Matn al-Ashmawiyya
- Author died
- 950 AH
- Editions
- Sharikat al-Shamarlī lil-Ṭab‘ wa-al-Nashr wa-al-Adawāt al-Kitābiyyah
Matn al-Ashmawiyya (متن العشماوية) is an introductory legal primer on Islamic ritual worship (‘ibādāt) according to the Maliki school of jurisprudence, authored by the Egyptian scholar Abd al-Bari al-Ashmawi (d. 10th century AH / 16th century CE) .
Author and Composition
The work is formally titled al-Muqaddima al-Ashmawiyya or al-Risala al-Ashmawiyya fi al-Ibadat . Its author was Abu al-Naja Abd al-Bari ibn Ahmad ibn Abd al-Ghani ibn Atiq al-Ashmawi al-Rifa'i al-Qahiri al-Azhari, a Maliki jurist originating from the village of Ashmawa in Egypt . In the opening lines of the text, al-Ashmawi notes that he composed the manual at the request of friends who asked him to prepare an accessible introduction to jurisprudence according to the school of Imam Malik ibn Anas .
Structure and Contents
Comprising approximately thirty pages in traditional print formats, the text is arranged into concise thematic chapters detailing the rulings of purification, prayer, and fasting :
- Purification (Ṭahāra): Covers the nullifiers of minor ablution (nawāqiḍ al-wuḍūʾ), types of water permissible for purification, the obligatory acts (farāʾiḍ), sunnahs, and meritorious acts (faḍāʾil) of ablution (wuḍūʾ), major ritual washing (ghusl), and dry ablution (tayammum) .
- Prayer (Ṣalāh): Details the conditions of obligation and validity for prayer; its obligatory elements, sunnahs, meritorious acts, and disliked actions (makrūhāt); voluntary prayers (mandūbāt al-ṣalāh); invalidators of prayer (mufsidāt al-ṣalāh); and the rules governing the prostration of forgetfulness (sujūd al-sahw) . It further covers leading the prayer (al-imāma), the Friday congregational prayer (ṣalāt al-jumuʿa), and the funeral prayer (ṣalāt al-janāza) .
- Fasting (Ṣiyām): Addresses the establishment of the month of Ramadan, the requisite intention, permissible and disliked acts while fasting, conditions requiring make-up days (qaḍāʾ) or expiation (kaffāra), recommended voluntary fasts, and the nightly Ramadan prayers (qiyām Ramaḍān) .
Reception and Commentaries
Matn al-Ashmawiyya became a foundational instructional text for beginning students of Maliki jurisprudence . In the traditional curriculum at al-Azhar Mosque, Maliki students typically began their legal training with the commentary on al-Ashmawiyya before advancing to texts such as al-Muqaddima al-Izziyya, the Risala of Ibn Abi Zayd al-Qayrawani, Aqrab al-Masalik, and Mukhtasar Khalil .
Numerous scholars authored commentaries, supercommentaries, and versifications of the text, including:
- Al-Jawahir al-Zakiyya fi Hall Alfaz al-Ashmawiyya by Ahmad ibn Turki al-Maliki (fl. 992 AH), upon which Yusuf al-Safti (12th century AH) composed a widely studied supercommentary (ḥāshiya) .
- Al-Durar al-Saniyya ‘ala al-Muqaddima al-Ashmawiyya by Salih ibn Muhammad al-Shadhili al-Maghribi (Abu al-Raja, 13th century AH) .
- Al-Nafais al-Dariyya Sharh al-Ashmawiyya by al-Jirjawi al-Misri .
- Al-Mahasin al-Bahiyya ‘ala Matn al-Ashmawiyya by Abd al-Majid al-Sharnubi (d. 1348 AH / 1929 CE) .
- Al-Durar al-Bahiyya by Salih Abd al-Bari al-Ubbiy al-Zuhri .
- Ithaf Dhawi al-Himam al-Aliyya bi-Sharh al-Ashmawiyya by Abd al-Aziz ibn al-Siddiq al-Ghumari, a commentary dedicated to providing the scriptural and hadith evidences for the legal rulings without detailing juristic disputes .
- Al-Minah al-Samawiyya bi-Nazm al-Ashmawiyya, a poetic versification composed by Abd al-Latif ibn Sharaf al-Din al-Ashmawi al-Ansari, who also completed a prose commentary on his versification in Shawwal 1086 AH (1675 CE) .
Early printed editions of the text and its commentaries were issued in Egypt, including editions published at Bulaq and other Cairo presses in 1282, 1285, 1298, 1304, 1309, and 1310 AH .
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