Sunni Muhaddithin/Tafasir

Shaykh Abdal azeez Fredericks is based
in Glasgow I believe.

 

Don't allow this thread to get bogged down into another d/b debate.
Ibn Arabi- the thread is not about deobandi ulema so
there is no need to paste their works here PLEASE.

What I am saying is produce excellent works and let the world see them...Thats all.

In our time theres a lot of conference style things which are not really the way forward.
We want to see true academic works by ulema.
Shaykh Nuh Keller is an example of an aalim and sufi that should be
copied.
He calls to the same things that you call to...but with gentleness...humility,no commotion and he lives what he preaches.
His gatherings are calm and full of spiritual and sunni character.
No naaras...no hoo haa . no fuss no commotion.
The deobandis too are attracted to him and many of them end up
becoming more sufi in the process.


Why don't you copy his paradigm...its more successful than the current one you employ?

 

it wasn't 'concluded' that there was a typist error at all. that was just what some deobandi apologists wrote. secondly, some other deobandi apologists said that he didn't write it at all but rather his scribe was to blame.

la hawla wa laquwwata. as for the statement that Thanawi made about Taqwiyatul Iman and its author -the one you quoted--he is still praising it if you read what he said carefully and he calls those who criticise Ismail Dehlavi Qateel 'ignorant'.

la hawla wa la quwwata.

 

Al-Albani's works are more to do with takhrij and tashih and tad'if and I do not think he wrote any well-known commentaries or books of value.

The works of the Shiah have not been accepted by the generality of the Ahl as-Sunnah, whereas the Deobandi works have, as shown in the example I provided from Shaykh Zahid al-Kawthari's article.

Furthermore, it is unfair to compare the works of Maturidi, Hanafi, Sufis to anti-Ashari/Maturidi Wahhabis and the Rafidis.

The books you mentioned are great works but none of them were written in direct response to the Salafi/Wahhabi/Ahl al-Hadith movement. Ibn al-Hummam's Fath al-Qadir and Imam Ayni's al-Binayah are commentaries on al-Hidayah and Imam az-Zayla'i's Nasb ar-Rayah is a Takhrij of the ahadith of al-Hidayah; in fact in many cases Imam az-Zayla'i gives views opposite to Hanafi views but does not defend the Hanafi opinions - he is shown quoting his teacher Shaykh Ibn Daqiq who was both Maliki and Shafi'i and not providing Hanafi responses. In terms of hadith proof and a very basic elaboration the book Ma'ani al-Athar is valuable; however for detailed proof to respond to the Wahhabis, I'la as-Sunan, Athar as-Sunan, Nayl al-Firqadayn (on raf' al-yadayn), Jami' al-Athar etc. are more pertinent. I'la as-Sunan is well-known and studied in some Dars e Nizami courses; it is a 20 or so volume project, much larger than the above works, which addresses almost every doubt created by the Wahhabis.

I did not at all criticise the works of Ahmad Rida Khan; I was trying to put accross that the Deobandi works are also worth recognition, not that the Berelwi works lack value.

It is not only today that Deobandi scholars have criticised this work. Anwar Shah Kashmiri wrote in Fayd al-Bari:

، وكتابه «تقوية الإيمان» فيه شدة فَقَلَّ نفعه، حتى إن بعض الجهلة رموه بالكفر من أجل هذا الكتاب

"And his [Shah Isma'il's] book Taqwiyatul Iman contains excessiveness which reduced its benefit to the extent that some of the ignorant attributed kufr to him because of this book"

Interestingly he also wrote about the leader of the Wahhabis:

أما محمد بن عبد الوهاب النَّجْدِي فإنه كان رجلاً بليداً قليلَ العلمِ، فكان يتسارع إلى الحكم بالكفر

"As for Muhammad bin Abdul Wahhab an-Najdi, he was a foolish man with little knowledge so he was hasty in passing the judgement of kufr"

Also, in regards to Taqwiyatul Iman, Ashraf Ali Thanawi wrote:

"The excessive words, which have truly appeared, in the Taqwiyat al Iman was the cure for the ignorance of that time... However, the habit of some nowadays in using such words without any need is without a doubt against proper manners (adab) and audacious. If there is fairness in the disputers then they will decide based on these rules whose result will be that neither will anything bad be said about the author of Taqwiyal al Iman nor will such words in the Taqwiyat al Iman be used." (Imdad al Fatawa, Vol 5, Pg: 385)

I'm sure Rashid Ahmad meant by that comment what Ashraf Ali Thanawi explained above

I'm sure this was discussed in another thread, where it was concluded there was a copyist error [of fihi which should have been fiha]. Any who says the Qur'anic text is corrupted is a kafir (like those Rafidah who do).

