al-Manhaj al-Qawim fi Ikhtisar Iqtida al-Sirat al-Mustaqim
- Author died
- 778 AH
- Editions
- Dār ‘Aṭā’āt al-‘Ilm
al-Manhaj al-Qawim fi Ikhtisar Iqtida al-Sirat al-Mustaqim (The Upright Path in Abridging the Necessity of the Straight Path) is an Islamic theological and legal treatise written by the Hanbali jurist Badr al-Din al-Baali (d. 778 AH / 1376 CE). It is a concise abridgment of the work Iqtida al-Sirat al-Mustaqim li-Mukhalafat Ashab al-Jahim by Ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728 AH / 1328 CE).
Background and Authorship
Badr al-Din Muhammad ibn Ali ibn Muhammad al-Baali (d. 778 AH; also recorded as 777 AH) authored several summaries dedicated to condensing the lengthy treatises and legal fatwas of Ibn Taymiyyah. In his autograph manuscript, the author inscribed the title as al-Manhaj al-Qawim fi Ikhtisar al-Sirat al-Mustaqim. To prevent ambiguity regarding the work's relationship to Ibn Taymiyyah's original treatise, later scholars and editors added the clarifying word Iqtida to the title.
The abridgment belongs to a group of epitomes al-Baali penned from Ibn Taymiyyah's corpus, which also includes his abridgments of al-Sarim al-Maslul, Ibtal al-Tahlil (entitled Shifa al-Alil), and al-Durrah al-Mudiyyah (published as Mukhtasar al-Fatawa al-Misriyya or al-Qawaid al-Nuraniyya).
Subject and Scope
The book focuses on distilling the primary arguments and textual evidences presented in Ibn Taymiyyah's original composition. Its core subject is the religious obligation for Muslims to maintain distinction from non-Muslims and avoid imitating their religious practices, customs, and festivities. Specifically, the abridgment covers:
- The legal and theological foundations prohibiting imitation of non-Muslims, foreigners (al-a'ajim), and Bedouins (al-a'rab).
- The rulings regarding participation in innovated holidays, non-Muslim festivals, and seasonal celebrations.
- Critiques of newly introduced ritual innovations (bida'), including unauthorized pilgrimages to shrines, tombs, and historical sites.
Al-Baali streamlined Ibn Taymiyyah's lengthy legal discussions, extensive textual citations, and polemical digressions to present a direct and accessible handbook for students of Islamic law and theology.
Manuscripts and Publication
The work is preserved in an autograph manuscript penned by al-Baali within a collective volume (al-Majmu' al-Nafis), occupying 33 folios (folios 177a–210b), without an explicit completion date recorded in the colophon.
The text was critically edited by Ali ibn Muhammad al-Umran under the supervision of Bakr ibn Abd Allah Abu Zayd and published in a single volume by Dar Alam al-Fawa'id (and reissued by Dar Ata'at al-'Ilm and Dar Ibn Hazm). The editor relied on the author's autograph manuscript, collating the text against modern editions of Ibn Taymiyyah's complete Iqtida al-Sirat al-Mustaqim and providing indices for Quranic verses, hadiths, legal rulings, and thematic topics.
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