KR

من الأمور التي لفتت نظري من سنين: عدم نقل كل من زين الدين ابن رجب وشمس الدين ابن مفلح عن الآخر، وهما متعاصران وكلاهما من كبار محققي المذهب! والتعجب من ابن رجب أكثر، فهو أصغر منه سنا، وابن مفلح من طبقة مشايخه، فكان ينبغي أن ينقل هو عن ابن مفلح! ويبعد جدا أن لا يكون كل منهما قد اطلع على كتب الآخر. بل لم يترجم ابن رجب لابن مفلح في "ذيل الطبقات"! وكنت أظن أن بينهما شيئا مما يكون بين المتعاصرين، ولعله لا لمحض المعاصرة، بل لخلافات في مسائل ومنهجية. ثم وقفت على ما يؤكد هذا الظن، وهو قول ابن المبرد في "سير الحاث": "وأما ابن رجب، فإنه كان زاهدا ورعا أيضا … وذلك أنه كان متباغضا هو وأولاد مفلح والحنابلة المقادسة". وفي "الجوهر المنضد" في ترجمة الشمس ابن مفلح: "وله اطلاع زائد، ونقل كثير، كان مقدما فى عصره، مرفوعا فى دهره، لم يذكره الشيخ زين الدين ابن رجب فى طبقاته، قيل: لأمر كان بينهما ومنافسة". واعلم: أن الحنابلة بعدهما -شأن العقلاء دائما- لم يلتفتوا إلى هذا ولا فصلوا فيه، بل لا يكاد يوجد له ذكر في كتبهم سوى ما نقلته الآن، ونقلوا عن ابن رجب وابن مفلح، واعتمدوا كلامهما وكتبهما. وفي هذا كله من الفوائد ما لا يخفى على نبيه. والله الموفق والهادي. https://t.me/Rwaq_manhaji

Journey is, first and foremost, a celebration of Marjani. Much of the narrative describes the places Marjani visits as he travels from Istanbul to Madina. It also details the people he meets: the scholars and prominent figures with whom he converses, and locals and expatriates at whose residences he stays during his travels, and the people he encounters along the road. There are a few chance meetings, but most of the people with whom Marjani socializes are already familiar him or know him by reputation. In Istanbul, for example, he meets with the Ottoman foreign minister and with Sharif Said ʿAwn (identified in the text as a brother of the Sharif of Mecca, Hussein bin ‘Ali). Marjani engages with them in a lengthy discussion about history and science, and eventually talks about his book, Nazurat al-Haqq. The accounts of these meetings give readers the impression that Marjani is a scholar of international reputation. When asked by his Ottoman audience why he does not write his legal and theological works in Turkish, he answers that their Turkish-speaking students know Arabic and if one writes one’s works in Arabic, (Muslim) people in other lands can read them. This response suggests the existence of audiences for Marjani’s works beyond his native Volga-Ural region and, indeed, beyond the Turkic-speaking world. - Danielle Ross, Retelling Mecca: Shifting Narratives of Sacred Spaces in Volga-Ural Muslim Hajj Accounts, 1699–1945

The sheer number of times that the akabir argument is used in Deobandi discourse, when it is possible to go back to the original opinion of the Hanafi school or even the primary sources, leads me to conclude that the akabir argument is promoted to the level of an authority in the shari’a. Its sole function is to quell any opposition to one’s views through the process of legal scaffolding which constructs the view of a higher authority as a subterfuge. - Dr Mansur Ali

- Yusuf Ma Dexin (1794-1874), a Chinese Hanafi scholar who led a revolt against the Qing Dynasty. - Şihabetdin Märcani (1818–1889), a Tatar Hanafi scholar in a Muslim majority region under the Russian Empire. - Rashid Ahmad Gangohi (1826-1905), an Indian Hanafi scholar, born under the Mughal but eventually lived under the British Empire. - Muhammad Sa'id al-Bani (1877-1933), a Syrian Hanafi scholar under the Ottoman Empire who revolted against the local Ottoman government and was subsequently banished to Bursa. - Muhammad Zahid al-Kawthari (1879–1952), a Turkish Hanafi scholar fleeing the Kemalists to live under the British Protectorate of Egypt and the French Syrian Mandate. - Ibrahim al-Mukhtar Ahmad Umar (1909-1969), an Eritrean Hanafi scholar who lived in Italian Eritrea, a colony of the Kingdom of Italy. Each lived relatively isolated from each other in a completely different environments. I find it fascinating to juxtapose the views of each - wherever possible - as part of the Hanafi tradition, given the circumstances they were in. Living in 21st century in an ever deteriorating nation state that is the UK, I see absolutely no reason why I should exclude the responsa of any of these scholars - or anyone else for that matter - by wilfully self-confining to the narrow gaze of just one of them. The less I know about some relative to others, the more deficient I consider myself to be. But I take comfort in what Qarafi said in al-Furuq: For what I am unaware and unable to decipher, my stake therein is to be cognizant of that problem, for that is a form of knowledge in its own right and an opening from Allah Most High.

