al-Tawdih al-Mufid li-Masail Kitab al-Tawhid
- Author died
- 1409 AH
- Editions
- Dar Al-Olayan
al-Tawdih al-Mufid li-Masail Kitab al-Tawhid (The Useful Clarification of the Issues of the Book of Monotheism) is a concise commentary by the Saudi scholar Abdullah al-Duwaysh (1373–1409 AH / 1953–1989 CE; also recorded as dying in 1408 AH), dedicated to elucidating the doctrinal points and legal deductions (al-Masaʾil) appended to each chapter of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab's Kitab al-Tawhid .
Background and Purpose
In his introduction, al-Duwaysh observed that although earlier commentators—including descendants of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab—had authored major works and glosses on Kitab al-Tawhid, they rarely engaged directly with the deduced issues (masaʾil) that conclude each chapter . Later, Sulayman ibn Hamdan addressed them in al-Durr al-Nadid by pairing each issue with its corresponding textual evidence from the chapter, but without providing an explanation of the issues themselves . Al-Duwaysh composed his work to fill this gap by providing brief, accessible explanations for each issue to aid students of knowledge .
Method and Structure
Al-Duwaysh confined his commentary exclusively to the chapter-ending masaʾil, explaining how each point is derived from the cited Quranic verses and prophetic hadiths . In his preface, he established the convention that whenever he writes "mentioned in the commentary" (ذكره في الشرح), he is specifically referring to Abd al-Rahman ibn Hasan's commentary Fath al-Majid .
Al-Duwaysh's original manuscript contained only the issues and their commentary without the primary text of the chapters; subsequent editors, such as Abd al-Aziz ibn Ahmad al-Mushayqih, placed the corresponding base text of Kitab al-Tawhid at the top of each page above the explanation, relying on the edition printed in Majmuʿat Muʾallafat al-Shaykh Muhammad .
Reception and Publication
The work is frequently referenced by subsequent scholars and commentators on Kitab al-Tawhid as the specialized reference for understanding the deductions at the end of each chapter .
It was published as an undated standalone volume by Matabiʿ al-Qasim in Riyadh, and was later published in Buraydah in 1411 AH (1990/1991 CE) within the first volume of the author's collected writings (Majmuʿat Muʾallafat al-Shaykh Abd Allah al-Duwaysh) by Dar al-ʿUlayan .
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