Sharh Umdat al-Fiqh - Ibn Taymiyya - Sifat al-Salah
- Author died
- 728 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-‘Āṣimah
Sharh Umdat al-Fiqh: Sifat al-Salah is the section dedicated to the description and performance of ritual prayer within the legal commentary authored by Ibn Taymiyya (661–728 AH / 1263–1328 CE) on the Hanbali jurisprudence manual Umdat al-Fiqh by Ibn Qudama (d. 620 AH / 1223 CE) .
Context and Scope
Ibn Taymiyya composed his commentary on Umdat al-Fiqh covering the sections on ritual worship (ʿibādāt), reaching near the end of the Book of Pilgrimage (Kitāb al-Ḥajj) without completing the rest of the legal manual . Classical biographical sources, beginning with his student Ibn Rushayyiq (d. 749 AH) and followed by Ibn Abd al-Hadi (d. 744 AH) in al-ʿUqūd al-Durriyya, Ibn al-Qayyim, al-Safadi (d. 764 AH), Ibn Shakir al-Kutubi (d. 764 AH), Ibn Rajab (d. 795 AH), and Mujir al-Din al-Ulaymi (d. 928 AH), recorded the work under the title Sharh al-Umdah as spanning four manuscript volumes . The section concerning prayer encompasses detailed discussions on the rulings, requisites, and procedural manner of performing the ritual prayer (ṣifat al-ṣalāh) .
Method and Reception
In his commentary, Ibn Taymiyya detailed the various transmitted narrations (riwāyāt) and interpretive stances (wujūh) within the Hanbali school, recording the positions of early Hanbali authorities, analyzing their textual evidences, and weighing between divergent legal opinions (tarjīḥ) . Later Hanbali jurists drew extensively from the work, citing Ibn Taymiyya's textual verifications and legal choices; among those who cited it were Ibn Muflih (d. 763 AH) in al-Furūʿ, Badr al-Din al-Zarkashi in his commentary on Mukhtaṣar al-Khiraqī, Burhan al-Din Ibn Muflih in al-Mubdiʿ, and al-Mardawi in al-Inṣāf .
Publication History
The preserved portions of Ibn Taymiyya's commentary were initially published in separate volumes edited by different scholars:
- Kitāb al-Ṭahārah (Ritual Purity), edited by Saud ibn Salih al-Utayshan and published by Maktabat al-Ubaykan in Riyadh (1413 AH) .
- The initial part of Kitāb al-Ṣalāh (covering from the beginning of prayer to the chapter on the etiquette of walking to prayer), edited by Khalid ibn Ali al-Mushayqih and published by Dar al-Asimah in Riyadh (1418 AH / 1997 CE) .
- Kitāb Sifat al-Ṣalāh (The Description of Prayer), edited as an independent monograph by Abd al-Aziz ibn Ahmad al-Mushayqih and published by Dar al-Asimah in Riyadh (1429 AH / 2008 CE) .
- Kitāb al-Ṣiyām (Fasting), edited by Zayid ibn Ahmad al-Nushayri and published by Dar al-Ansari in Riyadh (1417 AH / 1996 CE) .
- Kitāb al-Ḥajj wa-l-ʿUmrah (Pilgrimage), edited by Salih ibn Muhammad al-Hasan and published by Maktabat al-Haramayn in Riyadh (1409 AH / 1988 CE) .
A unified five-volume edition of the commentary was later issued within the series Āthār Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyya by Dar Ata'at al-Ilm and Dar Ibn Hazm (1440 AH / 2019 CE), in which the volume on prayer (al-Ṣalāh) was edited by Muhammad Ajmal al-Islahi .
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