Important Guidance for New/Aspiring Students of Knowledge

[justabro]

For now, let me say, if you have chosen to go down this course, you should start familiarizing yourself with the madhab as you begin your studies. Two books are critical for that purpose, and are a must for every Hanbali student's library, the Madkhal of ibn Badran and that of Bakr Abu Zayd:

المدخل إلى مذهب الإمام أحمد بن حنبل (ت: التركي) - المكتبة الوقفية للكتب المصورة PDF
المدخل المفصل لمذهب الإمام أحمد - المكتبة الوقفية للكتب المصورة PDF

Sh. Abdullah al-Turki's المذهب الحنبلي is also very important, and completes the previous two titles:

المذهب الحنبلي - التركي.rar - 4shared.com - online file sharing and storage - download - ADEL AL BUKHITAN

I have added the link to Sh. Abdullah al-Turki's book on the Hanbali madhab to my original post. He has a detailed survey of the history of the madhab up till the present and a discussion of the distinguishing qualities of the Hanabila.

[Chief]

Brother Abu_Abdallah about Maliki Fiqh: Maaliki Fiqh

His Username on that forum is Ibn_Abi_Yala

And @multaqa: http://www.ahlalhdeeth.com/vbe/showthread.php?t=10595

[Abu Abdul-Barr]

Four years on, is there any further advice you would add?

Advice on Tafsir

[happyend inshallah]

AsSalamu alaykum

Which books (texts) on Aqeedah are good to read, for someone who dont understand Arabic yet.

And does someone have experience with Bilal Philips books on Arabic?

kitaabun-Classical and Contemporary Muslim and Islamic Books

[Chief]

AsSalamu alaykum

Which books (texts) on Aqeedah are good to read, for someone who dont understand Arabic yet.

And does someone have experience with Bilal Philips books on Arabic?

kitaabun-Classical and Contemporary Muslim and Islamic Books

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته

Check this post brother: Manahij in studying knowledge - What is the way? - Page 6

Also i recommend these books:

-Belief In Allah by Umar S. al-Ashqar
-The Fundamentals of Tawheed by Dr. Abu Ameenah Bilal Philips

Abuz Zubair on The Fundamentals of Tawheed - by Dr. Abu Ameenah Bilal Philips: Which work are you more familiar with?

[Abu_Ubaida]

I didn't see this post here anywhere, so I thought it should be added here as well:

Ibn Badran suggests that it be studied after one has done a few mutun in Fiqh and also al-Waraqat. It is more an intermediate level work.
I woul personally suggest:

(1) Al-Waraqat (with the Sharh of Abdullah al-Fawzan being the best) [if you opt for al-Usul min 'Ilm al-Usul instead, then ibn Uthaymin's own sharh and the sharh of Ghazi al-Utaybi are good references; I would suggest Waraqat however as you need to get accustomed to reading old works, otherwise you will have difficulty when it comes time to read the advanced, classical works.
(2) Ma'aqid al-Fusul (with the Sharh of Abdullah al-Fawzan as your main reference, followed by Shathri's)
(3) Then Rawdat al-Nadir, while also taking benefit from Tufi's Sharh Mukhtasar al-Rawda and the Mudhakkirah of al-Shinqiti written to accompany al-Rawda (there is a good contemporary sharh of Rawda called Fath al-Wali al-Nasir by al-Duwayhi; Tufi's Sharh Mukhtasar al-Rawda is considered by some to be the best written Hanbali work on Usul )
(4) Al-Kawkab al-Munir (Sharh Mukhtasar al-Tahrir) by ibn al-Najjar.

After al-Kawkab al-Munir, you will know enough Usul to read anything you choose. Amongst other important Hanbali works to read:

Al-Uddah by Abu Ya'la, al-Tamhid by Abul-Khattab al-Kalwadhani, Musawwadah Al Taymiyyah (these three works complement one another very well; they are also a useful reference for checking the different Riwayat and Wujuh in the Madhhab mentioned by ibn Qudama in al-Rawda) and al-Tahbir by al-Mardawi (this is the most in-dept, comprehensive work by any Hanbali).

Al-Jizani's Ma'alim Usul al-Fiqh 'Ind Ahl al-Sunna is also useful, as he has extracted the views of the Hanbalis and of ibn Taymiyyah, ibn al-Qayyim, and a few other non-Hanbali scholars from their works and distilled them into this one single book.

Once you have progressed to a certain level, let us say contemporaneous to reading al-Rawda, ibn al-Lahham's al-Qawa'id wal-Fawa'id al-Usuliyya is a very good read as his work gives you an appreciation of how the Hanbalis derive Furu' based on their Usul. This is very important as Usul books tend to be very theoretical and don't teach you practical application. There are other books as well one could read afterwards in order to build an aptitude for practical application of Usul, but nothing really Hanbali-specific (not that this means you shouldn't read them).

