An excerpt taken from Safahāt min sabril ʿulamā’ – Sh. Abdul Fattah Abu Ghuddah.

Question:

I have read one of your recent articles and I wanted to know, what is the legal requirement for someone to be considered a knowledgeable scholar whom we can take knowledge from? Is Isnad (chain of transmission) one of the requirements and is there any evidence for this deduced from the sources?

Also, I have noticed that Isnad is not usually mentioned by the scholars as a prerequisite for someone to be considered a Mujtahid. Can one therefore be self taught?

Question:

If the Qurʾān is a linguistic miracle of inimitability and quotes the supplications of Prophets, is this not self-refuting, since a Prophet was able to formulate exact like-wording to that of God?

Title: Ṣafwah at-Tafāsīr

Author: MuḥammadʿAlī as-Ṣābūnī

Publisher: Dār ul-Ḥadīth

Volumes: 3

Format: Hardcover

Language: Arabic

All praise is for Allah, Lord of the worlds; and peace and blessings be on our master Muhammad, and his family and companions.

Great people achieve greatness because they adopt the qualities and character-traits of the greatest man ever: our Messenger Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him). One such example – at least for me – is my dear and beloved Shaykh Mawlana Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani (hafizahullah).

This write-up is based on the treatise of Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥajar rahimahullah.

Mishkāt al-Maṣābīh (lit. the niche of lanterns) is a hadith collection originally compiled as Maṣābīḥ as-Sunnah (lit. the lamps of Sunnah) by Imām Muḥy as-Sunnah Abū Muḥammad Ḥusayn ibn Masʿūd al-Farrāḥ al-Baghawī (d.1122) rahimahullah, a famous Tatar muḥaddith and mufassir from the senior Shawāfiʿ scholars. It was later refined and expanded by Imām Walī ad-Dīn Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Khaṭīb at-Tibrīzī (d.1248) rahimahullah, who named the revised compilation Mishkāt al-Maṣābīḥ, as we know it today.

Many seem to complain when the importance of language skills is raised to them. “Since when did being eloquent in English/Arabic become a sign of intelligence?” they ask.

Based on Shaykh Mufti Taqi Usmani’s notes in the introduction to Dars Tirmidhi (1/80-86), compiled by Shaykh Waqar Gulam Dastaguir and checked & edited by Mufti Muhammad ibn Adam.

How does a Muslim scholar, serious student, and others who have devoted their lives to the service of Islam and the Muslims support himself/herself? I ask because this is perhaps one of the main reasons why parents don’t wish for their children to become scholars of Islam -they are usually poor, they don’t get paid much at all (if at all), and they attract trouble from different extremist groups.

I come from an upper middle-class family. How can I convince my parents that I can become a Muslim scholar and have sufficient finances to support myself and my family?

Translated by Zameelur Rahman

Translator’s note: The following is the translation of an Arabic speech delivered by ‘Allamah Anwar Shah al-Kashmiri when Shaykh Rashid Rida visited Dar al-‘Ulum Deoband in 1912 CE. He explained the historical and intellectual background to the seminary and the school’s methodology in hadith-commentary.