Irshad al-Salik ila Hall Alfiyyat Ibn Malik
- Author died
- 767 AH
- Editions
- Aḍwā’ al-Salaf
Irshad al-Salik ila Hall Alfiyyat Ibn Malik (Guiding the Traveler to Untangling the Alfiyya of Ibn Malik) is a commentary on Arabic grammar and morphology by the Hanbali jurist and grammarian Burhan al-Din Ibn al-Qayyim (d. 767 AH / 1366 CE), written on the grammatical didactic poem Alfiyyat Ibn Malik by Ibn Malik.
Authorship and Attribution
The attribution of the commentary to Ibrahim ibn Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr ibn Ayyub ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya is confirmed across classical and later biographical sources. Al-Dhahabi noted in al-Mu'jam al-Mukhtass that the author studied jurisprudence with his father, engaged with the Arabic language, and composed this commentary on Ibn Malik's Alfiyya, titling it Irshad al-Salik ila Hall Alfiyyat Ibn Malik. It was likewise attributed to him by Ibn Muflih as cited by al-Nu'aymi, and by Hajji Khalifa in Kashf al-Zunun, where it was recorded under the shortened title Irshad al-Salik.
Methodology and Features
Irshad al-Salik is characterized as a concise and beneficial grammatical commentary. In his exposition, Burhan al-Din Ibn al-Qayyim adhered to several consistent methodological practices:
- Verse-by-verse presentation: He cites each verse of the Alfiyya in its entirety before proceeding to explain its grammatical and morphological content, rather than fragmenting the poetic line or interweaving it directly into the prose explanation.
- Introductory overviews: He commits to opening nearly every grammatical chapter with an introductory overview (tamhid) outlining foundational definitions, exclusions, and the underlying rationales—both semantic and formal—for grammatical rules.
- Evidence and citation: The commentary relies on clear, accessible phrasing and draws upon the doctrines of earlier grammarians without rigid partisanship toward a single grammatical school, though reflecting the prevailing strength of the Basran tradition. It integrates numerous textual proofs from Quranic verses, prophetic traditions, and classical Arabic poetry to substantiate syntactic variations and cases.
Critique and Manuscripts
A modern critical assessment of the commentary noted minor grammatical and linguistic oversights, largely where the author followed earlier commentators. These include treating the canonical reading of وَإِنَّ كُلًّا لَمَّا لَيُوَفِّيَنَّهُمْ with a lightened in (Surah Hud: 111) as an anomalous (shadhdh) reading, parsing ma following lakin as a preventative particle (kaffa) rather than a relative pronoun—an oversight also shared by Ibn Hisham al-Ansari and al-Ushmuni—and prefixing the definite article to ba'd (al-ba'd).
Manuscripts of the work include a copy of 254 folios preserved in the Ahmet III Library in Turkey, of which a microfilm copy is held at the Islamic University of Madinah.
Modern Editions
The work was edited by Muhammad ibn 'Awad ibn Muhammad al-Sahli based partly on his doctoral dissertation and published by Adwa' al-Salaf in Riyadh in two volumes.
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