by Mawlana Shaheer Pathan
Mukhtaṣar al-Qudūrī is the well-known work of Imam Abū al-Ḥusayn Aḥmad b. Muḥammad al-Qudūrī (428/1036). One source states that the Imam had authored the book for his son. Although the source’s reference does not support the claim, I have, nevertheless, used it as inspiration in addressing the novice student.1 I have used the rhetorical address of “my son!” to present this advice as Imām Qudūrī addressing his own son. Although he may not have been the first to organize topics in the way he did, (refer to ʿAllāmahʿAbd al-Rashīd al-Nuʿmānī’s Muqaddima-i Kitāb al-Āthār for more on this point.2) the tradition’s continuation of this naẓm (arrangement) reinforces the beauty of the “waṣiyyah”. The “waṣiyyah” is the final bequest of one passing on to the next world. Figuratively, it is also used for advice. Of course, the book is not an explicit waṣiyyah. This article presents advices and wisdoms using the naẓm of chapters and certain indicative phrases. Some of the naẓmī points are taken from the books of fiqh, although most of the material is not.
The Imam says: Son! The primary reason for your existence is to worship Allah. You must uphold the contract you had acknowledged in the ʿahd-i alast (The first covenant between Humankind and Allah referred to in the verse 7:172 of the Quran). The only purpose for the kawn (cosmos) is so that you fulfill the sharʿ (Divine command). Before you stand in the presence of the most Holy One, purify yourself of all filth, physical and metaphysical. This is part of your fiṭrah (innate nature), as you know, so keep yourself clean! Ṣalāh is a positive action for the body, ṣawm is a negative action for the body, zakat is for your lawāzim (to cleanse your wealth), and Ḥajj includes all of these. As you grow in kawn, you must also grow in sharʿ. So, you will have your personal ʿibādah, communal jamāʿah, then the greater ʿīd, and, finally, the international Ḥajj. Your ʿibādāt must reflect all of your kawnī faculties. Observe iḥtiyāṭ (caution) in your ʿibādāt, as the riḍā (pleasure) of the Contractor cannot be determined here.
In order to fulfill the obligations of the sharʿ and their higher forms, your kawn must be ensured. So what are your responsibilities in relation to the kawn? As the khalifah of Allah taʿālā, you must create society starting from the most fundamental level – the domestic phase. You must engage in the micro-takwīn and tadbīr. But before you can do that, you must learn how to support your own kawn. For this, you must learn the laws of financial cooperation.
You may deal with currency (natural or fiat), goods, or usufructs. You may work alone or you may work together (with or without agency), or with any combination of the above.
Here, the iḥtiyāṭ you observed in the ʿibādāt does not require the same level of stringency. This is because the riḍā of the contracting party can be determined very easily here. Of course, there exist objective standards so that no one’s will can overstep the bounds – this is because this door would lead to never-ending difference, which must be resolved by the ultimate riḍā of Allah: and to your lord is the end. So refrain from interest, khabīth items, deceit, and anything else that would normally lead to the absence of riḍā.
Avoid debts. They have only been allowed due to the natural ʿadam (nihility) associated with you. If you must, make sure to ensure the debt through either collateral or guarantorship.
Don’t view life as purely transactional. Be generous with your items through gifts (hibah) and usufructs (ʿāriyah). The greatest material gift you can build is an endowment (waqf).
Now you are ready to play your role in building society. This is the stage of nikāḥ. Take care of all relationships, both those fixed by the Divine riḍā and those formed by yours. Don’t neglect the relationships of patronage (walāʾ) as your manumission is, in reality, infusing life within the mawālī (patrons).
By now you know that the mumkin (temporal world) is deficient. Life is about making mistakes. The beauty of your contract with Allah is that not only does he help you avoid mistakes, and then overlook them, but he also helps you correct them. In the previous stage of ʿibādah, this consists of qaḍāʾ al-ṣalāh, sajdat al-sahw, kaffārah, and jināyāt. This is in between you and Allah. As for wrongdoings that occur between the slaves, Allah taʿālā, through the khilāfah, wills for usto implement justice as much as is possible for the mumkin. Of course, true justice is impossible for other than al-ʿAdl (The All-Just), but His justice requires you to take action here. This is the stage of qaḍāʾ (judiciary). You will have to deal with all types of injustice: those that relate to Allah, those that relate to his slaves, and those that relate to both. Sometimes, you will deal with normal cases that do not relate to injustice. In either case, you must listen carefully to the statements brought to you, be they admission or testimony. To the best of your ability, try to reignite lost riḍā through ṣulḥ (reconciliation). Otherwise, be firm in judgment. Be patient, as conflicts are part and parcel of life. This is why I had brought the chapters of interdiction, settlement (ṣulḥ), admission (iqrār), and then the chapters of aberration, namely, usurpation (ghaṣb), lost items (luqṭah), lost children (laqīṭ), lost people (mafqūd), runaway slaves (ābiq), and hermaphrodites (khunthā) all within the chapters of cooperation.
But son! Do not let the difficulties of life weather you down. Stick to the ʿibādāt and take care of your kawn (health). This is why I remind you of ashribah (drinks), ṣayd (hunting), and dhabāʾiḥ (slaughter).