What Anwar Shah Kashmiri said was that there are three opinions on Tahrif in earlier scriptures : 1. it was both in text (lafz) and meaning (ma'na); 2. textual Tahrif was only slight and 3. textual Tahrif was non-existent. He then went on to say, the latter is incorrect because it would imply tahrif has occured in the Qur'an too since there have been misinterpretations of the Qur'an from the heretics of the past. And finally he said therefore the tahrif must be textual in the previous scriptures [which has been misuderstood as "Qur'an"], but whether this was intentional or not is known only to Allah [for it is agreed the tahrif in interpretation was intentional although the tahrif in text was either intentional or unintentional].

 

to ibnArabi:

first of all, i have seen dobbie arabic books and alaHazrat's works; they are nowhere near alaHazrat's class. one can easily see who is 'trying' to write arabic and who can write arabic. but this is childish argument. a scholar who cannot speak/write arabic but yet is from ahlu's sunnah and has understood the sunnah properly and conveys it as it was intended is far far superior to one whose very `aqidah is suspect, but can write arabic.

otherwise nasiruddin albani's works in Hadith outnumber all the list you have given. infact, he has the distinction of 'correcting' even the hadith masters and pointing out inaccuracies in the motherbooks.! but yet, you don't bow down in deference to him - rather some admirers of deoband attempt to refute him!

khalil gibran was an arabic poet/philosopher; numerous rafiDi 'scholars' have works that can outnumber deobandis...

-----
take iyla as-sunan for example. there are far superior works by ibn humam [fat'H al-qadir] and al-ayni [al-binaya] in this specific subject [of Hanafi proofs]. imam zaylayi's naSb ar-rayah; imam taHawi's ma`ani al-athar and mushkil al-athar that form the proofs of hanafi fiqh; and another good work but relatively unknown: imam manbajji's 'al-lubab.' mawlana anwarullah faruqi's 'zujajatu'l masabiH' is another one.

when the last one is mentioned, some milder deobandis say that he was not a barelwi. of course not; he was a hyderabadi. raHimahullah. the point is there are two groups: ahlu's sunnah and wahabis. it is mentioned in khayratu'l Hisan, quoting a luminary in the early times: 'we know a person's belief by how he regards abu Hanifah in our times. if he is happy when he is mentioned and loves/respects him, we know that he is from ahlu's sunnah. if he has reservations or hates him, we know that he is from ahl al-bid'ah.'

this statement is true of alaHazrat in our times, unmistakably. we know he is a sunni by his reaction when alaHazrat is mentioned. only a sunni loves him and only a bidyi/wahabi/rafiDi dislikes him.

instead of quoting merely the names of volumes, go and read some of them; and read alaHazrat's books - if you are just, the truth is inescapable. his research and soundness of argument is so good that even your own celebrity scholar, the late abu'l Hasan nadawi commented in his Hashiyah of 'nuzhatul khawatir' that 'imam aHmed raza was peerless and unequaled among his contemporaries in fiqh and istidlal.'

---
world famous, you say? - take a secular example: chomsky is not as widely published as friedman. but only the knowledgeable know that friedman is a liar and cheat.

numerous, you say? iblis prayed for thousands or millions of years. but his arrogance and insistence or justification [i am better than him; you created me by fire and him, by earth] of his disobeidience earned him scorn forever. perhaps a ruling that 'one kufri statement/belief will annull all previous good deeds and even Hajj' is buried somewhere in the list of books you have provided. have a good look.

---
you miss the point: the deobandis INTRODUCED the fitna of wahabism and sustained/sustain it to this day in the subcontinent. and their admirers refute it whilst among arabs. laa ilaa haa-u-laayi wa laa ilaa haa-u-laa

the point was never about how many books deobandis wrote. it was about how they introduced the fitna of disrespecting rasul sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam; and making it commonplace - while pipsqueaks criticize and comment about awliya and anbiya; whilst talking of Rasul sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam in common terms.

