تقريظات العلماءCommendations of the Scholars

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

Some Commendations concerning Zujajat al-Masabih

The opinion of Mawlana Qari Muhammad Tayyib Qasmi, Rector of Dar al-ʿUlum Deoband (may Allah have mercy on him):

"In the name of Allah; praise be to Allah, and peace upon His chosen servants. The excellent book Zujajat al-Masabih lies before this lowly one, delighting the eye. I have had the good fortune of benefiting from it at various places, from which the heart took the impress of joy and delight for two reasons:

First: because the book is a superb collection in the service of the science of hadith, in which, on the pattern of Mishkat al-Masabih, and in the arrangement of fiqh chapters, the narrations relevant to every chapter have been gathered in a pure ordering; and along with this, through the marginal notes and pointers, the hadith's aim is presented with its source from the Qur'an, and a further treasury of supporting narrations is supplied, which is the finest service of the science.

Second: because this book is a magnificent treasury of the sources and supports of the Hanafi school, of which there was the most pressing need in our time.

And now this is the final imprint of this era coming before the eyes of the people of knowledge in the form of Zujajat al-Masabih, in which, together with the service of the science, the hadith-service of the Hanafi school has been carried out in a special way: a great store of the fundamental sources of Hanafi rulings, and, in their support, of hadiths, reports, sunan, and the fatwas of the Companions, has been gathered, whereby all those misgivings are removed which the school's opponents raise about the Hanafi school.

The author of the book is Hadrat Mawlana Sayyid ʿAbdullah Shah Sahib, son of Hadrat Mawlana Sayyid Muzaffar Husayn Sahib (may Allah have mercy on him), who is among the godfearing of the Deccan, a scholar uniting the Shariʿa and the Path, from whose person creation is obtaining scholarly and practical benefits and blessings. This book is the masterpiece of his scholarly service; hence Zujajat al-Masabih, along with the excellence of its subject, is worthy of esteem and of benefit also in respect of its attribution. How good it would be if, in the religious madrasas, Zujajat al-Masabih were adopted alongside Mishkat al-Masabih, or in its place, so that the testimonies that the Hanafi school is a school of hadith might be furnished to the students from the very text of the book and the curriculum. And Allah is the Giver of success."

Annotated and signed: the Rector of Dar al-ʿUlum Deoband, 28/4/[13]76 AH

Commendation

The opinion of the most eminent scholar Shaykh ʿAbd al-Fattah Abu Ghudda (may Allah have mercy on him):

Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds; blessings and peace upon our master Muhammad, his family, his Companions, and the Successors.

To proceed: from the one in need of Allah Most High, ʿAbd al-Fattah Abu Ghudda, to the noble and high-minded Sayyid, the possessor of good deeds and of goodly, blessed traces, Mawlana al-Sayyid ʿAbdullah, son of Mawlana al-Sayyid Muzaffar Husayn, of Hyderabad, may Allah Most High preserve him.

Peace be upon you, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings! To proceed: Allah Most High favoured me this year with the performance of the obligation of Hajj, the pilgrimage of Islam, and of His bounty made it easy for me to witness the benefits that He, glory be to Him, has bound to this mighty pillar. Among those great benefits was that I met with the first volume of your book Zujajat al-Masabih, and by it my sight and my insight were illumined; and I thanked Allah Most High for what He has given you and for the success He has granted you. May Allah reward you, on behalf of Islam and the Hanafi masters, with the best of rewards.

I am the one in need of Him Most High, ʿAbd al-Fattah Abu Ghudda, servant of the students of the noble knowledge in the city of Aleppo the Grey, may Allah Most High guard it and all the lands of the Muslims.

Saturday, 14 Muharram 1377 AH, Syria, Aleppo, al-Bayyada

Mawlana ʿAbd al-Majid Daryabadi (may Allah have mercy on him), the learned editor of Sidq-e Jadid, Lucknow, expressed the following opinion of this work in his issue dated 29 Muharram 1373 AH / 9 October 1953; this is the excerpt:

"Every literate person among the religious is acquainted with the Mishkat al-Masabih of Khatib Tabrizi (may Allah have mercy on him). This authentic, serviceable collection of the Prophet's hadith ﷺ, comprehensive to a great degree despite being comparatively brief, has been current in India for centuries, serving as a lamp of guidance for common folk and elite alike. But the author of the Mishkat, for all his exalted rank, was after all not a Hanafi; he was a Shafiʿi, and so it was entirely natural that consideration for the Shafiʿi school should appear here and there in his book. For this reason the Hanafi scholars had long felt the need of a second collection of hadiths of this kind, in which the consideration would be for their own school and way. After centuries, the felicity of actually fulfilling this need has fallen to this learned man of Hyderabad.

