The Risālah of Ibn Abī Zayd

The City of Qayrawān was a seat of Knowledge and Ulamā and a Citadel from where sound Ilm diffused around the World. In it’s golden days, it was seen as the fourth most important City of Islām after Makkah, Madīnah and Quds. That was because of it’s prominence as a City of Ulamā, Piety and Jihād.

Hundreds of thousands of Mujahidin marched from Qayrawān in the liberation of most of North and West Africa for it was founded by the Mujāhid Sahābī ‘Uqbah bn Nāfi’  radiyallāhu ‘anhu  50 years after the Hijrah during the era of Mu’āwiyyah. ‘Uqbah was known for his valour and liberation of most of the North African Cities. So disciplined and dedicated was he to the Cause of Jihād that when he reached the farthest cities of Africa and at the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, Imām Ibn Al-Athīr quoted him in Al-Kāmil Fi At-Ta’arīkh to have said:

“My Lord! If it were not for this Ocean, I would have continued as a Mujāhid on your Path over the Lands. O Allāh! Bear witness that I have exerted the most of efforts and were it not for this Ocean, I would have continued in the Land fighting those that have disbelieved in you until other than You is not worshipped.”

In the City of Qayrawān, he had founded a Masjid that was the centre of learning and remained centuries after him to this very Day.

Of the Stallions of Ilm and Icons of Piety in Qayrawān was the Pious Imam, the Polymath and Erudite Scholar, Abū Muhammad ‘Abdullah bn Abī Zayd Al-Qayrawānī – rahimahullāh. He was known as Māliku As-Saghīr and the Imām of the People of Maghrib.

He was born 310 years in the City of Qayrawān and was dedicated to Ilm and it’s seeking.

Qādī ‘Iyyādh said about him:

“He attained authority in the matters of the Dīn and the Dunya and many travelled to him from all the lands. His students were brilliant and excelled and many took knowledge from him. He was responsible for summarizing the Madh’hab about which he filled the lands with so many writings. he studied deeply from the Ulamā of Qayrawān and relied most on Abū Bakr Ibn Al-Libād. He also took from Muhammd Ibn Masrūr Al-Hajjām and Al-‘Assāl. He performed the Hajj and studied from Abū Sa’īd bn Al-‘A’arābī…”

He was known for the authorship of many books. Of them are An-Nawādiru Wa Az-Ziyādāt, Al-‘Utbiyya and many others. The most widely known of them was his Ar-Risālah which he wrote while he was 17 years of Age according to our historians.

This book is so blessed that most Mālikī writings of authority are centered around it, ranging from Commentaries to summaries, from Poetical rendering to footnotes, and from commentaries on summaries of it, to further elucidations on such summaries.

You have not studied anything of the Mālikī Madh’hab without a study of the Risālah.

Get a Teacher who has mastered it’s meanings and sit down to learn the Risālah. In it are pearls of knowledge and the Barakāt that are hardly found elsewhere.

We ask Allāh for Guidance and Tawfīq amīn.

Bārakallāhu Fīkum
Jazakumullāhu Khayran.