سيّد فهيم الدين
A student of the classical Islamic sciences.
These notes began as my own, pages kept while studying classical texts with teachers and mentors over many years. I owe them a great debt; whatever is useful here traces back to them, and the mistakes are mine.
They were never written to be authoritative. They are reading-aids: paragraphs that helped a passage become clearer, a chain of transmission stick, a question find its place in the tradition.
If you find something useful, take it and check it against the primary sources. If you find a mistake, please reach out via the contact page; corrections are gratefully received.
184 notes
The verb that opens almost every chain in Muqaddimah Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ reads two ways, ruwwīnā (passive) or rawaynā (active), and the choice encodes how the report reached the narrator.
What the slaughter of Eid actually is, and what Allāh is asking the believer to sacrifice. Three images from Imām al-Ghazālī's Iḥyāʾ on the inner battle of the nafs.
An English study of Shaykh Ibrāhīm al-Ṣabīḥī's monograph on one of the most discussed isnāds in ḥadīth literature: the chain of ʿAmr ibn Shuʿayb from his father from his grandfather.
Three classical positions on whether reading ḥadīth to the shaykh (qirāʾah) is equal, superior, or inferior to hearing it directly (samāʿ).
Why classical muḥaddithīn distinguished between ḥaddathanā (direct samāʿ) and akhbaranā (qirāʾah on the shaykh), and how the convention varied by region.
Ibn Ḥajar's symbol system in Taqrīb al-Tahdhīb, indicating which of the six major ḥadīth collections (and related works) record each narrator.
How Ibn Ḥajar's Taqrīb al-Tahdhīb groups narrators of the six canonical ḥadīth collections into twelve generational classes (ṭabaqāt).
A bibliographical survey of the major classical works in al-jarḥ wa al-taʿdīl, from the earliest rijāl compilations to Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī.
A short biography of ʿAbdullāh ibn Masʿūd, sixth to accept Islam, covering his titles, his place among the six Companions recognised for iftāʾ and his years teaching in Kūfa.
Full Arabic text of Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī's Nuzhat al-Naẓar paired with Ather Shahbaz Hussain's English translation from his doctoral thesis.
A translation of al-Kawtharī's Bulūgh al-Amānī, a biography and defence of Imām Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan, principal codifier of the Ḥanafī school.
The complete Arabic matn of Ibn al-Mulaqqin's al-Tadhkirah fī ʿulūm al-ḥadīth with English translation, covering 73 categories of ḥadīth terminology.
A ḥadīth narrated through different but closely comparable routes that cannot be reconciled is al-muḍṭarib; iḍṭirāb renders it weak, as it implies an absence of ḍabṭ.
When narrators share the same name and the same father's name (and possibly further up the line), but are different persons, this is al-muttafiq wa-l-muftariq.
A muʿallal ḥadīth contains a hidden defect (ʿilla) damaging to its soundness, detected by warning signs in sanad and matn that arise to one familiar with the art.
Positions on what to do when the teacher (aṣl) denies a narration that the student (farʿ) attributes to him.
When a narrator's solitary transmission is suspected, others' parallel narrations are mutābaʿa or shāhid; the pursuit of these is al-iʿtibār.
The science of jarḥ and taʿdīl, the two grounds of evaluation, when criticism overrides praise, and who needs tazkiya.
Among the muḥaddithūn, al-majhūl is a narrator whose condition is not known and who is not known for his pursuit of knowledge; he splits into majhūl al-ḥāl (al-mastūr) and majhūl al-ʿayn.
A ḥadīth in which a narrator has been replaced with another, whether one narrator, several, or even the entire chain, is al-maqlūb (literally, that which has been inverted).
Al-maqṭūʿ (literally, severed) consists of the sayings and actions of the tābiʿūn and those after them.
Al-marfūʿ (literally, that which is raised) is what is attributed to the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ.
Five kinds of ʿuluww (elevation) in the isnād, with the related categories of muwāfaqa, badal, musāwāt and muṣāfaḥa under the third kind.
Al-mawqūf (literally, halted) consists of the sayings and actions of the Companions, may Allāh be pleased with them.
When the disagreement is the addition of a narrator within the chain, and the one who did not include the addition is more proficient, the report is al-mazīd fī muttaṣil al-asānīd.
