharḥ Maʿānī al-Āthār is filled with substantiations supporting the Ḥanafī points of view. It appears that he is one of the most ardent followers of Imam Abū Ḥanīfa (may Allah have mercy on him).

Despite such profound belief in the knowledge and academics of Imam Abū Ḥanīfa, Imam Ṭaḥāwī differs with him and substantiated his differences. To establish the dominant view in these cases, it is pleasing to note that two students of muḥtaram Mufti Abrar Mirza, under his supervision, have compiled this book, which will be a means of benefit to ʿulamāʾ and students of knowledge alike.

It is my fervent duʿāʾ that Allah accepts the efforts and sacrifices of Mawlānā Abu-Obaidah Anwar and Mawlānā Talha Waseem. May Allah grant them baraka in their ʿilm and make this contribution a great thawāb jāriya for them, their parents, and muḥtaram Mufti Abrar Mirza.

[Mufti] Ebrahim Desai
Darul Iftaa Mahmudiyyah (South Africa)


PREFACE:

Towards the completion of our iftāʾ course, our teacher, Mufti Abrar Mirza (may Allah reward and accept him), tasked us to make taḥqīq on the non-ʿibādāt chapters in Sharḥ Maʿānī al-Āthār where Imam Ṭaḥāwī differed with Imam Abū Ḥanīfa (may Allah have mercy on them). Hence, we sifted through the latter half of the book, starting from Kitāb al-Nikāḥ, and found sixteen such chapters. We did not address those chapters wherein Imam Ṭaḥāwī disagreed with fuqahāʾ other than Imam Abū Ḥanīfa.

To determine the rājiḥ view of the madhhab, we perused all the books of the fuqahāʾ available to us, whether as printed copies or digital manuscripts, in order to find their explicit or implicit preference in each chapter. After collecting the views of the fuqahāʾ, we validated our understanding and application of the views of the fuqahāʾ by referencing the works of the akābir, primarily from the Indian Subcontinent, though not limited to it.

We arranged the taḥqīqāt such that we prefaced each taḥqīq with a table summarizing the views of the fuqahāʾ and the rājiḥ therefrom, mentioning the rājiḥ first. Thereafter, we discussed the ikhtilāf and brought the discussion on the rājiḥ view towards the end of the taḥqīq, thereby emulating the practice of many of the fuqahāʾ, such as Imam Marghīnānī (may Allah have mercy on him).

Of course, none of this could have been possible without the tawfīq and mercy of Allah, and, for this, we express our praise and gratitude to Him. We also express our gratitude to each of our teachers for all the effort they have made and continue to make on our behalf, especially to Mufti Abrar (may Allah reward and accept him) for his guidance and feedback throughout this project and the entire duration of our iftāʾ studies. We would also like to acknowledge that, in our humble efforts, all our successes are from the mercy of Allah and all our mistakes and errors are from ourselves and from the accursed Shayṭān. We thereby ask Allah to accept our humble efforts and the efforts of all those striving for his dīn and forgive our shortcomings. Āmīn.

Abu-Obaidah Anwar (Kitāb al-Ṭalāq to Kitāb al-Hiba)
Talha Waseem (Kitāb al-Ṣayd to Kitāb al-Waṣāyā)

11th Dhū al-Qaʿda, 1441 – July 3rd, 2020

Book Review: Al-Zubdah fī Sharḥ al-Burdah of ʿAlī al-Qārī

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Al-Zubdah fī sharḥ al-Burdah. By al-Mullā ʿAlī al-Qārī. Edited by Māhir Adīb Ḥabbūsh. Istanbul, Turkey: Dār al-Lubāb, 1438/2017. Pp 203. ISBN 9786058323865.

Reviewed by Mawlana Kamil Uddin, Darul Qasim

The mantle Burdah wears in Islamic literature is unparalleled. A glimpse of this is shown by ʿAbdullah Muḥammad al-Ḥabashī who lists out 48 pages of commentaries and marginalia for the Burdah in his encyclopedic bibliography, Jāmiʿ al-shurūḥ wal-ḥawāshī[1]. The actual title of this instrumental poem is al-Kawākib al-durriyyah fī madḥ khayr al-bariyyah (lit. The Radiant Planets in Praise of the Best of all Creation) written by the Sufi Poet of the Shādhilī order, Sharaf al-Dīn al-Būṣīrī (d. 697/1298). This commentary, titled al-Zubdah (The Choicest), selects from previous glosses and builds a direct bridge from poetry to prose for readers. A salient feature of al-Qārī’s (d. 1014/1606) writings is his ability to take complex topics and weave the thread of understanding through them; this work is no different. Ḥabbūsh edited this work using two manuscripts; the first was from King Saud University and the second from Waliyy al-Dīn Efendi Library in Istanbul which is an extension of Beyazıt Devlet Kütüphanesi (Beyazıt State Library).

