al-Tadrib fi al-Fiqh al-Shafii
- Author died
- 805 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-Qiblatayn
al-Tadrib fi al-Fiqh al-Shafii (Arabic: التدريب في الفقه الشافعي, fully titled Tadrīb al-mubtadī wa-tahdhīb al-muntahī, 'Training the Beginner and Refining the Advanced') is a legal treatise on Shafi'i substantive law (furu') authored by the Egyptian jurist Siraj al-Din al-Bulqini (724–805 AH / 1324–1403 CE) .
Title and Purpose
While the work is known in biographical and bibliographical literature as al-Tadrīb fī al-fiqh al-Shāfiʿī and al-Tadrīb fī al-furūʿ, manuscript copies confirm that the title chosen by the author is Tadrīb al-mubtadī wa-tahdhīb al-muntahī . In his introduction, al-Bulqini states that he designed the work as an instructional manual capable of training beginners while engaging advanced students, incorporating legal evidences (dalāʾil), substantive rulings (masāʾil), governing principles (ḍawābiṭ wa-uṣūl), and overarching maxims alongside exceptions (qawāʿid wa-istithnāʾāt) .
Scope and Composition
Al-Bulqini was unable to complete the work across the full breadth of jurisprudence. His son attributed his inability to finish most of his major writings to his demanding daily commitments, spending the mornings until midday teaching in various madrasas and his afternoons between the afternoon (ʿaṣr) and sunset (maghrib) prayers answering legal inquiries and issuing fatwas . Sources report slight differences regarding where his original text stopped:
- Taqi al-Din al-Fasi noted that al-Bulqini stopped at the chapter of maintenance (al-Nafaqāt) .
- Katip Celebi in Kashf al-ẓunūn stated that he reached the chapter of fosterage (al-Riḍāʿ), which is supported by surviving manuscripts that conclude with the regulations of fosterage immediately before Bāb al-Nafaqāt .
Al-Bulqini also prepared an abridgment of the work titled al-Taʾdīb fī mukhtaṣar al-Tadrīb, writing roughly half of it .
Continuations, Commentaries, and Reception
Al-Bulqini's sons studied and memorized the work during his lifetime; Jalal al-Din 'Abd al-Rahman al-Bulqini memorized the portions his father composed, as did 'Alam al-Din Salih al-Bulqini (d. 868 AH), who subsequently completed the remainder of the legal chapters from the chapter of maintenance to the end of jurisprudence under the title Tatimmat al-Tadrīb ('The Completion of al-Tadrib') . A commentary on the book was composed by Abu al-Baqāʾ Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Bakrī, the Shafi'i chief judge of Alexandria .
The work became an established reference within the late Shafi'i legal school, cited and quoted by subsequent authorities such as Zakariyya al-Ansari in Asnā al-maṭālib and al-Ghurar al-bahiyyah, Ibn Hajar al-Haytami in Tuḥfat al-muḥtāj, and al-Khatib al-Shirbini in Mughnī al-muḥtāj .
Publication
The work, along with Tatimmat al-Tadrīb by 'Alam al-Din Salih, was edited by Abu Ya'qub Nash'at ibn Kamal al-Misri and published in four volumes by Dar al-Qiblatayn in Riyadh in 1433 AH / 2012 CE .
Answer updated