Ajwiba Muhaqqaqa an Asila Mufarraqa
- Author died
- 1252 AH
- Editions
- T Istanbul
Ajwiba Muhaqqaqa ‘an As’ila Mufarraqa (Verified Answers to Miscellaneous Questions) is a legal treatise written by the Damascus-based Hanafi jurist Ibn Abidin (1198–1252 AH / 1784–1836 CE). The work compiles his detailed legal responses and research regarding distinct and complex inquiries submitted to him on various branches of Islamic jurisprudence.
Contents and Issues Addressed
The treatise gathers solutions to several challenging legal scenarios across different subjects:
- Endowment Stipulations (Waqf): The opening and principal query originated from Tripoli (طرابلس الشام), concerning the interpretation of intricate conditions in a family endowment deed. The inquiry addressed the distribution of shares among surviving descendants after several beneficiaries passed away, debating whether children through daughters (awlad al-banat) take the place of deceased ancestors and whether conjunctive phrasing using thumma (then) versus waw (and) modifies entitlement or invalidates prior apportionments (naqd al-qisma). Ibn Abidin critically evaluated conflicting rulings written on the back of the inquiry by jurists from Beirut, Sayda, and elsewhere, demonstrating errors in their reliance on unedited passages in al-Durr al-Mukhtar and al-Ashbah.
- Maritime Commercial Contracts and Guarantees: A question received in Ramadan 1240 AH concerning merchants who hire ships belonging to non-Muslim foreigners (ahl al-harb) to transport goods, paying an additional fee on condition that the shipmaster guarantees compensation if other belligerents seize the cargo. When pirates seized the vessel, Ibn Abidin was asked whether the shipmaster was bound by the agreed liability (daman); he ruled that Hanafi jurisprudence does not consider such a guarantee legally binding.
- Conversion and Declarations of Faith: An inquiry received in Dhu al-Hijja 1241 AH concerning a non-Muslim protected subject (dhimmi) who, during an altercation with a Muslim, declared his belief in God, His angels, His books, His messengers, and the Last Day. Ibn Abidin ruled that the individual is not judged to have embraced Islam simply by uttering the articles of faith or the two testimonies (shahadatayn) unless he also explicitly disavows his previous religion, citing standard Hanafi authorities.
- Estate Division and Bequests: The work also answers an arithmetical problem concerning the division of an inheritance involving a testamentary bequest (wasiyya).
Methodology and Sources
In resolving these inquiries, Ibn Abidin draws upon authoritative Hanafi texts and jurists, including al-Khassaf, Ibn Nujaym, Ibn al-Shihnah, and Khayr al-Din al-Ramli. He also incorporates extensive comparative citations from Shafi'i authorities, such as Taqi al-Din al-Subki, Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti, and Shihab al-Din al-Ramli, in discussing legal principles and the construction of endowment phrasing.
Transmission and Publication
Manuscript copies of the treatise are preserved in institutions including the Zahiriyya Library in Damascus (under General Hanafi Fiqh, no. 10417, 9 folios) and Dar al-Kutub al-Misriyya in Cairo (no. 22645/b, 15 folios).
The treatise was printed independently in Damascus in 1302 AH (consisting of 21 pages). It was also published as part of the author's collected treatises (Majmu'at Rasa'il Ibn Abidin) printed in Istanbul (al-Astana) in 1325 AH (Vol. 2, pp. 166–186).
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