Tahrir al-Aqwal fi Sawm al-Sitt min Shawwal
- Author died
- 879 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-Bashāʾir al-Islāmiyyah lil-Ṭibāʿah wa-al-Nashr wa-al-Tawzīʿ
Tahrir al-Aqwal fi Sawm al-Sitt min Shawwal (Clarification of Opinions on Fasting the Six Days of Shawwal) is a legal treatise written by the Hanafi jurist and hadith scholar Ibn Qutlubugha (802–879 AH / 1400–1474 CE) to examine the legal ruling, transmission, and merits of fasting six days in the month of Shawwal .
Background and Purpose
The treatise was written in response to debates in Cairo concerning the legal status of fasting the six days of Shawwal . A student, Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Tunbugha (also written Taybugha) al-Hanafi, searched Hanafi literature and brought to Ibn Qutlubugha a passage from the legal poem and commentary of Jalal al-Din al-Tabbani .
Al-Tabbani had claimed that fasting the six days consecutively or separately was disliked (makruh) according to Abu Hanifa, disliked consecutively according to Abu Yusuf, and disliked in all cases according to Malik . He additionally asserted that all hadiths regarding it were fabricated, that the obligation of Ramadan had abrogated all prior fasts, and that disapproval was the more correct view to prevent imitating the People of the Book in appending extra days to obligatory fasts . Ibn Qutlubugha composed the work to refute al-Tabbani's assertions, arguing that al-Tabbani had relied on weak interpretations, departed from the authoritative positions of the Hanafi school, and sought without sound proof to discourage a practice offering great reward .
Content and Arguments
Ibn Qutlubugha establishes the recommendation (istihbab) and permissibility of fasting the six days of Shawwal by surveying authoritative Hanafi references and hadith evidence . His primary arguments include:
- Hanafi doctrine: The claim of absolute dislike attributed to Abu Hanifa contradicts the established foundational transmissions (riwayat al-usul) of the school; references such as al-Muhit al-Burhani and al-Dhakhirah indicate that the sound and preferred position across later jurists is lack of dislike .
- Interpretation of Abu Yusuf's report: What was transmitted from Abu Yusuf regarding dislike concerned adjoining the fast directly to Ramadan without the mandatory separation of the day of Eid al-Fitr, or fasting on Eid day itself alongside five following days, as elucidated by al-Kasani in Bada'i al-Sana'i .
- Imitating the People of the Book: The rationale of fearing unlawful addition to an obligatory fast is nullified by the mandatory breach created by Eid al-Fitr, a day on which fasting is strictly prohibited .
- Consecutive and separated fasting: The treatise argues that the reward is attained whether the six days are kept consecutively or intermittently throughout Shawwal, because the prophetic wording is general and the numerical reward (30 days of Ramadan plus six days equals 36 days, multiplied tenfold to equal 360 days) equals fasting an entire year .
- Equivalence to continuous fasting: The comparison to perpetual fasting (sawm al-dahr) is not meant to imply hardship or the reprehensibility associated with fasting every day without break, but rather the attainment of abundant reward through an unburdensome practice .
Title and Manuscripts
The author designated the work as Tahrir al-Aqwal fi Sawm al-Sitt min Shawwal in the closing lines of the text . It is also cited under the alternate title Tahqiq al-Aqwal fi Siyam al-Sitt min Shawwal in bibliographical works, including al-Sakhawi's al-Daw' al-Lami' and Katip Celebi's Kashf al-Zunun .
Surviving manuscript copies include one in the library of the Prophet's Mosque in Medina (MS 7/80 majami', copied by Muhammad Muqim ibn Ibrahim al-Sindi al-Madani in 1161 AH) and another in the Arif Hikmat Library in Medina (MS 138 old / 75 new majami') . The text was edited by Abd al-Sattar Abu Ghuddah and published by Dar al-Basha'ir al-Islamiyyah in Beirut in 1422 AH / 2001 CE as part of the Liqa' al-Ashr al-Awakhir series (no. 26) , and was later collected in Ibn Qutlubugha's compiled treatises (Majmu'at Rasa'il al-Allamah Qasim ibn Qutlubugha) .
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