Multaqa Ahl al-Hadeeth - View Single Post - Introduction to Hanbali Madhhab

[justabro]

I deleted the last sentence from the quote. Shathri's shuruh are decent, and useful, particularly for those texts for which explanations are not readily available, such as his sharh of ibn al-Lahham. Also, if someone is studying Rawdat al-Nadhir or its mukhtasar, his sharh of that is quite useful as well.

He has a sharh of al-Ukbari's Risala on Usul al-Fiqh, no one else has done one.

[Abu Abdul-Barr]

An excellent sharh (audio and transcript) of ibn Taymiyyah's Raf' al-Malam by Sh. Yusuf al-Ghafis:

صفحة الشيخ يوسف الغفيص - صوتيات إسلام ويب

This is a must listen for every Talib al-Ilm. He deals with a host of issues, such as: the nature and causes of khilaf, the different types of khilaf, the impact of a scholar's personality on his views, the nature of Ijtihad, the practicality of Ijtihad, the early development of Fiqh, differences between the Fiqh of the Mutaqaddimin and the Muta'akhirin, the role of the Madhabs, the ruling on adopting a view outside the Four Madhabs, the importance of Fiqh al-Istiqra', Maqasid al-Shari'ah, guidelines on Tarjeeh, and advices on how to study.

It is full of gems you will not find in one place in any book of Usul, and is reflective of the Shaykh's own critical thinking and depth of understanding, hafidhahullah.

..............................

[Tuwaylib]

Justabro,

What do you think of Sh. 'Amir Bahjat? I really like his method in teaching... i.e. sticking to the matn. It was about 4 years ago or so that I discovered him and Sh. BaJabir.

Two most beneficial for me in terms of Hanbali fiqh with respect to contemporary scholars.

Actually, I used to like Sh. Salih al Asmuri Fiqh stuff... but got turned off when he started his 'aqidah explorations.

[justabro]

On Studying Mustalah:

Manahij in studying knowledge - What is the way?

people have asked me about this a number of times, so I'm sharing it here:



This is an email I wrote recently to someone asking about how to go about mastering Mustalah al-Hadith. This brother is interested in making Hadith his specialty, so keep that in mind as well as the fact that the brother was more interested on advice about audio lectures. Therefore, these suggestions have been tailored with that in mind. Even then, as lengthy as it is, the recommended program below is incomplete as I ran out of steam, but it should be more than enough to get started:

In general, every book you study, you should try to combine between an audio sharh and a written sharh. This is the ideal method to make your knowledge stick.

I think you may have mentioned that you had already memorized Bayquniyyah. If so, that is fine. Read any sharh of it you like. Sh. Ma'ribi has one out, and I believe Sh. Tariq does as well.


I'm not a big fan of Bayquniyyah, but if you've already started with it, that's fine. It's not something you need to dwell on long as Bayquni, rahimahullah, was not a hadith scholar, and his chosen views and definitions don't have much weight.


Personally, I recommend students to start with Nukhba. It is also the suitable next step after Bayquniyyah. Nukhba is an excellent text because it covers all the topics of Mustalah in brief, so it is an excellent foundation. For that reason, it is very important to memorize.


Sh. Tariq has an audio sharh that is very good (this is now in print). I recommend listening to that, and then moving on to listening to Sh. Hatim's sharh (not the same as his sharh of Nuzha). I believe this is the link for it (but it's not opening for me so I'm not sure. It should be no more than 10 lectures, as opposed to Sharh al-Nuzha in the neighborhood of 30 lectures):


http://www.ahlalhdeeth.com/vb/showthread.php?t=268523


This is a sharh that I attended:


http://www.liveislam.net/archive.php?tid=523



(Not sure if they are both the same)


As far as contemporary written shuruh, Sh Abdul-Karim al-Khudayr's is good, and is fairly short (it is based on his audio sharh).There is also an excellent sharh by an Egyptian writer called Abu Muhammad al-Shirbini called al-Nahj al-Mubtakar.


One of the advantages of Shirbini's sharh is that he lists the important works, past and present on every topic covered in Nukhba (he's mostly dependent on Sh. Hatim for this). This makes it a valuable resource in terms of familiarizing yourself with the scholarly works and research papers you need to acquire as you start to build your library. It is also excellent as a starting point for research.


The sign that a person has mastered a field is that after mastering the essentials, he goes on to to master each issue individually. This will be a big help in that respect (Multaqa Ahl al-Hadith is an excellent resource for this purpose as well although the posts from the early years were far superior to the quality in recent years).