Eight methods of receiving ḥadīth: samāʿ, qirāʾa, ijāza, munāwala, mukātaba, wijāda, waṣiyya, and iʿlām, with their respective rulings.
If the narrator is not named (a shaykh, a man, some of them, a thiqa), this is al-mubham; the unnamed narrator may be identified through another route, and the Mubhamāt literature is devoted to this.
Whether a mubtadiʿ's innovation amounts to outright disbelief or proceeds from misinterpretation, and how the imāms differ on accepting his narration.
When each of two peers narrates from the other, this is al-mudabbaj (literally, embellished or paired); al-ʿIrāqī, following al-Dāraquṭnī, did not require the two narrators to be peers.
Al-mudraj is the mixing of what belongs to one speaker with what belongs to another without indication. It falls into mudraj al-matn (more common) and mudraj al-sanad.
An accepted report safe from contradiction by another accepted report is al-muḥkam; if it is contradicted, it is mukhtalaf al-ḥadīth.
If a narrator transmits from one of two persons who share the same name, without giving anything to distinguish him from the other, this is al-muhmal.
If the narrators of a ḥadīth agree in their wording of transmission, in any verbal feature, in an action, or in some shared quality, this is al-musalsal (literally, a chained or serial ḥadīth).
Four definitions of al-musnad across al-Khaṭīb, Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, al-Ḥākim and Ibn Ḥajar.
When narrators' names are identical in writing but differ in pronunciation, this is al-muʾtalif wa-l-mukhtalif.
When the narrators' names are the same but their fathers' names differ, or vice versa, this is al-mutashābih; from it and the preceding categories various sub-types are formed.
Al-muttaṣil (also called al-mawṣūl) is that whose chain of transmission is unbroken: every narrator has heard the report from the one above him, all the way back to its source.
When the narrator is older, of an earlier generation, of greater standing than the one narrated from, or greater in both respects, this is riwāyat al-akābir ʿan al-aṣāghir.
If two men are of the same age and have met the same teachers, they are qarīnān (peers); the narration of one of two peers from the other is riwāyat al-aqrān.
Al-shādhdh is that which a single narrator has transmitted alone, raising doubt in the mind of the critic; this is also the definition of al-munkar. Statements of the early imāms show the two are one.
Summarising or paraphrasing ḥadīth is permitted only for those learned in what the words denote; the Ḥanafīs categorise by mushtarak, mushkil, mujmal, mutashābih, jawāmiʿ al-kalim, muḥkam, and ẓāhir.
Four positions on whether jarḥ and taʿdīl follow the rules of khabar or of testimony, with the additional requirement that the evaluator be ʿadl and unbiased.
Two orderings for reconciling contradictory ḥadīth: jamʿ → naskh → tarjīḥ → tawaqquf for the three Imāms and early Ḥanafīs; naskh → tarjīḥ → jamʿ for Ibn al-Humām and most later scholars.
When the addition of a thiqa narrator is accepted: positions of al-Tirmidhī, Ibn Ḥibbān, Muslim, al-Ḥākim and the Ḥanafīs, with the majlis distinction.
Editorial note on sources: this series follows al-Mulakhkhaṣ by ʿAbd al-ʿAẓīm al-Balyāwī, with notes on the translations used for Qurʾān and ḥadīth.
When two or three transmitters share a ḥadīth from a prominent imām, it is called ʿazīz (literally, rare; or strong, intense).
The threefold division of ḥadīth study: ʿilm riwāyat al-ḥadīth, ʿilm dirāyat al-ḥadīth, and ʿilm uṣūl al-ḥadīth (muṣṭalaḥ al-ḥadīth), as set out in the opening of al-Mulakhkhaṣ.
Ṭaʿn arises on ten grounds: five pertaining to ʿadāla (uprightness) and five to ḍabṭ (precision), arranged in descending order of severity.
If any one of the attributes of the ṣaḥīḥ or the ḥasan is missing, the ḥadīth is ḍaʿīf (literally, weak).
How the muḥaddithūn, fuqahāʾ and uṣūliyyūn differ in their working definitions of ḥadīth, and why those differences track back to their respective objectives.
How verification of the Sunnah began in the era of the senior ṣaḥāba and developed into the era of codification and taḥqīq through the third century and beyond.