---
other reasons are indeed callousness on the part of sunni scholars back home and their hubris. alaHazrat and other sunni scholars in his time and immediately after him were so erudite and virtuous that sunni scholars in the subcontinent went into a gloating spree. but that is not specific for sunnis in the subcontinent; even in the arab world the sunni output was far and few in the face of wahabism and secularism/nationalism until recently. but that has changed.

i tend to think that these 30-40 years, our scholars spent time putting down the rebellion of wahabism/indian wahabism [a.k.a deobandism] and did not have time to contribute to fiqh and hadith substantially. now it is in its last throes [what with deobandis smugly disassociating themselves from wahabis and their fitna; inspite of their elders' shenanigans] and therefore we have time to focus on these issues.

imagine, what use would it be if we all believed that the prophet sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam was no more to be respected than an elder brother or even lesser? alhamdulillah and may Allah reward alaHazrat and other sunni scholars for stemming this fitna.

also, deobandis/tablighis have been heavily funded by oil money until recently, inspite of which their fitna subsided. and we never had any grants.

alaHazrat's and ahlu's sunnah's greatest victory is in the fact that even deobandis now distance themselves from what used to be their proclaimed belief. for example, there was a time when no deobandi/tablighi hesitated to embrace and defend the utterly burnable tafwiyatu'l iman. but today, they shy away from it. alaHazrat and other sunni scholars refuted such insolence - and they succeeded because nobody dares to openly and unconditionally accept that disgraceful book. why don't you tell shaykh nuH that you love this book so much that your chieftain, rashid gangohi said: 'to read it, and to keep it is very faith itself [`ayn eeman hai]'

yet, on judgement day, we shall see who really defended ahlu's sunnah and who were the chameleons.

---
anwar shah, again? we heard on the deobandi forum that fayD al-bari was not his work. by the way, the arabic therein is awful. and the author of fayD al-bari says that qur'anic text is corrupted. but ibnArabi will tell us: 'you are prejudiced. you forget the eight-nine-ten-whatever volumes and are only concerned about one statement that the qur'an is corrupt.'

 

by the way, no matter how many titles you put alongside the greatest wali in recent times, it is not enough.

 

yes the deobandis should stop using titles such as Hakeem-ul-Ummat, Shaykh-ul-Hind, Imam-ul-Asar. it just looks like another senseless rant by tazkiyya...nice to see you back by the way

I couldnt agree more with Abu Hasan, the scholarship of a person is not dependent on the quantity of works or writing any works at all. Sometimes people feel they have to show the books they have authored to prove they are on haqq.

 

:s1:

Tazkiyyah bhai,

I don't disagree with what you've written--and the titles I've written before the name of Sayyidna Pir Sayyid Mihr Ali Shah are those which others have given him. Not ones he have himself--as you know he was a kaamil wali.

**
You're right, titles are meaningless *if* they don't reflect a reality. I'm not obssessed with Deos/Wobbs but I had to write what each book was about.
BTW, not ALL shuyukh from the Subcontinent are as you've described--there are real humble ones too --but you won't hear of them.

Jazak Allah for your sincere advice though.
p.s. Shaykh Fredericks sounds like an interesting person. where is he based?

 

In england there is a great sufi who doesnt like to be known.
If you call him aalim he will not like it.
And he tries to avoid publicity whenever possible.and
he sits like you would think he is just a normal taalib e ilm in other mashaykhs
gatherings
His name is shaykh abdal azeez fredericks

 

Sidi Asif,
Your posts show an obsession with attacking the deos and wahabis.
You have differences with them-fine.
Pursue what you consider to be true.And propagate your texts..
But every time you post a work...you dont need to say this is better than that etc.
Truly great ulema don't deen to put great titles in front of their name.
Humility is a very powerful tool.

We have ulema in india/pak(both deo/barel) who want to be called mashaykh-e-waqt....shaykh ul islaam..mujadid al kawnayn...ghazali e waqt..junayd e waqt.they need to sit on the highest chairs and wear garlands of roses and have people praise them IN THEIR lifetimes and construct their tombs in their lifetimes.

Then one goes to syria/yemen and sees humble ulema...who will chide you if you call them an aalim.
And even people like Shaykh Nuh Keller...who will speak in Wembley arena sitting on the floor...and his haybah is greater for that.

So just produce works..and the power of the works themselves shall be enormous.

A beautiful woman doesn't need much make up...

Where there is kamaal..there is little need to embellish with maal.

 

Huzoor Qibla Pir Sayyid, Qibla e Zaman, Ghawth al Waqt, Sayyid al Sa'adat, Shaykh e Kamil, Pir i Tariqat, Rahbar i Shar'iat Sayyidina Mihr Ali Shah Golrawi :ra: has written the following 10 books, each a masterpiece:

1. al-Tahqiq ul Haq fi Kalimatul Haq -- this book is a sharh of the first kalimah (kalimah tayyibah) .i.e the Muslim credo and an exposition of Wahdat al Wajood, of which the Shaykh was the world authority in his time.