After Nukhba, you need to move on to Nuzhat al-Nazar. This is of course the most important sharh of Nukhba. The best sharh without doubt is Sh. Hatim's. It is available in audio as well as a mudhakkirah. I recommend that you listen to it and print out the mudhakkirah. It is an excellent resource to be able to refer back to whenever needed.


This is another sharh which is not bad:


http://www.ahlalhdeeth.com/vb/showpost.php?p=795869&postcount=48



Sh. Hatim's sharh is sufficient to master Nuzha, but it is good to also acquire the classical shuruh of Nuzha, the most important and in depth of which is al-Yawaqit wal-Durar by al-Munawi, at least to refer to.


After Nuzha, move on to al-Muqidha by al-Dhahabi. This has an audio sharh by Abdullah al-Sa'd and another by Hatim al-Awni. The first is also available online as a mudhakkirah while the second has been published as a proper book. Listen to both commentaries.


Afterwards, you can move directly to Muqaddimah ibn al-Salah.


If you choose, you can read ibn Kathir's Mukhtasar as well. This has good audio sharh by Ibrahim al-Lahim (also available as mudhakkirah) and Sh. Tariq.


As for Muqaddimah ibn al-Salah, it has a number of classical commentaries, the most important of which are the Nukat of al-Iraqi (known as al-Taqyid wal-Idah) and the Nukat of ibn Hajar. Sh. Hatim has a 112-tape sharh of this Muqaddimah. This is hands down the best sharh of ibn al-Salah. it will give you deep command of the subject.


After Muqaddimah ibn al-Salah, Sh. Hatim has a 30-tape series on ibn Rajab's Sharh Ilal al-Tirmidhi. Who uses this as an opportunity to critique some of ibn Rajab's ikhtiyarat and cover issues he had not yet dealt with.


For al-Jarh wal-Ta'dil, I recommend starting with Sh. Hatim's short matn, Khulasat al-Ta'sil, along with his own sharh (available in audio and also PDF). Sh. Abdullah al-Sa'd has a number of lectures dealing with these topics but no particular series. I highly recommend listening to everything you can find of his. Also, listen to his tapes on Sharh al-Nasa'i and Sharh al-Tirmidhi. When he discusses the narrators, go back and research those narrators for yourself, starting with Tahdhib al-Tahdhib and then moving on to the source works on Rijal. Try to apply what you have learned and compare your conclusions with the conclusions of Sh. al-Sa'd. In this way, you will develop an understanding of these issues and their application.


Sh. Hatim also has an excellent introduction to Ilal that is just a few lectures long (there is a mudhakkirah online based on these lectures). Alongside that, I recommend reading Ali al-Sayyah's risala, al-Manhaj al-Ilmi fi Dirasat al-Hadith' al-Mu'all, printed by Dar ibn al-Jawzi (an earlier version of this is floating around online). This is a good introduction to Ilm al-Ilal. Then, you should listen to Abdullah al-Sa'd's sharh of Imam Muslim's Tamyiz and Daraqutni's Ilzamat:


After that, I would recommend reading Sh. Tariq's إرشادات في التقوية بالشواهد والمتابعات. This book will give you a practical understanding of how Ilm al-Ilal works. After that, you should move on to implementing the advices of Sh. Hatim in his muqaddimah on Ilal.


For Takhrij, Sh. Hatim has his own mudhakkirah and I believe a series of lectures as well. I have the mudhakkirah and it is excellent but have not listened to the lectures.


On the topic of Tadwin al-Sunnah, the best lectures by far I've ever come across is Sh. Hatim's تاريخ نشوء مصنفات السنة. This will give you a better understanding of the development of Tadwin al-Hadith than any written work out there. I would recommend listening to these very carefully, and then reading the available works on the topic. Zahrani has a basic textbook on it which is good, but there are probably others out there just as good. Other important reads include the book by Sh. al-A'zami and السنة قبل التدوين by Muhammad Ajjaj al-Khatib.


As for Alfiyyah al-Iraqi, if you are not going to memorize it, I don't see a need to attend any lessons on it. If you are going to memorize it, it is an excellent Nadhm of Muqaddimah ibn al-Salah and will benefit you. Iraqi's own sharh of his Alfiyyah is easy and clear, and you could suffice with that. Sh. al-Khudayr has an audio sharh of the Alfiyyah (transcribed) and that is good if you are looking for an audio sharh.


One final advice, try as much as possible to listen to the lectures of experts and to read their writings as much as possible. In particular, Sh. Hatim has a number of written works which are very important. You should read these, and in particularly, you have to read his المنهج المقترح لفهم المصطلح.