The Ḥanafīs classify narrators into four (or, on some accounts, five) groups, including the al-mastūr and majhūl categories with their five-case treatment.
An omission from the isnād made with the intention of suggesting audition is mudallas; without that intent it is mursal.
When a single narrator takes a ḥadīth in solitary fashion from a prominent imām, it is called gharīb (literally, strange, or one who is alone).
If the retention (ḍabṭ) is light while the other attributes of ṣaḥīḥ remain present, it is al-ḥasan li-dhātihi (the fair in itself).
If a ḥadīth of slight weakness comes through multiple routes, it becomes al-ḥasan li-ghayrihi (the fair by virtue of something other than itself).
Al-Shāfiʿī accepts the mursal under three conditions; some Shāfiʿīs treat the third as one of the four corroborating supports, leaving two conditions.
Khabar al-wāḥid is any narration that does not meet the conditions of tawātur. It yields presumption (ẓann), and has three sub-categories by number of narrators.
When a body of narrators take a ḥadīth from a prominent imām, it is called mashhūr (literally, well-known, publicised).
Al-matrūk, which al-Dhahabī called al-maṭrūḥ, is that which falls below the rank of ḍaʿīf, narrated from those discarded, those who have perished as transmitters, or those accused of lying.
Al-mawḍūʿ is that which has been concocted and fabricated. It is known by four indications, and may not be narrated to one who knows its condition without disclosure.
An omission from the start of the isnād by the compiler's action — this is al-muʿallaq.
An omission of two or more consecutive narrators at any point in the chain — this is al-muʿḍal.
Scholars differ on the precise definition of al-munqaṭiʿ; Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr makes it the broadest category, while for the mutaqaddimūn and the fuqahāʾ it is identical with al-mursal.
Al-mursal al-khafī is a mursal whose omission is concealed; clarity and concealment are relative, varying with the rank of the critic.
Al-mursal al-wāḍiḥ is a mursal whose omission is evident; clarity and concealment are relative, varying with the rank of the critic.
Al-mursal is an omission from the end of the isnād, after the tābiʿī; one of the four kinds of rejected report rooted in a break in the chain.
The Ḥanafīs treat al-mashhūr as a third tier alongside al-mutawātir and khabar al-wāḥid, defined by what was āḥād in the first generation but tawātur thereafter.
Al-mutawātir is a ḥadīth narrated, on the basis of sensation rather than pure reason, by a number whose collusion upon falsehood is rendered impossible by ordinary custom.
Al-mursal in its broad sense was not rejected by anyone until Imām al-Shāfiʿī; the Ḥanafīs differ over the mursal of the first three generations.
A solitary report transmitted by an upright narrator of complete retention, with a connected chain, free of any concealed defect or anomaly, is al-ṣaḥīḥ li-dhātihi (the sound in itself).
When the routes of a ḥasan li-dhātihi narration multiply, the ḥadīth is upgraded to al-ṣaḥīḥ li-ghayrihi (the sound by virtue of something other than itself).
A visual summary of the five-grade classification of aḥādīth: ṣaḥīḥ li-dhātihi, ḥasan li-dhātihi, ṣaḥīḥ li-ghayrihi, ḥasan li-ghayrihi and ḍaʿīf.
Qurʾānic verses and prophetic narrations establishing ḥadīth as an integral, indispensable source of the sharīʿah alongside the Qurʾān.
Ṣaḥīḥ and ḥasan are accepted in every case; ḍaʿīf is not accepted except in faḍāʾil and targhīb / tarhīb. Ibn Ḥajar's three conditions for accepting a weak ḥadīth in faḍāʾil.
Ḥadīth, in the muḥaddithūn's classification, is of two categories: al-mutawātir and khabar al-wāḥid.
Al-gharīb falls into two categories: al-fard al-muṭlaq (absolute solitary) and al-fard al-nisbī (relative solitary).
Khabar al-wāḥid is categorised, with respect to acceptance and rejection, into al-ṣaḥīḥ, al-ḥasan, and al-ḍaʿīf.
The rejected report falls into two kinds: that rejected because of an omission in the isnād, and that rejected because of criticism of the narrator.
