Umdat al-Talib li-Nayl al-Ma'arib
- Author died
- 1051 AH
- Editions
- Mu’assasat al-Jadīd al-Nāfi‘ lil-Nashr wa-al-Tawzī‘
Umdat al-Talib li-Nayl al-Ma'arib (The Reliance of the Student for Attaining Objectives) is an abridged manual of Hanbali jurisprudence authored by the Egyptian scholar Mansur ibn Yunus al-Bahuti (d. 1051 AH / 1641 CE) as an introductory primer for beginner students .
Composition and Purpose
The full title of the work is Umdat al-Talib li-Nayl al-Ma'arib fi al-Fiqh ala al-Madhhab al-Ahmad al-Amthal Madhhab al-Imam Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Hanbal . Al-Bahuti completed its writing after the afternoon prayer on Friday, 20 Shawwal 1050 AH, approximately seven months before his death in Rabi' al-Thani 1051 AH, making it his final authored work . In his preface, he noted that he composed this concise legal summary in response to requests from students needing an accessible text for beginners .
Method and Content
The book covers fundamental legal questions across the standard chapters of jurisprudence . It is longer than Ibn Balban's Akhsar al-Mukhtasarat and incorporates additional rulings not present in Musa al-Hajjawi's Zad al-Mustaqni', while omitting textual proofs in accordance with the convention of beginner primers . It is notably distinguished by its inclusion of prescribed supplications for prayer, funerals, the breaking of fasts, and the pilgrimage . In establishing the school's relied-upon positions, al-Bahuti followed Ibn al-Najjar al-Futuhi, while employing a lucid style resembling that of al-Hajjawi .
Reception and Scholarly Works
The manual came to be regarded as one of the standard foundational texts for beginners in the late Hanbali curriculum . Abd al-Qadir ibn Badran stated that an instructor teaching beginner Hanbali students is religiously duty-bound to start with either Akhsar al-Mukhtasarat or al-Bahuti's al-Umdah . Ibn Badran also erroneously referred to the book's title in his al-Madkhal as Umdat al-Raghib .
Several scholars composed commentaries and derivative works on the text:
- Commentaries: Uthman ibn Qaid al-Najdi (d. 1097 AH) wrote a line-by-line interwoven commentary entitled Hidayat al-Raghib li-Sharh Umdat al-Talib, completed in Shawwal 1095 AH and revised in 1096 AH . Ahmad ibn Awad al-Mardawi later wrote a supercommentary on it entitled Fath Mawli al-Mawahib ala Hidayat al-Raghib . Abd Allah ibn Abd al-Rahman ibn Bassam abridged Ibn Qaid's commentary under the title Nayl al-Ma'arib fi Tahdhib Sharh Umdat al-Talib, published in four parts in two volumes in 1407 AH .
- Versification: Salih ibn Hasan al-Bahuti (d. 1121 AH) rendered the text into a didactic poem of roughly 3,000 verses titled Wasilat al-Raghib li-Umdat al-Talib li-Nayl al-Ma'arib .
The work has been published both as an independent volume—including an edition edited by Ahmad ibn Salih al-Suwayan (Riyadh, 1418 AH / 1998 CE) and another by Mutlaq al-Jasir (Kuwait, 1431 AH / 2010 CE)—and alongside its commentary Hidayat al-Raghib .
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