The Nukhbah of Ibn Hajar Al-‘Asqalānī

The Hāfidh Imām and Master of the Shāfi’ī Madh’hāb was the Imām of the Muhaddithīn by consensus. He began writing when he was 23 years of age after becoming a Master and Polymath in the Sciences that matter. When he was 23, he began authoring in Hadīth. His magnum opus, the Fat’h, which is truly the most read and accepted Shar’h of the Sahīh of Imām Al-Bukhāri took him 25 years to write, a task which he took to after he was 44 years of age.

Ibn Hajar  rahimahullāh  authored the Nukhbah to serve as the final composition of the Science of Mustalih hence his choice of the title: Nukhbatu Al-Fikar Fī Mustalih Ahli Al-Athar (The Best Selection of the Thoughts On the Terminologies of the Masters of Narrations). It should be known that the Imām did not author the book in his early and young ages. He authored it after he crossed the forty years mark and was really adept and thorough in the choices he made on this matter after filtering all the books that have been authored by the Masters of the Science before him.

As a crown to the Nukhbah, Imām Ibn Hajar followed the Nukhbah with a Shar’h from himself and titled it Nuzhatu An-Nadhar.

Our Shaykh Muhammad Al-Hasan Walad Al-Dadduw  hafidhahullah  said in his Sharh of the Nukhbah that a student of Knowledge who perfected the Nukhbah and its Sharh had very little left to master in the Science of Mustalih.

Ensure to make efforts to its learning under a Shaykh and a mastery of its meanings.

Bārakallāhu fīkum
Jazākumullāhu Khayran