A survey of the foundational treatises on ḥadīth terminology, from al-Rāmahurmuzī through Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ to Ibn Ḥajar's Nukhbat al-Fikr and Ibn al-Ḥanbalī's Qafw al-Athar.
The classroom-tradition duʿāʾ a student recites at the opening of the first lesson of Mishkāt al-Maṣābīḥ.
Biography of Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, his teachers, students, and major works including Fatḥ al-Bārī, Tahdhīb al-Tahdhīb, and Nuzhat al-Naẓar.
A timeline of Islamic rule from the Khulafāʾ al-Rāshidūn through the Umayyad, Abbasid and Ottoman houses, listing each ruler with the years of his reign down to 1924.
Al-Qudūrī's Kitāb al-Buyūʿ: the linguistic and sharʿī definitions of bayʿ, the pillars of ījāb and qabūl, the conditions of the majlis and the rulings on measured and unmeasured exchanges.
From Mukhtaṣar al-Qudūrī: zakāh on free-grazing horses, the position of Imām Abū Ḥanīfah against his two companions and rulings on mules, donkeys, young livestock and sāʾimah.
From Mukhtaṣar al-Qudūrī: the niṣāb of thirty, the tabīʿ and musinnah thresholds and the disagreement between Imām Abū Ḥanīfah and his two companions on the increment beyond forty.
From Mukhtaṣar al-Qudūrī: the chapter on zakāh of camels, beginning with the niṣāb of five and progressing through the thresholds of bint makhāḍ, bint labūn, ḥiqqah and jadhaʿah.
Rule for dropping the wāw in muʿtal verbs of the يَعِدُ pattern when the sign of muḍāriʿ is maftūḥ and the ʿayn kalimah is maksūr.
Three rules for the defective verb: dropping the ḥarakah of a final wāw or yāʾ, and elision when it meets a sākin sister letter.
When a wāw stands as the lām kalimah after a kasrah, it converts to a yāʾ, yielding forms like duʿiya and dāʿiyah.
When a yāʾ stands as the lām kalimah after a ḍammah, it converts to a wāw, the transformation that turns نَهُيَ into نَهُوَ.
When a wāw sits as the ʿayn kalimah of a maṣdar after a kasrah, or in a plural, it converts to a yāʾ if its verb takes the rules of taʿlīl.
When wāw and yāʾ combine in one word under set conditions, the wāw becomes yāʾ and the two merge with tashdīd.
When two wāws meet at the end of the scale فُعُوْلٌ, both become a yāʾ with shaddah and the preceding ḍammah turns to a kasrah.
When a و or ي follows a ḍammah in the lām of an ism, the ḍammah shifts to a kasrah and the weak letter is dropped after the two sākins meet.
When a wāw or yāʾ falls in the ʿayn position of an active participle whose verb is muʿtal, it converts to hamzah.
On the scale of mafāʿil, a non-root ḥarf ʿillah after the alif converts to a hamzah.
When wāw or yāʾ falls at the end of a word after an alif zāʾidah, it is converted to a hamzah.
Rule for forming the maṣdar ʿidah from وَعْدٌ: drop the initial wāw, give the ʿayn al-kalimah a kasrah, and append tāʾ marbūṭah.
When wāw falls on the fourth letter or later and is not preceded by a ḍammah or wāw sākin, it is converted to yāʾ.
Rule for converting the final alif to yāʾ when an additional alif precedes the dual or sound feminine plural ending.
When a plural on the scale of فُعْلٌ or فُعْلى has yāʾ as its ʿayn kalimah, the preceding letter takes a kasrah.
When a maṣdar of the pattern faʿlūlah has a wāw as its ʿayn kalimah, the wāw is changed to a yāʾ.
Rule for nouns like jawārin on the scale of afāʿil, mafāʿil, or fāʿil with yāʾ as the lām kalimah, across the rafʿ, jarr, and naṣb states.
On the scale of fuʿlā with a wāw lām, the wāw turns to yāʾ; on faʿlā with a yāʾ lām, the yāʾ turns to wāw.
Morphological rule: a sākin wāw after a kasrah, a sākin yāʾ after a ḍammah, or an alif after a ḍammah or kasrah shifts to match the preceding vowel.
When the fāʾ of iftiʿāl is an original wāw or yāʾ, change it to tāʾ and assimilate with the tāʾ of iftiʿāl.
