Uyun al-Rasail wal-Ajwiba ala al-Masail
- Author died
- 1293 AH
- Editions
- Maktabat al-Rushd
Uyun al-Rasail wal-Ajwiba ala al-Masail (The Quintessence of Epistles and Answers to Inquiries) is a major compilation of theological treatises, juridical responsa, and letters authored by the Najdi Hanbali scholar Abd al-Latif ibn Abd al-Rahman Al al-Shaykh (1225–1293 AH / 1810–1876 CE).
Compilation and Authorship
The collection was not arranged or titled by Abd al-Latif Al al-Shaykh himself during his lifetime; rather, it was compiled, edited, and titled by his student Sulayman ibn Sahman (1266–1349 AH), who gathered his teacher's scattered epistles into a single corpus spanning around twenty quires (karrasa). Ibn Sahman supplied introductory notes summarizing the topic and merits of each epistle.
Contents and Structure
The primary text of the collection encompasses seventy-six epistles, with some manuscript traditions including twenty-one additional pieces in supplementary marginalia. The materials generally fall into three overarching categories:
- Theology and Creed: Treatises clarifying Sunni doctrine, the principles of tawhid, following the Sunnah (ittiba'), refuting polytheism (shirk) and religious innovations (bid'a), and elucidating the strict conditions, barriers, and definitions governing excommunication (takfir).
- Juridical Responsa: Practical legal rulings and fatwas answering specific inquiries on subsidiary matters of Islamic jurisprudence (furu').
- Political and Social Epistles: Documents concerning the internal tribulations (fitan) of the Second Saudi State in the late 13th century AH, including efforts to reconcile the disputing brothers Abdullah ibn Faysal and Saud ibn Faysal, exhortations regarding Ottoman military incursions into the region, and rhymed didactic poems (manzuma) documenting regional instability and tribulations.
Critical Reception and Transmission
Later scholars and editors, including Muhammad Rashid Rida and Ibrahim ibn Ubayd Al Abd al-Muhsin, praised the depth of scholarly insights contained in the collection while observing certain organizational limitations in Ibn Sahman's compilation. Because Ibn Sahman was visually impaired and dictated the transcriptions to a scribe, the compilation lacked strict chronological sequencing, omitted the dates of composition, frequently lacked the original query letters, and did not classify the epistles into thematic chapters.
The work was printed in Cairo under the editorship of Muhammad Rashid Rida as the entire third volume of the multi-volume compendium Majmu'at al-Rasail wal-Masail al-Najdiyya (Collection of Najdi Treatises and Inquiries), and numerous letters from it were later incorporated into the encyclopedic anthology al-Durar al-Saniyya fi al-Ajwiba al-Najdiyya. Original manuscript copies of the collection are preserved in Riyadh, including holdings at King Saud University Library and the Saudi Library.
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