Ikhtiyarat al-Hafiz al-Dhahabi al-Fiqhiyya
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Ikhtiyarat al-Hafiz al-Dhahabi al-Fiqhiyya (The Jurisprudential Choices of al-Hafiz al-Dhahabi) is a study by Hani Faqih that compiles and arranges the legal choices and preferences (ikhtiyarat) of the historian and hadith master Shams al-Din al-Dhahabi (d. 748 AH / 1348 CE) in practical branch issues of Islamic jurisprudence (furu').
Purpose and Background
Although al-Dhahabi achieved renown primarily as a historian, hadith scholar, and biographical critic, he did not compose dedicated volumes on branch jurisprudence, hadith legal commentary, or fatwas. Consequently, his legal assessments remained dispersed as concise remarks throughout his voluminous historical and biographical writings. The author undertook the compilation to address a gap in modern scholarship on al-Dhahabi, which had largely neglected his jurisprudential thought, and to illustrate his proficiency in legal deduction (fiqh al-nazar). The study highlights al-Dhahabi's avoidance of strict school partisanship (ta'assub madhhabi), documenting instances where he diverged from his own Shafi'i school, such as the rulings on performing ritual ablution with sun-heated water, reciting the basmala aloud in prayer, continuous qunut supplication during the Dawn (Fajr) prayer, and prostrating upon the folds of a turban.
Sources and Methodology
The work extracts legal opinions through an extensive survey of twelve primary titles from al-Dhahabi's corpus:
- Al-Muhadhdhab fi Ikhtisar al-Sunan al-Kabir
- Tarikh al-Islam
- Siyar A'lam al-Nubala'
- Tadhkirat al-Huffaz
- Bayan al-Ilbas fi Funun al-Libas
- Al-Tibb al-Nabawi
- Al-Kaba'ir
- Talkhis Mustadrak al-Hakim
- Al-Tamassuk bi-l-Sunan
- Al-Muqizah
- Haqq al-Jar
- Tanqih al-Tahqiq
The author excluded biographical evaluation works, such as Al-Kashif, Mizan al-I'tidal, and Diwan al-Du'afa', due to the low likelihood of finding applied legal rulings within them. The methodological framework prioritizes presenting al-Dhahabi's exact wording, keeping extraneous analytical commentary to a minimum to ensure direct documentation of his statements.
Structure and Contents
The book compiles more than two hundred legal issues, arranged in accordance with standard chapters of Islamic jurisprudence. It opens with the Book of Purification (Kitab al-Taharah), addressing as its first issue the obligation of washing the feet during ablution (wudu). It concludes with a comprehensive chapter (bab jami') for miscellaneous legal issues that do not fall under conventional chapter headings, followed by a conclusion summarizing the primary findings. The entire volume comprises fewer than two hundred pages.
Relation to Previous Studies
In his introduction, the author references two related academic works that he consulted to supplement his compilation:
- An academic thesis at the Islamic University of Madinah by 'Arafat ibn Hasan ibn Ja'far titled Al-Ara' al-Fiqhiyya li-l-Imam al-Dhahabi, which spans over 1,350 pages; unlike Faqih's concise presentation of al-Dhahabi's direct texts, 'Arafat's study focuses on extensive comparative analysis across various schools of thought.
- A thesis by Muhammad Jum'ah Badawi titled Al-Masa'il al-Fiqhiyya al-Mustakhraja min Kitab Siyar A'lam al-Nubala', which was restricted exclusively to Siyar A'lam al-Nubala' and included broader legal discussions where al-Dhahabi did not necessarily articulate an independent preference.
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