When a wāw carries ḍammah or kasrah at the start of a word, or ḍammah in the middle, it may be replaced by a hamzah.
When a word begins with two wāws, the first is replaced by a hamzah, whether it carries a fatḥah or a ḍammah: وَوَاصِلُ becomes أَوَاصِلُ and وُوَيْصِلٌ becomes أُوَيْصِلٌ.
The foundational rule for hollow (muʿtal-ʿayn) verbs: a fatḥah after a vocalised wāw or yāʾ converts the weak letter to alif.
When a wāw or yāʾ is preceded by a sākin, swap their ḥarakāt; transformations, exceptions, and the alif-drop rule for verbs like yaqūlu and yabīʿu.
Forming the passive past (māḍī majhūl) of hollow verbs whose middle radical is wāw or yāʾ, with the optional ishmām pronunciation.
Sub-rule of lesson 9 for the plural-feminine-absent and beyond in the māḍī majhūl of hollow verbs like qāla, ṭāla, khāfa, and bāʿa.
A consolidated worksheet of all 25 ṣarf rules from the ilmus-sigha series, showing each transformation from underlying form to surface form.
According to the Aḥnāf, Ṣalāt al-Khusūf should be prayed individually at home, similar to a nafl ṣalāh, drawing on the ḥadīth that prayer in one's house is more virtuous except for the ordained ṣalāh.
The Ḥanafī rulings on ṣalāt al-kusūf: whether it is sunnah or wājib, how the Shawāfiʿ count the rukūʿ differently, the silent recitation and the absence of a khuṭbah.
A numbered contents table for the Qurʾān translation, giving the Arabic name and English rendering of each of the 114 sūrahs, from al-Fātiḥah through to al-Nās.
A verse-by-verse commentary on Sūrat al-Fātiḥah weighted towards linguistic analysis: al-ḥamd against madḥ, the senses of rabb and the unstated object of nastaʿīn.
Where the Khawārij, Muʿtazilah, Karrāmiyyah, Jahmiyyah and Murjiʾah stood on the three components of īmān, tabulated, with two objections to the reduced definitions.
A chronological reference table of Ḥanafī jurists from Imām Abū Ḥanīfah onward, listing each scholar's date of death (Hijrī) alongside their teachers and students.
The ḥadīth of Jibrīl, in which the angel questions the Prophet ﷺ about Islām, Īmān, Iḥsān, and the signs of the Hour, with phrase-by-phrase commentary.
Nawawī's third ḥadīth: Islam is built on five pillars, the shahādah, ṣalāh, zakāh, ḥajj, and the fast of Ramaḍān.
The opening ḥadīth of Imām al-Nawawī's Forty: actions are judged by their intentions, and a person has of an act only what they intended by it.
Muʿādh ibn Jabal asks the Prophet ﷺ for an act that grants Paradise; the answer covers the pillars, the gates of good, and the tongue.
Nawawī's thirtieth ḥadīth: Allāh has set obligations, limits, and prohibitions, and has remained silent about other matters out of mercy.
The opening chapter of Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī: why Imām al-Bukhārī begins with revelation, the meaning of waḥy, and the forms it takes.
The opening ḥadīth of Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, narrated by ʿUmar b. al-Khaṭṭāb, on the principle that deeds are judged by their intentions, with notes on the Bukhārī isnād.
Why Imām al-Bukhārī opens his Ṣaḥīḥ with the tasmiyah alone, and how the ḥadīth of niyyah fulfils the rights of both tasmiyah and ḥamd.
How Imām al-Bukhārī came to compile his Ṣaḥīḥ: its name, scope, method of writing, places of authorship, and the principal commentaries upon it.
Ibn Ḥajar's nine views on the fate of the children of the mushrikīn who die before reaching the age of accountability.
A running index of the Tafsīr notes: all 114 sūrahs in order with their Arabic names and English renderings, linking to the four commentaries published so far.
An introduction to tajwīd by Ustādh Muḥammad Sharīf: its definition, purpose and ruling, the virtues of recitation, the major and minor mistakes and the reciter's etiquettes.
A short biography of ʿAllāmah Ibn Nujaym (926–970h), the Ḥanafī jurist of Cairo, noting his lineage and two of his works, al-Baḥr al-Rāʾiq and a sharḥ on Manār al-Anwār.