The book's name, matching the Mishkat ('the Niche'), is precisely 'Zujajah' ('the Glass'); and this successor has kept the arrangement of contents according to that same predecessor of his. In the preface the author of Zujajat al-Masabih relates a righteous dream of his and glad tidings from the Prophet ﷺ.

In every book, the sub-headings of the chapters follow the Mishkat, except where the author deemed it necessary: for the strengthening of the school of the Greatest Imam he has added material in the text or the margin. Thus under the Book of Knowledge he has entered such narrations of merit as, in his view, point toward Abu Hanifa (may Allah have mercy on him). Likewise under the chapter of the Night Prayer of Ramadan he has entered, in the margin, sayings and discussions on the emphasis of Tarawih and its number of rakʿahs, and so on; similarly under the chapter of Visiting the Sick, on going out of a settlement in a time of plague, and judge the rest by this. In the margins, indeed, he has abundantly given proofs, summary or detailed, in support of Hanafi rulings. The only difference from the Mishkat is that there every chapter-heading was divided into three sections; here that division into sections has been lifted.

To recognize the real worth of the book's content and to assay the hadiths it contains is the work of the masters of the science; but from the standpoint of an ordinary reader, the learned author has performed an important religious service, and the felicity of discharging the debt that had run on against the Hanafis for centuries has been attained by him. Enviable are such souls as, even in this age, with eyes closed to every aspect of so slack and unappreciative a market, remain absorbed in the passion of serving the religion."

Review in the monthly Sidq, Lucknow, Zujajat al-Masabih, volume four:

This second comprehensive book of hadith, in the style of the famous and current Mishkat, is being published in five volumes with full consideration for the Hanafis, and this is its fourth volume.

The first three volumes have been introduced in these pages before. This volume begins with the Book of Etiquette and ends at the chapter on the Beginning of Creation and the Mention of the Prophets, and bears the same excellences and characteristics as its first three volumes: that same comprehensive selection of the Prophet's hadiths, and then the exposition and clarification of those hadiths with consideration of Hanafi fiqh. The margins in this volume too, like the previous volumes, are abundant, useful, and full of insight; it is a special and distinguished service to both Hanafi fiqh and the Prophetic hadith, the enablement of which fell in this age to the praised author.

Annotated and signed (Mawlana ʿAbd al-Majid Daryabadi)

A Letter

The view of Mawlana Yusuf al-Harawi, bearer of the emblem of the Shariʿa, of jurisprudential distinction, of the city of Herat (Afghanistan), concerning this work:

"I began the book Zujajat al-Masabih with some of my kinsmen. My hope was that, by the completion of these two volumes, another one or two would arrive here. Now both volumes are finished; the text and the margin I have already read through. It is a supremely useful, profound book, comprehensive of fiqh and hadith together; it grants independence from a multitude of other books."

Annotated and signed: Mawlawi Yusuf al-Harawi, bearer of the emblem of the Shariʿa, of jurisprudential distinction (city of Herat)

Commendation

The opinion of the jurist of Herat, Mawlana Abu Nasr Muhammad Aʿzam al-Barnaabadi al-Harawi (may Allah have mercy on him):

From the poor Abu Nasr to the venerable master, noble of stock, of lineage and of reckoning, the true friend, Mawlana Abu al-Hasanat Sayyid Shah ʿAbdullah Sahib, may his blessings endure, and to all those striving in the printing of the Zujajah!

Peace be upon you, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings! May Allah Most High reward you with the best of rewards. After studying the first two volumes, I have attained what I hoped for: the arrival of three copies of the third volume, of your kindnesses and favours. I rejoiced with profound joy, praised Allah Most High, and thanked you, the praise of the powerless and the thanks of those who fall short. May Allah Most High bless you. And I said:

Praise be to Allah, who raises up men who bring the ways of the religion to life; blessings and peace upon him who gave us glad tidings of the appearance, in every century and season, of renewers of the religion, and upon his family, the guides and the guided.

To proceed: my eye was cooled by the study of the first two volumes of Zujajat al-Masabih, and my heart was enlarged and my breast expanded by the arrival of the third volume from the wellspring of sound narrations. I have found in it a brimming ocean, sufficient in its subject; a dazzling proof for the Hanafis; a law that heals the sickness of ignorance and the disparagement of the school. None can exhaust its benefits save one who looks deeply into its returns; its publisher has drawn brief attention to them at the outset, and they become manifest to any reader who gives ear with a witnessing heart, in fairness. May Allah Most High reward on our behalf its author and everyone who has laboured upon it.

And I am the poor Abu Nasr Muhammad Aʿzam al-Barnaabadi al-Harawi, may Allah Most High forgive him and his teachers. Amin