Any idea when Turath Publishing's translation of Lubab sharh al kitab is coming out?

[Nawawi619]

As Salamu Alaykum


Does anyone have any idea when the translation of Lubab Sharh al Kitab al Quduri is coming out from Turath Publishers?

I've been told by the publishers last year that it is coming out in December of 2007. So far I haven't seen it. All I keep seeing is the cover design of the book in the publisher booklet and on their site but no book and its been forthcoming for like 3 years or more already.

On this forum, some brothers were saying it wont be coming out until probably middle of 2008 and that its multivolume.

Can I get a straight honest answer from those who have inside info from Turath when this book is coming out?

I can understand that translating, editing, refining, etc takes a whole deal of time and money but when one is told that it will be out soon and it doesn't, it gets kind of frustrating.

In other words, an honest assessment, When is the translation of Lubab sharh al kitab coming out?

[Travelleress]

Someone please reply insha Allah... I would like to know the same thing...

[Nu'ayman ibn Amr]

I don't think it's fair to give a release date. These things are unpredictable. When the work is done, it will be released

the 'Ulama who are working on it are doing a very thorough job. May Allah award them the best of rewards.

One thing for sure is that Turath will be releasing other books before Al-Lubab.

[Nawawi619]

As Salamu Alaykum



I totally agree that its unfair to put out a release date, but the fact of the matter is I received e mails from Turath Publishing themselves stating that the book should come out by the end of the year (this was back in November 2007). So with that I was assuming December of 2007. Nothing happened.

Several years back around the time shortly after the Muwatta of Imam Muhammad ash Shaybani came out with Turath, I asked when (at that time it wasnt called Lubab sharh al Kitab, it went under the title of the basic text Mukhtasar al Quduri) they said paraphrasing, sometime next year, so I'm thinking 2006.

I patiently waiting all throughout 2006 and 2007 only to see other books, mostly hadith books come out (I personally feel the laymen doesnt need more hadith books. Translated hadith works have already caused much harm (ie mostly to the do-it-yourself Islam folks) for laymen in being further lost in sacred knowledge (Hadith is a ocean of knowledge relegated to the ulama and masters of hadith).

What lay Muslims need right now in my opinion, is more classical works of fiqh translated along with their commentaries coupled with classes (like sunnipath) to provide qualified instructions of these texts. So I totally disagreed with Turath when they came out first with the Muwatta of Imam Muhammad before they came out with Quduri, and further disagreed with them when they came out with Kitab al Athar.

Furthermore, when I converted back in 1998, the only classical works translated with good quality was Reliance of the Traveller and al Maqasid. The majority of Hanafi works at the time were published in India or Pakistan and were riddled with misprints, bad quality, mistakes, etc. There was practically nothing in the Maliki school other than Kinko copy translation drafts from Sh Hamza Yusuf and Aisha Bewley's stuff (which her translation of Risala, when I went over that text with a Brother who studied the book in Mauritania, had many mistakes in the text).

To much dismay, only NOW is Shaykh Hamza and Zaytuna beginning to probably publish al Akhdari and ibn Ashir's texts but no date is given. Two texts used primarily by children in Mauritania taking over 10 years to publish! It only took Shaykh Nuh Keller only 6 years to translated and publish Reliance and that book is over 1200 pages long!


As a Muslim who works for a very large Muslim civil rights organizations, I come into contact all the time with Muslims from various masajid in my area. While we traditional Sunni Muslims are dragging our behinds in getting to the people quality basic texts that cover our fard al ayn, the Muslims in our masajid are going through the do-it-yourself islam and using fiqh us sunnah as their fiqh work.

Alhamdulillah though, I do give credit to the Hanafis for coming out with basic yet quality translations and fiqh works that suit the needs of the lay Muslim in the west who are not yet proficient enough to go through matun in Arabic alone. I have Ustadh Faraz Rabbani's very concise work on Hanafi fiqh, Sh Nadwi's excellent al Fiqh al Islami according to the Hanafi School, Al Hidaya volume 1 by Amal press (although I wished they included the arabic text along with the translation), and I just ordered Sidi Wesam Charkawi's translation of Nur al Idah.

Now you might wonder what is a Shafi'i student doing with all these Hanafi books? Well I do want to study Hanafi fiqh but also, more importantly, many of my staff and interns at my office are primarily Hanafi yet have a hard time finding texts that can suit their needs (they dont like the indo-pak published materials). So there is a real need here.

My wish list for the publishers out there would be this:

1) quality translations of the basic matun for the Hanafi, Maliki, and Shafi'i schools (ie the basic books widely accepted as being authoritative for the respective school along with exerpts from the commentaries of such works)

2) for my madhhab in particular, a revised annotated translation of Minhaj at Talibin (the earlier work was translated by a guy named Howard who translated the work from the French translation of the arabic. I have the book and its riddled with mistakes) along with exerpts from the super commentary of Shirwani/ibn Hajar al Haytami and Imam Ramli (using Shaykh Nuh's Reliance translation format arabic facing english, interlinear commentary)

3) as a long term project which will require much resources and scholars to work on, proof text classical works for the Hanafi, Maliki, and Shafii schools. This will be of course multi volume and intended for use by educated laymen and scholars who need to look up the proofs for their respective schools (example al Majmu' for the shafi'i school)


I know this is venting and I apologize if I sound offensive. I am just making observations of the problems I see in the macro sense. Wa Llahu ta'ala Alim wa Hasbunallahu wa ni'ma al Wakil

[StudentofIslam]

I apologise if there have been any misconceptions about the release dates of many of the works. Insha'Allah I believe it to be keeness of the publisher and the readers that led to unrealistic dates being given for many of the works, however as you may be aware that a lot of hard work goes into these works and even though the translation may have taken place, checking the translation, editing, verifying sources, typeetting etc take a huge chunk of the time and often are the reasons for delays in books being published.

All that is requested is that everyone makes duas that these works come out soon.

Alhamdulillah the forthcoming books are many and Insha'Allah will be published soon. I hope that in 2008 four more books will come out, and May Allah make it easy for us.

[Ma'ruf]

...and Aisha Bewley's stuff (which her translation of Risala, when I went over that text with a Brother who studied the book in Mauritania, had many mistakes in the text).

Really? That's a concern since a lot of people rely on her works. Can you please point out some of these mistakes? Do you mean grammatical mistakes, spelling mistakes, errors in fiqh, what exactly?

[numanthabit]

Student of Islam: "Alhamdulillah the forthcoming books are many and Insha'Allah will be published soon. I hope that in 2008 four more books will come out, and May Allah make it easy for us."

2008 is almost over, and no books have come out yet. I would really like to know when these books will be released. Does anyone have realistic dates?

[Nawawi619]

Really? That's a concern since a lot of people rely on her works. Can you please point out some of these mistakes? Do you mean grammatical mistakes, spelling mistakes, errors in fiqh, what exactly?

As Salamu Alaykum


Here are some examples for her translation of Risala ibn Abi Zayd:


3.3c it should read Places where it is disliked to pray instead of forbidden


3.3c7 [in the commentary, last paragraph where it cites Imam ibn Habib's position] According to the Mauritanian Maliki ulama (who are very strict in the mashhur of the malilki school) say its unlawful not disliked. Ibn Habib's position is considered a weak position.


12.7e The heading is correct but cross out the entire commentary and the text should read as

If a woman menstruates with only 4 rakats or less from the day (dhuhr and asr) or for three rakats or less from the night, she only has to make up the first of the two prayers


There are others but I haven't studied the entire text. That is why its important to study with a teacher who studied the book so he or she can point out the mistakes of the translator or even the publisher.


Wa Llahu Alim