The Adventures of Ibn Battuta: A Muslim Traveler of the 14th Century Description Known as the greatest traveler of premodern times, Abu Abdallah ibn Battuta was born in Morocco in 1304 and educated in Islamic law. At the age of twenty-one, he left home to make the holy pilgrimage to Mecca. This was only the first of a series of extraordinary journeys that spanned nearly three decades and took him not only eastward to India and China but also north to the Volga River valley and south to Tanzania. The narrative of these travels has been known to specialists in Islamic and medieval history for years. Ross E. Dunn's retelling of these tales, however, is the first work of scholarship to make the legendary traveler's story accessible to a general audience.

The Travels of Ibn Battūta 👤 Ibn Battūta (Author) #️⃣ #History #Politics #Law 🔗 @IslamicBookshelf

The Adventures of Ibn Battuta – A Muslim Traveler of the Fourteenth Century 👤 Ross E. Dunn (Author) #️⃣ #History #Politics #Law 🔗 @IslamicBookshelf

My previous post reminded me of textual (matn) criticism in the science of Hadith. Textual criticism is a natural process of assessing information, and it's something both jurists and hadith scholars engaged in. It is to declare a report unreliable on account of its content (i.e. what it says). For example, if someone quoted the ancient Chinese strategist Sun Tzu and claimed he said: "Don't be a fart smeller; be a smart fella," you'd consider that an absurd attribution and reject that simply on account of the quote. - You'd say the quote is comedic and has little value in being preserved from a distant classical figure, let alone someone respected for his wisdom. - You'd say the quote is not consistent with the collection of his other statements. - You'd say the quote contains wordplay that only works in English, and can't be used across all languages. - You'd say the term 'smart fella' is itself a non-standard pronunciation of another relatively new English term (i.e. fellow), so can't have been part of an ancient quote. This entire process is you engaging in textual criticism. Textual criticism in hadith can also be applied to anachronistic claims. A hadith scholar and jurist can identify a fabrication if the claim of the narrator is anachronistic. For example, if someone claimed the Prophet (peace be upon him) said: "The terms حدّثنا and أخبرنا (both technical hadith terms) are equal," this would be a clear fabrication. Why? Because--as Sh. Abu Ghuddah notes--the content relates to a technical discussion that only existed in the second century, so neither the Prophet (peace be upon him) nor his Companions could have discussed it, let alone there be a hadith on the topic. This anachronism is similar to claiming Albert Einstein (d. 1955) said: "I think iPhone is better than Samsung." Or claiming William Shakespeare (d. 1616) said: "I'm not convinced by the Theory of Relativity." They can't have said that. They predate this discussion and debate. Both jurists and hadith scholars understood textual criticism, because, again, this is a natural process of assessing information. Having said this, when dealing with the words of the Prophet (peace be upon him), there is a greater degree of caution and complexity in the process of assessing their reliability, due to the nature of hadith transmission--which has an effect on accepting textual criticism--and the large body of information required to make the appropriate analysis (particularly in Fiqh). And Allah knows best.

The religiosity of the Companions was one without pride or false airs. They behaved like normal people and enjoyed life. However, they were uncompromising in the fulfilment of God's commands, and they would get angry for His sake if any of His hudud were violated. May God be pleased with them; they were the best generation mankind has ever seen or will ever see.

Al-Adab Al-Mufrad Imam al-Bukhari states: (555) Ishaq narrated to us, saying: Muhammad bin Fudayl narrated to us, saying: Al-Walid bin Jamee' narrated to us: on the authority of Abu Salama bin Abd al-Rahman, he said: The companions of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, were neither aloof nor did they put on airs of humility. They would cite poetry to each other in their gatherings and recount their stories from the days of Jahiliyyah. But if a compromise was sought from one of them concerning a command of Allah, the pupils of his eyes would spin as if he were a madman.