Approaching the Shafi'ee Madhaab

[al-boriqee]

Asalamu alaikum warahmatullah

Some of the following material is from sunnpress of which I made sure to save it in his encounter with a sufi maliki on a modernist forum. I have added my own insight into it as well so the material will be mixed inshallah. I will divide the material into Post to keep an order of steps inshallah. I would also defer everyone to Ayman who is more than qualified to add additional comments or corrections to the material

As far as I have come to know, there were stages or periods in the codification of the Shafi'ee madhaab.

The first among the primers for the Shafi'ees was the Tanbih of Abu Ishaq ash-Shiraazi which predates al-Ghazzali's books and those of his teacher Imam al-Haramayn who had one large book which is the source of many Shafi'ite works. The Tanbih is very good and reliable as a Shafi'ite Fiqh-manual, before al-Rafi'i came up the scene.

I am uploading the Tanbih in arabic

DISCLAIMER: The proper manner of attaining correct knowledge is to go through a text with a teacher, meaning one who has been authorized to teah that very text or is competent enough in fiqh and in the fields of study to be able to teach even if they did not get specific ijaazah in a particular book, although they may have ijaazah in other books within the same madhaab.

asalamu alaikum

[al-boriqee]

The next modes of study into Shafi'e jurisprudence after Shiraazi was al-Ghazaali's monumental works n the field. However, these works should not be read by those learning the madhaab as they
1. contain older and odder opinions that have been weeded out by later ulema of tarjeeh, particularly an-Nawawee
2. One should learn the easier books first

ak-Ghazali, like Ibnul-Qudamah, made a super contribution to the madhaab in compiling three great books, one for the beginners, and this is known as al-Wajeez, and then an intermediate work for advanced students which is called al-Waseet. However, the Wajeez was an abridgment to the Waseet. Likweise the Waseet is an abridgment to the monumental work, al-Baseet, and the Baseet is the most advanced of all.

I will not bother to upload them. I have the collections of al-Wajeez and al-Baseet and they are too great to upload.

So I will skip on to the classical primer that all students should learn interested in Shafi'ee fiqh, which is the Minhaj al-Talibin by Muhyi al-Din al-Nawawi, with al-Khatib al-Shirbini's Mughni al-Muhtâj. The Minhaj is one of the best mutun in the Madhhab and al-Shirbini's Sharh is well-known and one of the most used commentaries (out of dozens!) on al-Nawawi's book.The Minhaj is a summary of al-Rafi'i's Muharrar, which on its own turn comes from al-Ghazzali's Wajiz (as al-Bâbali says but which is not correct according to some).

I'll upload the Manhaj another time as Im having technical difficulties inshallah

asalamu alaikum

[ahmed frihy]

Bismillah
Akhi Alboriqee Alsalamo alikom
I am having aproblem opening the attachement.could you please Help
Wasalamo alikom

[al-boriqee]

Asalamu alaikum

I don't know. Its a word file. I don't see why it doesn't work unless you don't have the Arabic set up.

[al-boriqee]

Other Fiqh primers of the madhaab include Matn Abu Shujah.

Of course, there are others like
1. Safeenatun-Najah
2. al-Muqaddimah al-Hadramiyyah
3. Yaqut an-Nafis
4. and the last of which is Umdatu-Saalik or what is translated as "the Reliance of the Traveller"

this last one is considered a "classic" even though it was authored in the modern age, like in 1930s. I beleive it is rendered as "classical" due to the style of its authorship.

At any rate, these other one, one must be careful as they contain elements of tassawuf in them which may or may not be probelmatic depending on the content of tassawuf, and they are usually at the ends of these books because from a fiqh perspective, the slave is to first submit to the laws, and this is "Islam", and then they build their faith, and this is "emaan" and then they do this to the point of perfection in spirituality, and this is "Ihsaan", thus tassawuf was reserved in the last portents on some of these books.

I personally prefer to go through the Tanbih of Shiraazi, or the Matn Abu SHujah, or the Manhaj at-Talibeen of an-Nawawee for beginner students in SHafi'ee law.

Zakariya al-Ansari, called Shaykh al-Islam in Shafi'ite literature, produced a mukhtasar from al-Nawawi's popular book entitled: al-Manhaj. Then another Shafi'ite after him condensed it to: al-Nahj.

Another suitable book is Sharafr al-Muqri's al-Irshâd, which was learned and commented upon a lot.

Inshallah, next, We will comment on the major Shafi'ee works for advanced learning

asalamu alaikum

[ahmed frihy]

Bismilah
Dear Akhi AL-boriqee Alsalamo Alikom
Baraka Allahu feekom WAalikom.
Attachement is now fine I did not know It is a word file.
Jazakom Alrahman kol Khyr.
Wa salamo alikom.

[Abu Bakr b. Nasir]

Ibn al-Naqib, the author of Umdat al-Salik, died in 769. Where did you get your information that it was written in the 1930s?

[al-boriqee]

Originally Posted by Abu Bakr b. Nasir

Ibn al-Naqib, the author of Umdat al-Salik, died in 769. Where did you get your information that it was written in the 1930s?

my badn. i know why

cause when i was breezing through the date, i came across this
1302–1367
And since the authors of where I got it from were orientalist, I assumed they were refering the date in their C.E. years. I didnt think it was AH, hence the blunder in the date.

barakallahu feekum

asalamu alaykum

[Bassam Zawadi]

And since the authors of where I got it from were orientalist, I assumed they were refering the date in their C.E. years. I didnt think it was AH, hence the blunder in the date.

You mean you assumed that they were referring to it in the A.H.

Your mistake was assuming it to be A.H.

[al-boriqee]

yeah, i didnt think they were referring to the C.E. connotation.

[al-boriqee]

opps. Man I got all kerfuffled here

I made another mistake in my initial rpely to Abu bakr

Originally Posted by al-boriqee

I assumed they were refering the date in their C.E. years. I didnt think it was AH,

I meant to say AH for CE and CE for AH

So I won't confuse myself in the process while clarifying, in short, I mixed up the after hijri dates with the C.E dates because the source of where I got it from did not include the abbreviated signs for the date, and thus I assumed the wrong. Thats how I landed to that date.

sheesh