Imām `Ala’ al-Din al-Haskafī’s masterpiece, Durr al-Mukhtār fi Sharh Tanwīr al-Absār is an excellent corpus written to guide the Hanafī Jurist and it was itself a commentary on Shamsuddīn At-Tamartāshī’s work Tanwīr Al-Absār an excellent Fiqh work on the Hanafī Madh’hab.
Due to the prevalence of the reliance of the Hanafīs on al-Haskafī’s masterpiece, there was a need to have a commentary that unbinds it’s knots and explain it’s terms. For this reason, Imām Ibn ‘Ābidīn wrote the Radd al-Muhtar ‘ala al-Durr al-Mukhtar (Guiding the Baffled to The Exquisite Pearl) which is an annotative commentary on al-Haskafī’s work. This commentary is considered till this day the most important source of the Hanafī Fiqh.
Imām Ibn ‘Ābidīn was Muḥammad Amīn ibn ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Aḥmad in ʿAbd ar-Raḥīm ibn Najmuddīn ibn Muḥammad Ṣalāḥuddin al-Shāmī – rahimahullāh and was born 1198 years after the Hijrah in the city of Dimashq. His family was a line of Ulamā that dates back to generations of Learned and Erudite Imāms in Hanafī Fiqh. Among his teachers were Shaykh Sa’īd Al-Hamawī Al-Qārī from whom he took the Qur’ān, Shaykh Shākir Al-‘Uqqād, Shaykh Ahmad Al’-‘Attār, and many others.
He excelled in his era and was the Authority of the Hanafī School and to him travelled many of the Hanafī Students and Scholars from around the Muslim World in his era.
He was an author of many books, among them the Raddu Al-Muh’tār and passed away 1252 years after the Hijrah after living a life full of ‘Ibādah and Ilm… Rahimahullāh.
And because the Raddu Al-Muhtār is an elucidate source of Hanafī choices, it is highly recommended for the Student of the Hanafī School.
Bārakallāhu Fīkum
Jazākumullāhu Khayran