There is no reward except through intention. According to ijmāʿ, this refers to reward in the hereafter and not reward in the life of this world.
The amr does not demand repetition, nor does it encompass it: the difference between mūjib and muḥtamil, and how the Aḥnāf trace the repetition of acts of worship to their asbāb.
ʿAllāmah al-Nasafī establishes that the requirement of amr (command) is wujūb, not nadb, ibāḥah, or suspension; he then surveys the sixteen senses in which a command may be used.
ʿAllāmah al-Nasafī opens Manār al-Anwār with a doxology and a statement of the four sources of the sharīʿah: the Qurʾān, the Sunnah, ijmāʿ, and qiyās.
The ism fāʿil is derived from the maṣdar and encompasses no repetition: why the Aḥnāf read the āyah of sariqah as requiring one cutting only, against al-Shāfiʿī and the Jamhūr.
ʿAllāmah al-Nasafī defines khāṣṣ as any utterance fixed for a single known meaning, whether of a genus, a species, or an individual, and lays out its ruling and seven subsidiary applications.
ʿAllāmah al-Nasafī establishes that the requirement of amr (command) is wujūb, not nadb, ibāḥah, or suspension; he then surveys the sixteen senses in which a command may be used.
والأداء أنواع كامل و قاصر و ما هو شبيه بالقضاء. Adāʾ is of three types: kāmil, qāṣir, and that which resembles qaḍāʾ.
Adāʾ is to carry out the command itself and qaḍāʾ to produce its likeness: the Ḥanafī view that a single sabab makes both wājib, and the fiqhī rulings that turn on it.
From the Prophet's prohibition on writing to the formal codification under ʿUmar bin ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz: how the ḥadīth corpus was preserved.
An introduction to the six universally accepted books of Sunni ḥadīth and the criteria each compiler used for inclusion.
A condensed reference for the principal categories of ḥadīth, their conditions of acceptance, and the technical vocabulary used to grade narrators and chains.
ʿAllāmah al-Shurunbulālī's preface to Nūr al-Īḍāḥ: a doxology, a statement of intent for a beginner-friendly manual on the acts of worship, and the work's title.
The ten imāms of qirāʾah and the two transmitters of each, with their dates and the number of intermediaries (wāsiṭah) linking each transmitter to his imām.
Ibn Kamāl Pāshā (d. 940/1534) sorted the jurists of the Ḥanafī madhhab into seven ranks defined not by personal brilliance but by the kind of juristic work each performed within the school.
A short biography of Imām al-Nawawī (631–676h), the Shāfiʿī jurist and ḥadīth scholar of Damascus, covering his name, birth, life, works, character, and death.
Consolation for bereaved parents from the Sunnah: ḥadīth on the resting place of children in Jannah, the shield their loss affords from the Fire and the intercession it earns them.
Drawn from Badāʾiʿ al-Ṣanāʾiʿ and Tuḥfat al-Fuqahāʾ: the periods of ḥayḍ and nifās according to the schools, the colours of blood that count and the rulings for a mustaḥāḍah.
Extract from Badāʾiʿ al-Ṣanāʾiʿ by ʿAllāmah al-Kāsānī and Tuḥfat al-Fuqahāʾ by ʿAllāmah ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn al-Samarqandī summarising the key points on the topic of masḥ upon bandages.
Extract from Badāʾiʿ al-Ṣanāʾiʿ by ʿAllāmah al-Kāsānī and Tuḥfat al-Fuqahāʾ by ʿAllāmah ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn al-Samarqandī summarising the key points on the topic of masḥ ʿalā al-khuffayn.
Twenty etiquettes for a student of knowledge, from ikhlāṣ and memorising the Qurʾān to the use of the pen and travel in its pursuit, drawn from al-Ghawrī's Ilā Ṭālib al-ʿIlm.
Twelve virtues of those who memorise the Qurʾān, from intercession and the company of the angels to safety from the trials of the grave, drawn from Ilā Ṭālib al-ʿIlm.
A short reference to the principal ḥadīth-collection genres: ṣaḥīḥ, jāmiʿ, sunan, musnad, mustakhraj, muṣannaf, mustadrak, aṭrāf, juzʾ, muʿjam and tajrīd.
