al-Furu wa Tashih al-Furu
- Author died
- 763 AH
- Editions
- Mu’assasat al-Risālah
al-Furu wa Tashih al-Furu (The Branches of Law and the Rectification of the Branches) is a foundational reference work in Hanbali jurisprudence, comprising the encyclopedic legal text Kitab al-Furu by Shams al-Din Ibn Muflih (d. 763 AH / 1362 CE) alongside its corrective supplement Tashih al-Furu by Ala al-Din al-Mardawi (d. 885 AH / 1480 CE).
Kitab al-Furu
Kitab al-Furu was authored by the Damascene jurist Shams al-Din Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Muflih al-Maqdisi (d. 763 AH / 1362 CE). Because of its exhaustive collection of legal scenarios, it became known among scholars as Miknasat al-Madhhab ("the broom of the school").
Methodology and Structure
In his introduction, Ibn Muflih stated that he aimed to produce a concise and precise legal text for students, largely omitting extensive scriptural evidence and legal reasoning, although he occasionally elaborated on arguments and complex topics. His method generally presents the preponderant opinion in the Hanbali school first; where no single position was established as preponderant, he recorded the disagreement without resolving it (atlaqa al-khilaf). He also instituted a system of terminology:
- Ala al-asahh refers to the sounder of two narrations (asahh al-riwayatayn) from Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal.
- Fi al-asahh denotes the sounder of two juristic opinions (asahh al-wajhayn) within the school.
- Phrases such as yattawajah ("it is plausible"), yadullu ("this indicates"), or al-murad kadha ("what is meant is such") mark his own independent deductions.
In comparative jurisprudence, Ibn Muflih documented points of consensus and the positions of other major Sunni authorities using letter abbreviations:
- (‘Ayn) for consensus (ijma).
- (Waw) for agreement of the three imams (Abu Hanifa, Malik ibn Anas, and al-Shafi'i).
- (Kha) for their dissent.
- (Ha) for Abu Hanifa, (Mim) for Malik, and (Shin) for al-Shafi'i, accompanied by (Ra) for a second transmission or (Qaf) for two differing views.
Ibn Muflih also paid close attention to the legal preferences (ikhtiyarat) of his teacher Taqi al-Din Ibn Taymiyya and his contemporary Ibn al-Qayyim. However, Ibn Muflih died before writing a clean copy (mubayyada) of the entire work and before it could be read back to him, leaving certain passages incomplete, unweighed, or misattributed.
Tashih al-Furu
To address unresolved disputes and textual oversights in al-Furu, the Hanbali verifier Ala al-Din Ali ibn Sulayman al-Mardawi (817–885 AH / 1414–1480 CE; born 814 AH according to an alternate report) authored a dedicated corrective gloss. Its formal title is al-Durr al-Muntaqa wa-al-Jawhar al-Majmu fi Ma'rifat al-Rajih min al-Khilaf al-Mutlaq fi al-Furu (also cited as Tashih al-Khilaf al-Mutlaq fi al-Furu).
In Tashih al-Furu, al-Mardawi examined over 2,220 legal issues that Ibn Muflih had left unresolved, citing authoritative transmission from earlier Hanbali jurists to determine the soundest position (al-sahih min al-madhhab). He additionally appended more than 630 critical remarks (tanbihat) correcting flaws in phraseology, rulings, or priority of opinions. Together, al-Furu and Tashih al-Furu came to be regarded as a pinnacle of late Hanbali school editing.
Reception and Related Works
al-Furu received high praise from scholars across schools. Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani wrote in al-Durar al-Kaminah that Ibn Muflih "excelled in it to the utmost and recorded obscure branches of law that dazzled the scholars." Al-Mardawi described it in the introductions to both Tashih al-Furu and al-Insaf as one of the most comprehensive, precisely verified, and beneficial works composed in Hanbali jurisprudence, noting that contemporary scholars took it as their primary authority for editing and verification. Later masterworks such as Muntaha al-Iradat by Ibn al-Najjar al-Futuhi (d. 972 AH) drew the majority of their content from al-Furu.
A number of scholars authored commentaries, marginal glosses, and abridgments on al-Furu:
- Commentaries and Glosses: A gloss resembling a commentary by Ahmad ibn Nasr Allah al-Baghdadi (d. 844 AH); an extensive gloss by Taqi al-Din Abu Bakr ibn Ibrahim ibn Qundus (d. 861 AH), excerpted from his margins by Abu Bakr al-Jura'i; Nihayat al-Hukm al-Mashru fi Tashih al-Furu by Yusuf ibn Majid (or Yusuf ibn Muhammad) al-Mardawi; al-Maqsad al-Munjih li-Furu Ibn Muflih by Ahmad ibn Abi Bakr al-Hamawi (d. 883 or 888 AH); and a gloss by Musa ibn Ahmad al-Hajjawi (d. 968 AH).
- Abridgments: al-Halwa and Tajrid al-Furu by Jamal al-Din Yusuf ibn Muhammad al-Mardawi (d. 882 AH), and Ghayat al-Matlab fi Ikhtisar al-Furu by Abu Bakr al-Jura'i (d. 883 AH).
Publication History
al-Furu and Tashih al-Furu were printed together at al-Manar Press in Cairo in 1341 AH (and reissued in 1345 AH) in three volumes, edited under the direction of Muhammad Rashid Rida with an introduction by Muhammad ibn Abd al-Aziz al-Mani. It was subsequently published in Cairo in six volumes in 1379 AH / 1959 CE under the supervision of Abd al-Latif al-Subki, and later published by Mu’assasat al-Risala in Beirut alongside Tashih al-Furu and Ibn Qundus's gloss.
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