Irshad al-Nuqqad ila Taysir al-Ijtihad
- Author died
- 1182 AH
- Editions
- al-Dār al-Salafiyyah
Irshad al-Nuqqad ila Taysir al-Ijtihad (إرشاد النقاد إلى تيسير الاجتهاد, Guiding the Critics to Facilitating Independent Reasoning) is a treatise on Islamic jurisprudence and hadith methodology by the Yemeni scholar Muhammad ibn Isma'il al-San'ani (1099–1182 AH / 1688–1768 CE), arguing that the door of independent legal reasoning (ijtihad) remains open and is accessible in later eras .
Purpose and Content
The treatise refutes the view that ijtihad became impossible or closed after the early generations of scholars . Al-San'ani asserts that exercising ijtihad in later eras is in fact easier than in earlier times for anyone possessing sincere aspiration, sound understanding, and knowledge of the Quran and the Sunnah, because fundamental reference works of tafsir, hadith, and jurisprudence have already been collected, classified, and made readily available .
A central theme of the work addresses the evaluation of hadiths in later times, specifically challenging the position associated with Ibn al-Salah that later scholars cannot independently declare hadiths authentic (sahih) or weak (da'if) . Al-San'ani argues that when a later scholar examines the statements of early biographical evaluation authorities (al-jarh wa-l-ta'dil) to determine the reliability of narrators and delivers a grading on a tradition, that judgment constitutes valid ijtihad rather than blind imitation (taqlid), resting on the same foundational principles employed by early hadith critics .
The book also summarizes the requisite qualifications for a mujtahid, highlights reports illustrating how the Companions, Successors, and leading imams revered the Sunnah and referred directly to textual evidence, and responds to arguments raised by proponents of strict madhhab imitation .
References and Transmission
Al-San'ani referenced Irshad al-Nuqqad across several of his other major compositions. In Subul al-Salam, while commenting on the hadith regarding a judge exercising ijtihad, he referred readers to this treatise for his detailed refutation of the claim that ijtihad is unachievable . He likewise cited it in Tawdih al-Afkar when discussing the technical meaning of classifying a hadith as authentic, and in his legal theory commentary Ijabah al-Sa'il .
A manuscript copy transcribed by Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-'Aziz in 1296 AH is preserved in the collection of Shaykh 'Abd Allah Al Ibrahim al-Salim in Buraidah, Saudi Arabia . The work was published as part of the compilation al-Rasa'il al-Muniriyyah assembled by Muhammad Munir al-Dimashqi . It was later edited by Salah al-Din Maqbul Ahmad and published by al-Dar al-Salafiyyah in Kuwait (1405 AH), as well as published with hadith documentation by Muhammad Hallaq through Mu'assasat al-Rayyan in Beirut (1413 AH) .
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