al-Fath al-Rabbani min Fatawa al-Imam al-Shawkani
- Author died
- 1250 AH
- Editions
- Maktabat al-Jīl al-Jadīd
al-Fath al-Rabbani min Fatawa al-Imam al-Shawkani (The Divine Opening from the Legal Rulings of Imam al-Shawkani) is an encyclopedic collection of legal responsa (fatwas), scholarly monographs, and specialized research treatises by the Yemeni jurist and scholar Muhammad ibn Ali al-Shawkani (d. 1250 AH / 1834 CE) .
Background and Compilation
Al-Shawkani originally initiated the compilation of his various independent treatises, answers to queries, and legal responsa under the title al-Fath al-Rabbani min Fatawa al-Shawkani . In a preface dated to Jumada al-Ula 1224 AH, he recorded that he had gathered these writings into multiple volumes, producing a clean draft of a primary volume that ordered legal rulings according to classical chapters of jurisprudence, followed by other subjects . As new questions and treatises emerged after that compilation, he expanded the collection into second, third, fourth, and fifth volumes, while noting that several earlier treatises had been lost or scattered .
Al-Shawkani planned the thematic hierarchy of the work so that jurisprudence (fiqh) and its legal chapters would come first, followed by Quranic exegesis (tafsir), Hadith, legal theory (usul al-fiqh), and the Arabic language along with related subjects .
Structure and Contents
The collection contains inquiries sent to al-Shawkani by scholars and laymen from various regions—including Kokaban, Mecca, and parts of Yemen and India—as well as his detailed scholarly rebuttals and monographs .
The material spans several Islamic disciplines, categorized across broad sections:
- Creed (al-'Aqidah): Addressing matters of monotheism (tawhid), eschatology, the unseen, the status of the Prophet's Companions, and creedal inquiries .
- Jurisprudence and Legal Theory (al-Fiqh wa-Usuluh): Covering ritual acts of worship, commercial transactions, judicial procedures, legal reasoning (ijtihad), the prohibition of blind following (taqlid), and rulings on novel cases .
- Hadith and Tafsir: Comprising critical analyses of specific narrations, virtues of the Quran, and reconciliation of seemingly conflicting texts .
- Arabic Language and Rhetoric (al-Lughah al-'Arabiyyah wa-'Ulumuha): Dealing with Arabic morphology, lexicology, grammar, and rhetoric .
Modern Edition
The collection was reconstructed and edited by Abu Mus'ab Muhammad Subhi ibn Hasan Hallaq, who gathered 214 of al-Shawkani's treatises from manuscript repositories in Yemen and India . While volumes two through five were available from historical sets, missing and scattered parts of the first volume were reconstructed from disparate manuscripts .
The complete work was published in twelve volumes by Maktabat al-Jil al-Jadid in Sana'a, Yemen . The publication includes introductory commendations by Yemeni scholars, including Muhammad ibn Isma'il al-'Amrani and Dr. 'Abd al-Wahhab ibn Lutf al-Daylami .
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