Title : Sharḥ al-Jāmi῾ al-Ṣaghῑr
Author : Imām Fakhr al-Dῑn al-Ḥasan ibn Manṣūr al-Auzjandi al-Farghāni (d. 592 AH/1196 CE) – known as Qāḍῑkhān Editor: Dr. ῾Abd Allāh Nadhῑr Aḥmad
Genre : Ḥanafi fiqh
Publisher : Ismaeel Books (United Kingdom)
Year of publication : 1443/2022 (1st edition)
Number of volumes : 3
شرح الجامع الصغير للإمام قاضيخان ط. مكتبة إسماعيل
Published for the first time in three beautiful volumes by Ismaeel Books (UK) from Beirut, is the famous commentary of one of the most authoritative fuqahā̕ (jurists) of the ḥanafi legal school on the Al-Jāmi῾ al-Ṣaghῑr (الجامع الصغير) of Imām Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan al-Shaybāni, the student of the greatest imām – Abu Ḥanῑfah al-Nu῾mān. Al-Jāmi῾ al-Ṣaghῑr is one of the five pivotal and foundational texts of the ḥanafi legal school – all authored by Imām Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan.
Imām Qāḍῑkhān (or Qāḍi Khān) – d. 592 AH (1196 CE) – of Fergana, modern day Uzbekistan, also requires no introduction to scholars and students of the ḥanafi school.
رحمهم الله تعالى جميعاً ورضي عنهم
This coincides with the first ever publication of another commentary on Imām Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan al-Shaybāni's Al-Jāmi῾ al-Ṣaghῑr by another towering figure amongst the ḥanafi fuqahā῾ of the early centuries – Shams al-A̕immah Imām Sarakhsi – b. 400 AH (1009 CE). That commentary has been researched by Dr. Ertugrul Boynukalin and jointly published by Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı Yayinlari (Turkey) & Dār al-Rayāḥῑn (Beirut/Amman), the former – a part of a governmental department/ministry for religious affairs – has dedicated commendable resources for these projects in recent years.
This edition has been produced from just a single manuscript that has been preserved in Istanbul, and which is of an overall poor quality. The researcher-editor describes how the weakness of the copyist's Arabic is evident from the manuscript and how he had to fill in gaps using Imām Sarakhsi's most famous work, the 30-volume Al-Mabsūt, and other ḥanafi works.
It is amazing that we are seeing these monumental works of the guardians and defenders of the Dῑn and Sharῑ῾ah being published today, during our lifetime – in some cases (e.g., the text of Imām Karkhi incorporated in the commentary of Imām Qudūri) more than 1100 years after they were authored. There have been many such publications in recent years, and there are more expected in the coming years. May Allāh Most Gracious reward the great authors and those contemporary research scholars who are working so tirelessly on these projects.
Abu Asim Badrul Islam
Northampton, ENGLAND
12 Dhu 'l-Qa῾dah 1443/12 June 2022
Picture credit : https://x.com/Ismaeelbooksuk/status/1533214576057147395
