Bidayat al-Muhtaj fi Sharh al-Minhaj
- Author died
- 874 AH
- Editions
- Dar al-Minhaj lil-Nashr wa-al-Tawzi'
Bidayat al-Muhtaj fi Sharh al-Minhaj (The Starting Point for the Needy in Explaining the Minhaj) is a commentary on al-Nawawi’s (d. 676 AH / 1277 CE) fundamental Shafi'i legal manual Minhaj al-Talibin, authored by the Syrian jurist Badr al-Din Ibn Qadi Shuhba (798–874 AH / 1396–1469 CE) .
Background and Purpose
Ibn Qadi Shuhba authored two major commentaries on al-Nawawi's Minhaj: a larger, extensive work entitled Irshad al-Muhtaj ila Tawjih al-Minhaj and a concise commentary, Bidayat al-Muhtaj . In the introduction to Bidayat al-Muhtaj, the author states that he intended to produce an abridged commentary roughly equal in size to ‘Ujalat al-Muhtaj by Ibn al-Mulaqqin (d. 804 AH / 1401 CE) .
Ibn Qadi Shuhba sought to revise and refine Ibn al-Mulaqqin’s work by correcting matters where he believed Ibn al-Mulaqqin had erred, pruning extraneous legal branches and side discussions that were not directly connected to the core text, and substituting them with points directly relevant to the explicit and implicit meanings (mantuq and mafhum) of al-Nawawi’s phrasing .
Methodology and Structure
The commentary strictly preserves al-Nawawi’s original organization and divisions without altering them . Methodologically, Ibn Qadi Shuhba focuses on:
- Depicting the precise form of each legal scenario (taswir al-masa'il) and providing its essential textual proofs .
- Evaluating the authenticity of cited evidence (sound, good, or weak) and attributing such gradings to their respective scholars .
- Addressing instances of divergence or vacillation (idtirab) between al-Rafi'i and al-Nawawi, explicitly highlighting which position is relied upon for formal legal rulings (fatwa) .
- Identifying and answering potential linguistic and legal objections to the wording of the Minhaj .
Editorial Conventions
In the preface, Ibn Qadi Shuhba defined the technical shorthand and citation formulas used throughout the text :
- al-Shaykhan ("the two shaykhs"), as well as dual verbs such as qala ("they both said") or rajjaha ("they both deemed weightier"), refer specifically to al-Rafi'i and al-Nawawi .
- Shaykhuna ("our teacher") refers to Wali al-Din al-'Iraqi .
- Shaykhi or walidi ("my teacher" / "my father") refers to the author's father, Taqi al-Din Ibn Qadi Shuhba .
- al-Munakkit ("the annotator") refers to Shihab al-Din Ibn al-Naqib .
- All other commentators and cited authorities are identified by their explicit names .
- In the original manuscript layout, the base text (matn) was penned in red ink, while the commentary was written in black .
Modern Publication
The work was published for the first time in print in 1432 AH / 2011 CE by Dar al-Minhaj in four volumes (spanning 2,528 pages) . This edition was edited by Anwar ibn Abi Bakr al-Shaykhi al-Daghistani with the participation of the scholarly committee at Dar al-Minhaj, based primarily on a complete manuscript bearing the author's own handwriting, collated alongside six other manuscript witnesses .
Answer updated