2. Shamsul Hidaya -- On the ascension of Isa :as: and his return from the Qur'an and Sunnah in response to Qadiani nonsense.

3. Sayf e Chishtiyyah -- a detailed refutation of Qadianis on the topic of Khatm al Nabuwwah. It is acknowledged by all, including Deobandis,Ahle Hadith, and other Wahabbis, as being the best available work on the topic of Finality of Prophethood.

4. I'laa'u Kalimatullah - a tafsir of the verse "Wa ma Ahl bihi li'ghayr Allah"

5. Maktubat - collected Letters
6. al-Futuhat al Samadiyyah - The Shaykh's answers to 10 questions posed to him by the Wahabiyyah Ahle Hadith and also his 12 questions posed to them (which they've never been able to answer till this day.)

7. Tasfiyah ma bayn Sunni wa Shi'a - the Shaykh's famous work on the status of the Khulafa al Rashideen and the virtues of the Ahlul Bayt noted for its rigour and judicioiusness.

8. Hadiyatul Rasul صلى الله عليه وسلم -- A comprehensive refutation of Qadianism
9. Malfuzat -- Collected Sayings
10. Mir'at ul 'Irfan -- the Shaykhs collected Sufi poetry including na'ats and manqabats in Urdu, Punjabi, and Farsi.

and I think there is also 11. Fatawa Mihriyyah
***

sidi AH made a telling comment about quality and not quantity; just one
poem by the Shaykh and Wali of Allah Pir Sayyid Mihr Ali Shah ("aj sik mitraan di vaderi ay") is more valuable than all the works produced by the Deos and Wahabbis put together.

 

:s1:

I forgot to mention also that Mawlana Zafar al-Din Bihari (who wrote the famous biography of Ala Hadrat "SawaniH Ala Hazrat") is also the author of
a large Sharh of Sahih al Bukhari but I cannot recall the title.

 

in our times, writing books has become a major criterion to 'rate' a scholar. indeed, it is ONE indication but the converse does not hold true. that is, if one does not write does not mean he is not a good/great scholar.

there are many scholars who have spread knowledge by teaching/making accessible what has already been handed by greater men and we should not forget such people. infact, i sometimes am frustrated when people keep on writing 'new' books when there are already much finer ones present.

anyway, we must not forget the many translators who have made classical works accessible to us - among them - a barelwi scholar:

mawlana shams barelwi, who has translated many classical works from arabic and persian to urdu. he is a sunni who is also barelwi because he was born in bareilly and was the professor of persian/arabic studies in manzar-e-islam in bareilly for a very long time. he later emigrated to pakistan. his translations:

- ghunyatu' li Talibi of shaykh `abdu'l Qadir which includes a wonderful historical background on the turbulent times when ghawth al-a'azam arrived in baghdad.

- awarif al-ma`arif of shihabuddin `umar as-suharwardi

- nafaHat al-uns of mawlana jami

- perhaps maktubat sadi/maktubat du sadi (100 letters/200 letters) of shaykh yahya muniri of bihar.

---------
mawlana taqaddus ali khan, the grandson of alaHazrat, maternal nephew and prominent student of mufti a'azam e hind mustafa raza khan, and teacher of major sunni scholars like allamah arshad al-qadri has translated a few books among which is 'mukashifatu'l qulub' which is attributed to imam ghazali.

---
mawlana saeed ahmed naqshbandi has translated:

- kashf al-Mahjub of data hujweri

- maktubat imam rabbani

- minhaju'l abidin of imam al-ghazali

- kimya sa'adat of imam al-ghazali

---
mawlana ghulam mu`yeenuddin naeemi has translated madarij an-nubuwwah of shaykh muHaddith `abdu'l Haqq dihlawi

---
other works whose translators/authors i don't remember at present (and cannot verify at present):

- kitab al-`aqayid by mawlana naeemuddin muradabadi

- rasayil naeemiyyah by his student mufti ahmed yar khan which is a collection of booklets on a wide range of subjects including a layman's guide to tafsir and qur'anic sciences.

- sirat an-nabawi by abdu'l mustafa a'azami (sadru'sh shariah amjad ali's son)

- sab'a sanabil

- hasht bihisht (translation of 8 volumes of malfudh by sufis of chishtiyyah Tariqah including fawayid al-fuad by sayyidi mahbub ilahi known as nizamuddin awliya of dehli

- riyaD as-Salihin translated with notes

- mir'at al-manajih sharH mishkat al-maSabih by mufti ahmed yar khan in 8 volumes; which he compiled from three major Hanafi sources: lam'at in arabic and ashyiatu'l lam`at in persian by `abdu'l Haqq muHaddith dihlawi; mirqat in arabic by mawlana `ali al-qari. all three being exegeses of mishkat.

