Khutbat al-Kitab al-Muammal lil-Radd ila al-Amr al-Awwal
- Author died
- 665 AH
- Editions
- Aḍwā’ al-Salaf
Khutbat al-Kitab al-Muammal lil-Radd ila al-Amr al-Awwal (The Prologue to the Hoped-For Book on Returning to the Primal State) is a legal treatise by the Damascene Shafi'i scholar and historian Abu Shama al-Maqdisi (d. 665 AH / 1267 CE) . Written as an extended introduction to an intended comprehensive work of comparative jurisprudence, it addresses legal methodology, the synthesis of law and prophetic traditions, the critique of blind imitation (taqlid), and adherence to foundational evidence .
Background and Purpose
Abu Shama recorded the work in his historical chronicle al-Mudhayyal 'ala al-Rawdatayn and placed it as the opening text of the first volume of his compendium al-Kitab al-Marqum fi Jumlat min al-'Ulum, in which he gathered multiple short treatises across two volumes . The text represents the major prologue (al-khutba al-kubra) to a projected comprehensive book entitled al-'Ilm al-Jami' bayn al-Fiqh wa-l-Athar (The Comprehensive Science Combining Jurisprudence and Tradition), in which Abu Shama intended to compile legal questions, their transmitted opinions, and their proofs, and identify the preponderant rulings (al-rajih) . Abu Shama noted that had this larger work been completed, it would have had no peer; he drafted several chapters for it, but died before completing the project .
Abu Shama explained that he aimed to stimulate scholarly inquiry and distinguish independent, verifying scholars from rigid imitators who consumed their efforts in partisan defense of school founders .
Content and Themes
The treatise laments the decline of scholarly precision and the widespread neglect of foundational legal reasoning in the author's era . It highlights the virtue of knowledge and the merits of the early mujtahid imams, emphasizing their dedication to spreading legal derivation based on the Quran and the Sunnah .
To argue against blind adherence to legal schools, Abu Shama cites statements from early authorities, particularly Imam al-Shafi'i, cautioning students against uncritical imitation . He documents al-Shafi'i's instructions transmitted by al-Rabi' ibn Sulayman that any juristic opinion conflicting with an authentic hadith must be abandoned in favor of the prophetic tradition . He also cites al-Muzani's opening remarks in his Mukhtasar, in which al-Muzani explicitly noted al-Shafi'i's prohibition against imitating him or anyone else .
Manuscripts and Publication History
Manuscript copies of the treatise survived in compilations of Abu Shama's works, including a copy at the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin (MS 3307) . Another manuscript, bearing Abu Shama's handwriting across numerous passages, was preserved at the Ministry of Religious Affairs in Hydra, Algiers, but was later lost . Many of Abu Shama's original manuscripts had been endowed to the library of al-Madrasa al-'Adiliyya al-Kubra in Damascus under the condition that they not leave the repository, and most were destroyed when the school burned in 699 AH / 1300 CE during the Mongol occupation .
The work was first printed in Cairo at Matba'at Kurdistan in 1328 AH / 1910 CE under the abridged title Mukhtasar Kitab al-Muammal lil-Radd ila al-Amr al-Awwal, prepared by Muhyi al-Din Sabri al-Kurdi and Muhammad Husayn Nu'aymi al-Kurdi, a title that inaccurately suggested it was an abridgment rather than an introduction . Muhammad Munir Agha al-Dimashqi reprinted it under the same title in Cairo within Majmu'at al-Rasa'il al-Muniriyya (vol. 2, pp. 20–39) between 1343 and 1346 AH (1924–1927 CE) . A later edition based on the Muniriyya text was issued by Maktabat al-Sahwa al-Islamiyya in Kuwait in 1404 AH / 1983 CE, edited by Salah al-Din Maqbul . Jamal 'Azzun subsequently prepared a critical edition using two complete manuscripts under its full title, published by Maktabat Adwa' al-Salaf in Riyadh in 1424 AH / 2003 CE .
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