al-Rifaa fi Bad Mutun Fiqh al-Madhahib al-Arbaa
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al-Rifʿah fī Baʿḍ Mutūn Fiqh al-Madhāhib al-Arbaʿah (Arabic: الرفعة في بعض متون فقه المذاهب الأربعة, "Elevation in Some Core Texts of Jurisprudence of the Four Schools") is a modern collection of four authoritative didactic poems (manẓūmāt) covering the jurisprudence of the four Sunni legal schools (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i, and Hanbali) . It was compiled, arranged, and fully vocalized with vowel points (ḍabṭ bi-al-shakl) by Dr. Tawfīq ibn Ibrāhīm Ḍamrah and published in its first edition in 1441 AH (2020 CE) .
Purpose and Scope
The work was compiled to facilitate the memorization and retrieval of essential jurisprudential rulings and legal principles across the four Sunni schools of law through versified texts (manẓūmāt) . The compiler, a teacher of the Qur'an at the Grand Husayni Mosque licensed in the ten minor and major recitations and collections of prophetic Sunnah, aimed to present these classical didactic poems in an accessible format with clear vowelling and punctuation .
Contents and Structure
The book is arranged into a scholarly introductory treatise followed by the edited versified texts:
- Introductory Treatise: Written by Muḥammad Rizq Ṣāliḥ al-Zāmil, Muḥammad Sāmī Muḥammad ʿAlī, and ʿAmmār Muwaffaq Hāshim Khalīl , this section provides foundational groundwork regarding Islamic jurisprudence. It covers:
- The virtue of religious knowledge and the obligation of legal learning (al-tafaqquh fī al-dīn) .
- The historical evolution of legal schools from the Prophetic era, the senior and junior ranks of Companion jurists, through the Successors and early regional legal traditions in Kufa, Mecca, and Medina .
- An exposition on the four Imams—Abu Hanifah (80–150 AH), Malik ibn Anas (93–179 AH), al-Shafi'i (150–204 AH), and Ahmad ibn Hanbal (164–241 AH)—including scholarly praise of their mastery and their commitment to textual evidence from the Qur'an and Sunnah .
- The qualifications of individual legal reasoning (ijtihād), the historical continuity of the schools, and the modern imperative for collective legal deliberation (al-ijtihād al-jamāʿī) through contemporary fiqh academies to address emerging issues .
- Jurisprudential Poems: The compendium contains four versified texts representing the four schools, including Manẓūmat al-Bahjah al-Wardiyyah by Zayn al-Dīn Ibn al-Wardi (d. 749 AH) for Shafi'i jurisprudence . Each poem is preceded by a brief biographical profile of the author and an overview of the work and its prose source .
- Scholarly Authorization (Ijāzah): The volume concludes with a formal certificate of transmission (ijāzah) granted to students who read or audit the poems included in the volume .
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