Love for the Reliance -> Switch to shafi'i?

[Al-Faruqi]

I have access to shafi'i madhhab through the Reliance/Maqasid and one more German book, but no access to any reliable scholars in my area (neither shafi'i nor hanafi). I'm experiencing hardships(/waswasa?) because of often/constantly having bleedy wounds (not enough for being ma'dhur, but enough to disturb my life, I know the rulings concerning this bleeding well enough).

I have many different hanafi fiqh books from Turkish, South-African, Pakistani and other backgrounds and often I get different answers on the same question from them. Of course in terms of basic salah they state the same, but concerning deeper questions they have diverging views. Furthermore I find most of these books to be either weirdly translated/written/organized, often lacking of Arabic transcription and/or the original Arabic text, lacking of discussion concerning certain crucial topics etc..

The thing is that the more I read the Reliance the more I'm absorbed by the clearcut rulings, the concise texts and the discussions concerning many important/interesting topics where I formerly used to search the web or Sunnipath.com to get information on. (Sects, Aqeeda, Taqlid, Taswwuf etc.) I really love this book because I feel it to be like a real guide which gives the reader the ability to practice upon from birth to death, written in good language. Furthermore knowing that the author is an acomplished shaykh of tasawwuf seems to attract me even more. What I really like is that this book really covers all I need to know and even more but still within a simple book not exceeding 1300 pages!

I don't know if it would be reasonable to change from Hanafi to Shafi'i in this case.
Thinking that I' currently taking my hanafi knowledge from Sunnipath.com, 5-6 different books and this forum it wouldn't be a great move to switch from 5-6 books (hanafi) to 2 books of fiqh (shafi'i)?

Advise needed ..

[a_muslim_bro]

I have access to shafi'i madhhab through the Reliance/Maqasid and one more German book, but no access to any reliable scholars in my area (neither shafi'i nor hanafi). I'm experiencing hardships(/waswasa?) because of often/constantly having bleedy wounds (not enough for being ma'dhur, but enough to disturb my life, I know the rulings concerning this bleeding well enough).

I have many different hanafi fiqh books from Turkish, South-African, Pakistani and other backgrounds and often I get different answers on the same question from them. Of course in terms of basic salah they state the same, but concerning deeper questions they have diverging views. Furthermore I find most of these books to be either weirdly translated/written/organized, often lacking of Arabic transcription and/or the original Arabic text, lacking of discussion concerning certain crucial topics etc..

The thing is that the more I read the Reliance the more I'm absorbed by the clearcut rulings, the concise texts and the discussions concerning many important/interesting topics where I formerly used to search the web or Sunnipath.com to get information on. (Sects, Aqeeda, Taqlid, Taswwuf etc.) I really love this book because I feel it to be like a real guide which gives the reader the ability to practice upon from birth to death, written in good language. Furthermore knowing that the author is an acomplished shaykh of tasawwuf seems to attract me even more. What I really like is that this book really covers all I need to know and even more but still within a simple book not exceeding 1300 pages!

I don't know if it would be reasonable to change from Hanafi to Shafi'i in this case.
Thinking that I' currently taking my hanafi knowledge from Sunnipath.com, 5-6 different books and this forum it wouldn't be a great move to switch from 5-6 books (hanafi) to 2 books of fiqh (shafi'i)?

Advise needed ..

You mentioned that you do not have reliable sources. If there is a local masjid that you frequently attend that would be a good place to start. The mashur opinion within the Hanafi Madhab is what you need, see if you can obtain copies of Nur al Idah, or Al Hidayah which I believe state the mashur view.
Of course one can change madhabs but it should not be based on ones nafs.
If you cannot find an scholar to help than if you really feel more at peace of mind within the Shafi'i school than study it and stick with it.

http://qa.sunnipath.com/issue_view.a...=3393&CATE=186
http://qa.sunnipath.com/issue_view.a...=3846&CATE=263

Wasalaam.

[alfatiha]

books don't teach you things. people does. learn from people, not from books. this is how the religious knowledge being passed on.

[hope1]

Assalamu alaikum brother,
I don't know if you ever looked at Beheshti Zewar but it is very similar to Reliance in terms of topics it covers and some of the issues are more in depth. If you want you can try it.

[Ali al-Hanafi]

Assalamu alaikum brother,
I don't know if you ever looked at Beheshti Zewar but it is very similar to Reliance in terms of topics it covers and some of the issues are more in depth. If you want you can try it.

I was just about to suggest the same thing.

[hope1]

I was just about to suggest the same thing.

Assalamu alaikum,
In the same way this brother is in love with the Reliance I am also in love with Beheshti Zewar. No book is perfect but Beheshti Zewar has direct answers to complicated masalas. They Moulana Thanawi has written the masalas seems as though they were written exactly for the questions people have. It covers many areas including Reformation of the Heart and how to control the nafs and covers ahadith on many Islamic aspects. And he was a great sufi and direct khalifa of Haji ImdadUllah. I can safely say no other 'alim in the 20th century had such thorough knowledge of all the branches of Islamic sciences as he did.

[Al-Faruqi]

Barak Allah feekum for your many replies.

I ordered Bahishti Zewar and it's shipping now insha Allah. I saw that there are two versions so I chose the one which has more pages, but it seems to be for females, is this the wrong book for me or will the female version also be ok for me and give rulings for male questions?

Let's see, if I find B. Zewar to be each satisfactory as the Reliance I'll stay with Hanafi insha Allah.

[alfatiha]

here's the online version (I believe) of Behishti Zewar
http://www.jamiaashrafia.org/fiqh1.php

[hope1]

Barak Allah feekum for your many replies.

I ordered Bahishti Zewar and it's shipping now insha Allah. I saw that there are two versions so I chose the one which has more pages, but it seems to be for females, is this the wrong book for me or will the female version also be ok for me and give rulings for male questions?

Let's see, if I find B. Zewar to be each satisfactory as the Reliance I'll stay with Hanafi insha Allah.

Assalamu alaikum,
That's the right one. Even though it was initially written for females it is still relevant for males. There are some aspects which are culturally specific to India - so just skip that. When you read some rulings the examples are pretty specific - but try to look at the overall principle instead of focusing on the example.