ʿUmar al-Bayqūnī's thirty-four-verse manẓūmah on muṣṭalaḥ al-ḥadīth, with a verse-by-verse English rendering.
A verse-by-verse commentary on Sūrat al-Naṣr, which foretold the conquest of Makkah and, under its second name al-Tawdīʿ, the nearness of the Prophet's farewell.
A verse-by-verse commentary on Sūrat al-Kāfirūn, revealed after the Quraysh proposed a year of mutual worship, with the disavowal the Prophet ﷺ was commanded to recite to their leaders.
A verse-by-verse commentary on Sūrat al-Kawthar: the abundance given to the Prophet ﷺ, the river in Jannah, the command to pray and sacrifice, then the enemy whose traces are cut off.
An overview of the definition, etymology, classification, and virtue of ḥadīth, with the distinction between ḥadīth qudsī and the Qurʾān.
Seven worked parsings of the same three Arabic words, each with different case endings, showing how iʿrāb alone transforms the meaning of a sentence.
How muḥaddithīn distinguish between ḥadīths that share narrators across the Ṣaḥīḥayn and those that share only matn.
Why the science of Arabic syntax matters: it guards speech against error, unlocks the meanings of the Qurʾān and Sunnah, and beautifies expression.
A short biography of Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq, the first khalīfah after the Prophet ﷺ, covering his lineage, his early acceptance of Islam, the hijrah and his death in 13 AH.
Ruling on types of water one may do wuḍūʾ with, and which mixtures or used waters are excluded.
He is Abū al-Ḥusayn Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. Aḥmad al-Baghdādī al-Qudūrī, the Ḥanafī jurist (d. 428 AH) whose Mukhtaṣar al-Qudūrī became one of the most widely studied primers in the madhhab.
How the sharʿī distance defines a musāfir: measured from locality boundaries, route-based not as the crow flies, with intention to travel and to stay under fifteen nights.
Whether īmān admits of increase and decrease: the Ḥanafī and Mutakallimūn denial, the contrary view of the muḥaddithīn and Shāh Walī Allāh's mujmal / mufaṣṣal resolution.
Whether actions form part of īmān or follow from it: the Mutakallimūn and Aḥnāf against the Jamhūr, with four grounds for treating the disagreement as one of expression.
How Islām and īmān differ in essence yet depend upon one another, and why iqrār bi al-lisān is by consensus a condition for the rulings of Muslims to apply.
A concise treatment of how the classical scholars of Ahl al-Sunnah defined faith — and the relationship between belief, profession, and action.
The root a-m-n and the four constructions of āmana, then the sharʿī definition recorded in Rūḥ al-Maʿānī and the four kinds of tawātur that establish ʿilm al-yaqīn.
The first ḥadīth mentioned in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī under the chapter of prostration during recital of the Qurʾān, narrated by ʿAbdullāh ibn Masʿūd.
A simplified version of the recitation read by a student concluding the final ḥadīth of Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī.
Practical advice on memorising the Qurʾān drawn from the author's own ḥifẓ and that of other ḥuffāẓ, covering sincerity, continuity, teachers, timing and diet.
The fifteen possible verses of sujūd in the Qurʾān, ten agreed by consensus, with the Ḥanafī rulings on performing sajdat al-tilāwah, when it is wājib and how it falls in ṣalāh.
The farāʾiḍ, sunan, mustaḥabbāt, and nullifiers of wuḍūʾ, drawn from Qurʾān 5:6 and the standard Ḥanafī summaries.
A biographical sketch of Imām al-Bukhārī: his lineage, character, scholarly competence, teachers, students, madhhab, writings, and death.
A biographical sketch of Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl al-Bukhārī (194–256 AH), compiler of the Ṣaḥīḥ, the most authenticated collection of ḥadīth in the Sunni tradition.
How the people of knowledge grade intent into five stages, hājis, khāṭir, ḥadīth al-nafs, hamm and ʿazm, and why only the last of them incurs a reckoning.
The final sermon of the Umayyad caliph ʿUmar b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, delivered from the pulpit of the grand mosque in Damascus, in seven Arabic-English pairs.
Ṣalāh is the second pillar of Islām. We thank Allāh for giving us the ability to pray to Him.