Once you have spent your life in ʿibādah and tadbīr (planning), it is time to go. Son! The best way to die is to not die. This is shahādah (martyrdom). You must prepare your entire life for this moment. But what is shahādah? The true shahīd (martyr) is not he who flees from the problems of this world – which you have come to know very well – rather, it is he who wishes to meet his rabb while he is rāḍī with him. This is the ultimate “happiness” that would cause even the jannatī to wish return.3 The shahīd is he who sees the riḍā of Allah and implements it at every stage of both his own life and that of society. Not only does he wish to procure the divine riḍā for himself, he wishes that it be granted to all.
And once you are no more, your life’s kawnī material will be distributed to those you have left behind. So make sure to prepare enough of the sharʿī provision that can last you there.
This is what I hope for you. In order to understand the riḍā of Allah taʿālā, I have alluded to its principles. This will help you navigate any new issue that will, most definitely, arise as you grow.
The book begins with “O you who believe…” – the only āyah whose mustadll is quoted in full4. This is to remind you that you may only begin to implement the riḍā of Allah taʿālā in the external after you have done the same in the internal. Second, know that the primary source of knowledge of Allah taʿāla’s riḍā is the Qurʾān. Then, I mention to you the linguistic discussion of “our imams”. I do this to teach you that in order to understand the naṣṣ you must master the language of the naṣṣ with all of its nuance. But, of course, in order to understand the naṣṣ, Arabic alone is not sufficient; you must know the riḍā through the most special Prophet, whom Allah taught His riḍā. For this I mentioned the ḥadīth narrated by Mughīrah b. Shuʿbah. This is one of only a few aḥādīth mentioned in the entirety of the book. I mention only the Companion here, to show that the gateway to the most special Prophetis the Companions. It is through them that we have our third source of riḍāʾī knowledge – ijmāʿ. Even their difference is ijmāʿ, enough to exclude any other opinion they did not hold. Allah taʿālā has eternally declared His riḍā of them. Let us return to “our imams”. I attribute us to them out of recognition and gratitude. They are the ones who have articulated and elucidated the above uṣūl (principles). You must take the imams as your own. The language they use is farḍ, wājib, sunnah, and ādāb. I have mentioned all of these points at the beginning of the book by way of allusion. But I have done so only at the beginning of the book so that you can begin to practice identifying them on your own.
So when you come across anything in your life (nawāzil) use the aforementioned methodology. This is your dīn: that you submit your riḍā to the riḍā of Allah taʿālā. So do your best and, then, at the end, say:
“And Allah knows best the truth”.
- Sāʾid Bakdash makes this claim in his introduction to his edition of al-Lubāb. Sāʾid Bakdāsh, Dirāsat ʿan al-Lubāb wa Mukhtaṣar al-Qudūrī, 3rd ed. (Madinah: Dār al-Sirāj, 1439/2017), 307. He quotes al-Jawāhir al-Muḍiyyah which states: “He authored, of works, the well-known Mukhtaṣar – and Allah, through it, benefited [such a large number] of people that cannot be enumerated – Sharḥ Mukhtaṣar al-Karkhī, al-Tajrīd in seven asfār comprising the issues of contention between our companions and Shāfiʿī, he began its dictation in the year 405. And, he has al-Taqrīb in a [single] volume, “The Issues of Contention among our Companions” in one volume, and a mukhtaṣar that he compiled for his son, and other than [these works].” Italics are mine. This shows that the “mukhtaṣar” that Imām Qudūrī wrote for his son was most likely a different work. Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Qādir b. Muḥammad al-Qurashī al-Ḥanafī, al-Jawāhir al-Muḍiyyah fī Ṭabaqāt al-Ḥanafiyyah, ed. ʿAbd al-Fattāḥ Muḥammad al-Ḥulw, 248. The later Kafawī states a similar expression: Maḥmūd b. Sulaymān al-Kafawī, Kitāb Aʿlām al-Akhyār min Fuqahāʾ Madhhab al-Nuʿmān al-Mukhtār, 1st ed. ed. by a group of scholars (Istanbul: Dār al-Irshād, 1438/2017), 192.
↩︎ - ʿAllāmah ʿAbd al-Rashīd al-Nuʿmānī, Muqaddimah Kitāb al-Āthār, 12. Abū al-Ḥusayn Aḥmad b. Muḥammad al-Qudūrī, Sharḥ Muhtaṣar al-Karkhī, 1st ed. ed. ʿAbd Allāh Nadhīr Aḥmad ʿAbd al-Raḥmān (Kuwait: Asfār, 1443/2022), 55 – Imām Qudūrī states:
ويدل عليه: أن الله تعالى ضمن حفظ الشريعة فأمر بتعلمها والتفقه فيها فأول من دون الفقه ووضع فيه كتابا ورتبه أبو حنيفة رحمه الله تعالى ويستحيل أن يضمن الله تعالى حفظ الشريعة ثم يكون المبتدئ بتدوينها على غير الحق
↩︎ - To understand this better listen to the Burdah series by Shaykh Amin Kholwadia. https://alqasimmedia.com/downloads/introduction-orientation-to-the-qasidah-al-burdah/
↩︎ - Imam Qudūrī references the āyat of Zakāt in the respective chapter, but its mustadall is not quoted in full.
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