In his 25 page introduction, Ḥabbūsh gives brief background information on al-Būṣīrī, his qaṣīdah, and the lasting effect this poem had on poetry that followed him. He also lists out 9 specific commentaries, 2 of which al-Qārī referenced often which are the commentaries of Jalāl al-Dīn al-Maḥallī (d. 864/1460) and ʿIṣām al-Dīn al-Isfarāyīniyy (d. 944/1538), as well as the commentary of Zayn al-Dīn Khālid al-Azharī (d. 905/1500) which was often quoted in the marginalia of the King Saud manuscript of al-Zubdah. Since the three aforementioned glosses have yet to be printed, the value of such a publication heightens. Ḥabbūsh also extracts what he considers controversial couplets that exaggerate the praise of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, listing them out in the following order; 80, 81, 135, 136, 149, 146, 75, 156, 43, and 154. He adds footnotes under some of these couplets explaining how they are problematic and critiquing al-Būṣīrī’s choice of words. However, he does not seem to adopt the reading al-Mullā ʿAlī al-Qārī presents, one that is in line with Sunni creed and law. This is a problem because reading the sharḥ/ḥāshiyah genre requires one to be in sync with the previous research, which is why we see many authors writing glosses on their own texts (matn) because there is no commentator (shārīh) who could better rationalize that author (mātin).

Ḥabbūsh states that al-Qārī’s methodology of explaining contains three aspects. First he explains selected vocabulary (sharḥ mufradāt), followed by parsing (iʿrāb) unintuitive phrases, and concluding by giving a succinct, easy-to-read but eloquent understanding of the couplet. Sometimes al-Qārī switches the order but still touches on all three aspects. One of finest features of this commentary is al-Qārī’s ability to connect the poem to the Qurʾān and Hadith; this rhetorical concept is called iqtibās which literally means “the process of lighting one’s fire from that of another.” In the indexes listed at the end by the editor, I counted 122 ayahs from 52 surahs and 78 hadiths quoted by al-Qārī for a poem totaling 160 couplets. He was able to capture this light from other sources as well, for example he mentioned that couplet 58 was inspired by the eulogy of Fāṭimah, may Allah be pleased with her, for her father, the Prophet, peace be upon him. He also references the famous Majnūn in couplet 5 and al-Buḥturiyy (d. 284/897) in couplet 57, both of whom are famous for the art of panegyric in their own right. Al-Qārī also intertwines supplementary rhetorical and grammatical points along with theological and spiritual allusions (iīmāʾāt) throughout the commentary.

This edition also contains an 8 page bibliography (fihris al-maṣādir wal-marājiʿ) and an unfulfilling one page table of contents (fihris al-mawḍūʿāt). This text would have been enhanced for readers and researchers by including an index for the couplets, proper names and places, and a more expansive table of contents that gives an overview of the wide range of topics covered by both al-Qārī and al-Būṣīrī. One possible addition to the table of contents would be division of the poem into the ten sections (abwāb) mentioned on page 28. The editor ought to have included the full-length poem (qaṣīdah) in the beginning or end of the edition so that it can be read without pauses. It should be noted that the couplets are enumerated throughout the text and are in bold which make it easy to identify. Aside from the last two sentences at the end of the introduction and images of the first and last folios (lawḥah) there is no other information given about the manuscripts. Overall this is a welcome edition with accurate paragraphing, precise punctuation, and reliable referencing. Lastly, other editions of this work have been published since, one by Dār al-Imām al-Rāzī  in Cairo in 2018. Stamped on the title page is the claim Yuṭbaʿ li-awwal marrah alā arbaʿ nusakh khaṭṭīyah (Printed for the first time using 4 manuscripts).[2] Another one by Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyyah in 2019.[3] However, I have been unable to access these editions and thus cannot compare between them. The expectation is that they should be better but al-faḍl lil-mutaqaddim (special virtue is for the first).

[1] Al-Ḥabashī, A. Muḥammad, Jāmiʿ al-shurūḥ wal-ḥawāshī : muʿjam shāmil li-asmāʾ al-kutub al-mashrūḥah fī al-turāth al-Islāmī wa-bayan shurūḥihā, 5 vols. (Dār al-Minhāj, Jeddah, 2017), 1:659-707.

[2] Al-Qārī, M. ʻAlī and al-Khurāsānī, A. Muḥammad. al-Zubdah fī sharḥ al-Burdah. (Dār al-Imām al-Rāzī lil-nashr wal-tawzīʿ, Cairo, 2018).

[3] Al-Qārī, M. ʿAlī and Farḥāt, Ḥ. ʿAzīz. Sharḥ al-Mullā ʿAlī al-Qārī ʿalā Burdat al-Būṣīrī. (Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyyah, Beirut, 2019).

A Few Resources for Learning Punctuation Rules in Arabic Writing

Bilal Ali4 Comments

Here are a few useful resources for students of the sacred sciences who want to understand the use of punctuation marks (ʿalāmāt al-tarqīm) in the Arabic language. Students will notice, for the most part, that the rules are similar to European languages.

The following work, authored by Aḥmad Zakī Pāshā (Bāshā), is the earliest work on the subject that I have come across. This edition was published by Shaykh ʿAbd al-Fattāḥ Abū Ghuddah’s publishing house and with his preface. It should suffice most students as a reference.

al-Tarqīm wa ʿAlāmatuhu fī al-Lughah al-ʿArabiyyah li Aḥmad Zakī Bāshā

A colleague at Darul Qasim suggested the following work by his teacher Shaykh ʿAbd al-Muʿizz al-Tūnisī, and friend of my own teacher Shaykh Ramzī al-Ḥabīb al-Tūnisī. The work is not available in pdf format but can be purchased here: “al-Inshāʾ wa ʿAlāmāt al-Tarqīm wa-l-Imlāʾ”

Home

The following web page contains a brief overview of the punctuation marks and how they are used. It can be useful for a quick review:

علامات الترقيم في الكتابة العربية ومواضع استعمالها

An even more concise review of the marks can be found at the following webpage:

علامات الترقيم

If you know of other beneficial sources, please do share and I will add them to this list.