- bahar e shariat remains to this day, the finest resource on Hanafi fiqh in urdu for beginner/intermediate education. experts can refer to major Hanafi texts in arabic or fatawa in urdu by alaHazrat.

- jawahiru'l bihar

- jamiy karamat al-awliya and other books of `allamah imam yusuf nab'hani including one recently mentioned on this forum shawahidu'l Haqq

- mawlana jami's shawahidu'n nubuwwah

- various booklets including al-arbayin of an-nawawi;

- contemporary scholars (mainly from pakistan/ dawat-e-islami) have written books on arabic grammar and language learning series;

i think a good list is in order (when i finish moving and get my books in order, inshaAllah)

wa's salam.

---
note: one should not go by volume or numbers; nor should one slight the noble science of tasawwuf. if people have to only write so that they are considered as prolific authors, i don't see any benefit nor barakah in it. wa lillahi'l Hamd, sunni scholars do not fall into that trap.

 

:s1:
If we look at general books on Islam written by the Ahlus Sunnah of the Subcontinent aka Barelwis then they will FAR outnumber the ones written by the Deos simply because about 80% of Muslims in Indo-Pak-Bangladesh are Barelwis. However it is about quality not quantity and even in quality our ulama have produced better work on every subject.

Indeed if we just take Ala Hadrat by himself, his personal output cannot be matched by that of Deoband.

***
A book of Sira which is amazing is Al-Dhikr al Jamil Fi Hilyatul Khalil aka Zikr e Jamil by Shaykh Muhammad Shafi' Okarvi rahmatullah alayhi. It is in Urdu but with extensive quotes from hadith. In fact the book is a compendium of hadiths about the various body parts of the Prophet and their miraculous qualities.

**
We also have Pir Karam Shah sahib's magisterial 7 volume Zia ul Nabi--a sirah book without equal as far as I know in recent times. It includes a whole volume (vol 7) on refuting the claims of the Orientalists about our Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم

Again, I've heard that Prof. Tahir al Qadri is also working on a massive Sirah too.

Shaykh Sayyid Pir Nasir ul Din Nasir Golrawi's books are also superb e.g. Naam o Nasab.

 

as-salamu `alaykum,

After reading this thread I realized that some of these books would make a great gift for people of `Ilm. In fact, I am scheduled to meet some `ulama within the next couple of weeks and I would GREATLY appreciate it if someone could tell me how I can obtain the following books. Does anyone know of a book dealer, maktab, or any private third-party person that can send me any of these books to the U.S.? I am ready to pay any reasonable price for them including shipping/handling, insha'Allah. If the books need to be shipped from a foreign country into the U.S. then that is fine too.

Shaykh Abul Hasanat Syed Abdullah Shah Sahib’s Arabic commentary of Mishkat al-Masabih aka “Zujajat al-Masabih” or its Urdu rendition entitled “Noor al-Masabih”.

Mufti Sharif al-Haqq Amjadi’s “Nuzhat al-Qari”

Shaykh Ghulam Rasul Sa`eedi’s “Sharh Sahih Muslim”

Mufti Ahmad Yaar Khan’s “Mir'aat Sharh Mishkat”

Mawlana Ghulam Jilani al-Meerthi’s “Bashir al-Qari”

Shaykh Ghulam Rasul al-Ridawi’s sharh on "Sahih al-Bukhari"

jazakumullahu khayran,
wa as-salamu `alaykum

 

Abu Fadl,

what is the name of the sharh of Shaykh Ghulam Rasool Rizawi on "Sahih al-Bukhari"? And is it in Urdu or Arabic?

 

I urge the brothers on this forum to post more examples of books written by barelwi ulama. Like books of shurooh and hawashi on the famous classical texts that are typically covered in the Dars Nizami curriculum. Many people are under the impression that the ulama of Barelwi maslak just concentrate on rudood, naats, and tasawwuf. If you know of commentaries written on classical books of fiqh, tafseer, hadith, mustalah al-hadith, usul al-fiqh, usul al-hadith, mantiq, aqaa'id, nahw, sarf, balaghah, etc then I highly urge that you post it here on this forum. There is a great need in my opinion to dispel this false notion. If brothers on this forum know of asaaneed of great shuyukh in these abovementioned uloom then I highly urge them to post it here too.