Ithaf al-Dhaki al-Nabih bi-Jawab ma Yaqul al-Faqih
- Author died
- 1252 AH
- Editions
- T Istanbul
Ithaf al-Dhaki al-Nabih bi-Jawab ma Yaqul al-Faqih (Gift to the Intelligent and Discerning in Answering What the Jurist Asks) is a legal treatise by the Hanafi jurist Ibn Abidin (d. 1252 AH / 1836 CE) addressing a complex juristic riddle regarding conditional divorce formulated through temporal particles relative to Ramadan .
Background and Purpose
The treatise is dedicated to resolving a well-known legal riddle (lughz) phrased in verse regarding the determination of the exact month in which a conditional divorce (ta‘liq al-talaq) takes effect :
ما يقول الفقيه أيده الله ... ولا زال عنده الإحسان
في فتى علق الطلاق بشهر ... قبل ما بعد قبله رمضان
"What says the jurist—may God support him and may beneficence ever remain with him—concerning a youth who tied divorce to a month: before that after before which is Ramadan?"
Ibn Abidin notes that previous Hanafi authorities had addressed this problem with varying degrees of brevity and detail, while non-Hanafi scholars had recorded additional variations . He composed the work to assemble, explain, and systematize all potential linguistic readings and their corresponding legal outcomes .
Method and Legal Analysis
The core analysis pivots on the grammatical classification of the particle mā (ما) and permutations of the directional time adverbs qabla ("before") and ba‘da ("after") :
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Redundant Particle (mā zā’idah / mulghāh): When mā is treated as an extra, syntactically non-governing element, the verse yields eight permutations . The governing rule establishes that whenever qabla and ba‘da are juxtaposed, they cancel each other out—since every month is both after the one before it and before the one after it . Consequently:
- Pure repetitions of qabla result in Dhu al-Hijjah .
- Pure repetitions of ba‘da result in Jumada al-Akhirah .
- Permutations where two instances of qabla remain result in Shawwal .
- Permutations where two instances of ba‘da remain result in Sha'ban .
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Relative or Descriptive Particle (mā mawṣūlah or nakirah mawṣūfah): When mā is parsed as a relative pronoun or a qualified indefinite noun in the genitive construct (iḍāfah), another eight permutations arise . Under this paradigm, the rulings shift: pure qabla designates Shawwal, pure ba‘da designates Sha'ban, and the mixed variations assign the divorce to either Dhu al-Hijjah, Jumada al-Akhirah, Shawwal, or Sha'ban depending on which adverbs precede and follow mā .
Sources and Transmission
In structuring his arguments, Ibn Abidin draws upon earlier legal and grammatical authorities:
- Ibn al-Humam in Fath al-Qadir and Zayn ibn Nujaym in al-Bahr al-Ra'iq (transmitting from Taqi al-Din al-Shumunni’s commentary on al-Nuqayah) .
- Ali ibn Ghanim al-Maqdisi's commentary on Nazm al-Kanz .
- Al-Ushmuni’s commentary on al-Majmu‘, citing a ruling issued by Ibn al-Hajib in Egypt .
- A treatise by Taqi al-Din al-Subki and the verse commentary of Badr al-Din al-Ghazzi, the Shafi'i mufti of Damascus, both of which Ibn Abidin examined from holographic manuscripts .
Ibn Abidin later summarized the conclusions of this treatise and versified its rules in his seminal legal commentary Radd al-Muhtar ala al-Durr al-Mukhtar . The text was published as part of his collected essays (Majmu‘at Rasa’il Ibn ‘Abidin), appearing in print in Damascus (1301 AH) and Istanbul (1325 and 1345 AH) .
Answer updated