Ashal al-Madarik "Sharh Irshad al-Salik fi Madhhab Imam al-A'imma Malik
- Author died
- 1397 AH
- Editions
- Dar Al-Fikr
Ashal al-Madarik: Sharh Irshad al-Salik fi Madhhab Imam al-A'imma Malik (The Easiest Perceptions: Commentary on the "Guide of the Traveler in the School of the Imam of Imams, Malik") is a multi-volume work on Maliki jurisprudence by the West African scholar Abu Bakr al-Kashnawi (d. 1397 AH / 1977 CE) . It serves as an extensive legal commentary on the classical Maliki primer Irshad al-Salik ila Ashraf al-Masalik by the Iraqi jurist Shihab al-Din Ibn 'Askar al-Baghdadi (d. 732 AH / 1332 CE) .
Base Text and Composition
The foundational text of the commentary, Irshad al-Salik, was composed by Ibn 'Askar—a Maliki professor at al-Madrasa al-Mustansiriyya in Baghdad—at the request of his son, who had asked for a concise, easily memorized legal manual dense with legal meanings and branches . The manual adheres to the methodology of the Iraqi branch of the Maliki school, recording numerous detailed subsidiary rulings (furu') not found in longer compendia .
In his introduction, Abu Bakr ibn Hasan al-Kashnawi—who had settled in Mecca—states that he was repeatedly urged by scholars and associates to write a balanced, accessible commentary that would explain the phrases of Irshad al-Salik and elucidate its meanings without excess or deficiency . He resolved to undertake the project despite his advanced age, greying hair, teaching duties, and numerous scholarly preoccupations, titling it Ashal al-Madarik .
Method, Scope, and Reception
Ashal al-Madarik systematically covers the standard chapters of Maliki jurisprudence following the structure of Ibn 'Askar's primer, including chapters on worship, transactions, and military law (jihad) . It unpacks the concise and sometimes ambiguous phrasing of the Iraqi Maliki tradition, supplying definitions, legal conditions, textual evidence, and cross-references to the relied-upon positions of the school .
Earlier classical scholars who wrote commentaries on Irshad al-Salik include the Moroccan jurist Ahmad Zarruq and the Egyptian scholar Sulayman ibn Shu'ayb al-Buhayri al-Qahiri . Ashal al-Madarik is noted as the only commentary on Ibn 'Askar's primer to have entered print, having been published in three volumes by Matba'at 'Isa al-Babi al-Halabi in Egypt without date, and subsequently reissued by Dar al-Fikr .
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