al-Kawkab al-Zuhri Nazm Mukhtasar al-Akhdari
- Author died
- 1430 AH
- Editions
- Dār Ibn Ḥazm
al-Kawkab al-Zuhri Nazm Mukhtasar al-Akhdari (The Brilliant Star: A Versification of al-Akhdari's Abridgment) is a poetic treatise in didactic rajaz verse on Maliki jurisprudence of acts of worship, composed by the Algerian scholar Muhammad Bay Balalam (d. 1430 AH / 2009 CE) . The text versifies the widely circulated prose primer Mukhtasar fi al-Ibadat by the Algerian jurist Abd al-Rahman al-Akhdari (918–983 AH / 1512–1575 CE) .
Background and Composition
In his opening lines, Muhammad Bay Balalam—identifying himself by his lineage as Muhammad ibn Abd al-Qadir al-Qiblawi al-Sahili, known as Bay Balalam—explains the motive behind the composition . He observes that the Mauritanian scholar Muhammad ibn Abba had previously versified only the chapter on forgetfulness in prayer (sahw) from al-Akhdari's manual, leaving the remainder in prose . Intending to complete the versification of the entire manual to facilitate memorization and study, he composed the full poem and titled it al-Kawkab al-Zuhri li-Nazm Nathr al-Shaykh al-Akhdari . According to the concluding lines, the author commenced writing on the 5th of Safar and completed it on a Friday forenoon in the same month in the year encoded in the chronogram tashjada .
Structure and Contents
The poem adheres closely to the thematic arrangement of Mukhtasar al-Akhdari, focusing on personal religious obligations (fard al-ayn) in creed, spiritual ethics, and ritual purity and prayer according to the Maliki school :
- Spiritual Foundation and Morals: Rectification of faith (tas-hih al-iman), obligations of sincere repentance (tawbah), guarding the tongue from unlawful speech, protecting sight and bodily faculties, shunning ostentation, envy, and pride, and adhering to pious scholars .
- Purification (Taharah): Types of purification from physical impurities and ritual defilement, the rules and categories of water, and washing stained garments .
- Minor and Major Ablution: The obligatory acts (fara'id), sunan, and virtues of minor ablution (wudu), things that invalidate it, acts prohibited during minor defilement, causes and requirements of major ritual bathing (ghusl), and dry ablution (tayammum) along with its permissible surfaces .
- Female Ritual Purity: Rules governing menstruation (hayd) and post-natal bleeding (nifas), their time limits, and associated legal prohibitions .
- Prayer (Salah): Prayer times, prerequisites, the fourteen obligatory acts, sunan, recommended manners, the status of humility and inner presence, performing prayer in varying physical capacities (standing, sitting, or reclining), and making up missed prayers (qada' al-fawa'it) .
- Forgetfulness in Prayer (al-Sahw): Rules governing pre-salutation (qabli) and post-salutation (ba'di) corrective prostrations, dealing with doubt, omitting or adding parts of prayer, rectifications for congregational followers and latecomers (masbuq), and interactions between the imam and the congregation during inadvertent omissions or additions .
Commentary
Muhammad Bay Balalam wrote an explanatory commentary on his poem titled al-Ishraq al-Badri Sharh al-Zuhri (also cited as al-Ishraq al-Badri Sharh al-Kawkab al-Zuhri) .
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