al-Munfarijatan
- Author died
- 926 AH
- Editions
- Dar al-Fadilah
al-Munfarijatan is a published edition of the commentary by the Shafi'i jurist and scholar Zakariya al-Ansari (d. 926 AH / 1520 CE) on the famous ascetic ode al-Munfarijah .
Background and Attribution
The poem commented upon in the work is al-Munfarijah, a thirty-five-verse poem composed in the khabab meter that opens with the verse :
اشتدّي أزمةُ تَنفَرِجي ... قد آذَنَ لَيلُكِ بالبَلَجِ
Intensify, O crisis, and you shall clear; your night has signaled the break of dawn.
Scholars differed over the attribution of the original poem. The predominant attribution assigns it to Abu al-Fadl Yusuf ibn Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Tawzari, known as Ibn al-Nahwi (d. 513 AH / 1119 CE) . In his preface, Zakariya al-Ansari noted that the commentator Abu al-Abbas Ahmad ibn Abi Zayd al-Bijai attributed it to Ibn al-Nahwi, whereas Taj al-Din al-Subki mentioned in his Tabaqat an attribution to Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Andalusi al-Qurashi, alongside an earlier transmission traced to Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Ali al-Tawzari (known as Ibn al-Misri) in al-Ghurrah al-la'ihah . Other sources record an attribution to Abu al-Hasan Yahya ibn al-Attar al-Qurashi .
Al-Subki referred to the ode as al-Faraj ba'd al-shiddah ("Relief After Hardship") and reported that it was widely regarded as an effective supplication for lifting distress, with many holding that it concealed the Supreme Name of God (al-Ism al-A'zam) .
Composition and Contents
Zakariya al-Ansari completed his primary commentary on the poem on 11 Dhu al-Hijjah 881 AH, giving it the title Adwa' al-bahjah fi ibraz daqa'iq al-Munfarijah . Biographical accounts indicate that al-Ansari produced two treatments of the poem: an extensive commentary (mutawwal) and an abridgment (mukhtasar), the latter titled al-Khulasah .
In his explanation, al-Ansari unpacks the linguistic meanings, prosody, and rhetorical devices of each verse, including opening elegance (bara'at al-istihlal), complete paronomasia (jinas tamm), antithesis (tibaq), and textual borrowing (iqtibas) . Beyond literary analysis, he interprets the ode as a guide to the spiritual path of the hereafter, expounding themes of endurance (sabr), complete surrender and trust in God, and the purification of the soul through trials .
Publication History
The work was printed in Cairo in 1323 AH (1905 CE) by Matba'at al-Taqaddum in forty-four pages . A modern edition of the poem and al-Ansari's commentary was published under the title al-Munfarijatan, edited by Abd al-Majid Diab and issued by Dar al-Fadilah in Cairo .
Answer updated