Tanbihat ala Risalatayn lil-Shaykh Abi Bakr al-Jazairi
- Author died
- 1413 AH
- Editions
- Maktabat al-Ma‘ārif
Tanbihat ala Risalatayn lil-Shaykh Abi Bakr al-Jazairi (Notices on Two Treatises by Shaykh Abu Bakr al-Jazairi) is a critical polemical work by the Saudi scholar and jurist Hammud ibn Abdullah al-Tuwayjiri (1334–1413 AH / 1915–1993 CE) . The book presents a critical review and refutation of two treatises authored by Abu Bakr Jabir al-Jazairi concerning the signs of the Day of Judgment and the claimed foretelling of modern scientific and technological inventions in Islamic scripture .
Background and Composition
The work originated after Abu Bakr al-Jazairi prepared two treatises in manuscript form: al-Ahadith al-Nabawiyyah al-Sharifah fi A‘ajib al-Mukhtara‘at al-Hadithah (The Noble Prophetic Hadiths on the Wonders of Modern Inventions) and al-Laqatat fi Ba‘d ma Zahara lil-Sa‘ah min ‘Alamat (Snapshots of Some Signs of the Hour That Have Appeared) . Al-Jazairi sent his handwritten copies to Shaykh Abd al-Aziz ibn Abdullah ibn Baz for review and correction of potential errors . Ibn Baz transferred the manuscript to al-Tuwayjiri, who compiled a series of critical annotations pointing out doctrinal, exegetical, and hadith discrepancies .
Despite these annotations, the two treatises were published in a first edition in 1404 AH by Matba‘at al-Ma‘rifah (distributed by Maktabat al-Kulliyyat al-Azhariyyah) without incorporating al-Tuwayjiri's remarks or rectifying the identified errors . Al-Tuwayjiri also observed that in the printed edition, the titles of the two treatises had been inverted compared to the author's original manuscript . Consequently, al-Tuwayjiri published his Tanbihat as a standalone book to guide readers of the printed text to what he regarded as correct, citing page numbers corresponding to both the author's original manuscript and the published edition .
Structure and Content
The book is structured into sequential critical entries tracing the text of the two treatises:
- Critique of the First Treatise: Focuses on the interpretive projection of modern inventions onto Quranic verses and hadiths . Al-Tuwayjiri rejects al-Jazairi's assertion that the mention of tayran ababil in Surat al-Fil alludes to modern fighter jets carrying bombs, characterizing such interpretation as speaking on the Quran without knowledge . He also critiques interpreting the hadith on the dissemination of knowledge in the end times as predicting the radio, arguing that applying it to the emergence of printing presses and widespread publishing would be comparatively less forced . Furthermore, he refutes claims that descriptions of the Dajjal's speed refer to airplanes, citing established hadith reports describing the Dajjal riding a donkey with specific dimensions and arguing that the phenomena accompanying him are supernatural occurrences (khawariq al-‘adat) meant for divine trial rather than human inventions .
- Critique of the Second Treatise: Begins under a dedicated section heading (Fasl fi al-Tanbih ala al-Akhta' allati fi al-Risalah al-Thaniyah), addressing inaccuracies in hadith attribution, chain evaluation, and textual additions . Al-Tuwayjiri demonstrates the weakness of several reports relied upon by al-Jazairi, flags spurious textual additions not found in primary compilations such as the Musnad of Ahmad or Sahih Ibn Hibban, and corrects errors in source citations .
Reception
Later scholars evaluating contemporary writings on eschatology cited al-Tuwayjiri's Tanbihat as a primary critical rebuttal against artificial and strained interpretations (al-ta'wil al-muta‘assaf) that attempt to map weak or unestablished apocalyptic narrations onto modern technical discoveries .
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