Assalaamu ‘Alaykum Warahmatullaahi Wabarakaatuh
During the days of the decline of the mighty Seljuk Empire whose reigns of power covered much of the center of the Muslim world for over a century, Ulamaa of the time wondered what was going wrong with the Muslims and attempts after attempts, the Muslims failed from within themselves and from their without.
Imaam Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali, rahimahullaah, in the midst of that, after his spiritual journey and seclusions, looking into the state of the Ummah, diagnosed the Muslims as having to have abandoned the spirituality in most of their worships, authored a book which became a very important corpus in Muslim Literature from his time. He titled it ‘Ihya Ulumi Ad-Din’ (Reviving the Sciences of the Din).
He attempted to treat all aspects of the Din and struggled to marry between Sunni Islam and the mysticism of Sufism.
He divided his book into four volumes: the first on Ibaadaat, the Second on Mu’aamalaat, the third on the things that destroy the heart and the fourth on the things that rectify the heart.
Ulamaa appreciated the work and it spread across the Muslim world as far as the Qur’an, across all of the Madhaahib schools, to the extent that one of the Ulamaa is said to have said: “Had all the books in the Muslim Libraries been lost, and only the Ihya remained, that would have sufficed.”
However, in the Ihyaa are a lot of things that contradict the Aqidah of Islam, things that are statements of the people of misguidance and a lot of fabricated Ahaadith.
Qaadi Iyaad Al-Maaliki rahimahullaah said:
“And Shaykh Abu Hamid is a person of amazing narrations and scary writings. He went extreme in the Path of Tasawwuf and dedicated himself to propagating their school and became a caller to it and authored in its aid his popular writings about which he has been criticised on much of its contents and garnered negative reputations from many – Allah alone knows his intents. The executive order of the Sultan here in the Maghrib and the verdicts of the Fuqahaa ordained that they (his writings) be burnt. And that was carried out accordingly.”
Siyar A’alaami An-Nubalaa 19/327
Other Notable Ulamaa of his time and beyond criticised so many aspects of his writings to include the Ihyaa.
Of them is the Imaam Ibn Al-Jawzi alayhi rahmatullaah who, when requested by his students to place for them a book with which they could purify themselves and earn knowledge at the same time, made a revision of Al-Ihya and purified it of most of its excesses. He titled his revision ‘Minhaaju Al-Qaasidin’.
Imaam Muhammad Ibn Qudaamah Al-Maqdisi rahimahullaah in his attempt to present the Minhaaj to his students, made a summary of it while retaining its contents and ensuring that the original chaptering and divisions of the Ihyaa remains intact, titled his summary ‘Mukhtasar Minhaaju Al-Qaasidin’.
Knowing the dire need of these matters in our Ummah today, we will be, henceforth, presenting a summarized translation of the Mukhtasar of Ibn Qudaamah inshaaAllaah as our daily posts on Islam Node.
We seek Allah’s assistance and call upon our readers to please pay attention to them for the Believer cannot do without them while threading the dangerous tides of the waves of this world in this scary era.
Baarakallaahu feekum
Jazaakumullaahu khayran.
Yours Sincerely,
Admin
