The author of the book in question is Mawlana Abu Sa'id Ghulam Mustafa as-Sindhi al-Qasimi.
He was the great Pakistani Muhaqqiq and Musnid, who devoted his life to spreading the works of the great Sindhi Masters. He published Sh. Akram Sindhi's Sharh on ibn Hajr's Nuzhah an-Nazr titled "Im'an an-Nazr" as well Allamah Ja'far Bubkani's beneficial Hanafi work titled "Al-Matanah fi al-Marammah an Al-Khizanah"
He passed away a few years ago, I an not sure exactly when.
His Hashiyah on Mukhtasar al-Quduri is probably the best available Hashiyah on Quduri, being the perfect aid for a student attempting to understand this important manual.
Instead of filling the Hashiyah with detail of little benefit, Mawlana kept the Hashiyah short, yet inclusive of everything important.
I advise every student studying Quduri, to acquire a copy of this work. It was printed years ago in Pakistan, then has been recently re-typeset and printed in Beirut by Dar Ibn Kathir under the title "Sharh Mukhtasar al-Quduri". Qadimi Kutub Khana in Karachi also copied the book, however their print seems to be missing a paragraph or two. I haven't had a chance to check if this portion is missing in the Beirut edition.
Now, coming to the topic under discussion, Mawlana Gulam Mustapha started his Hashiyah with a detailed and beneficial Muqaddimah, where he discussed the madhab in detail, with a section on books of the madhab.
He then devoted a few pages to a powerful - but clearly prejudiced- critique of Allamah Ibn Abidin and his Hashiyah.
He quoted extensively from a book titled "At-Ta'lim wa al-Irshad" by Badr ad-Din al-Halabi (d. 1362 AH), which was in the "ultra-rare" category of books, having been printed once, ages ago and being totally unavailable even amongst the rare book dealers.
This book is a critique of the teaching methods and curriculum prevalent in Azhar in those days, full of benefit for an educator knowledgeable of his books, but at the same time highly harmful due to the exaggeration adopted when discussing the cons of the various books discussed therein.
His quoting from this book spurred me on to search for it and I managed to acquire a photocopy of this work- after a few years of searching- at the Juma Majid centre in Dubai, when I was there for a course on editing manuscripts.
The book has been recently reprinted in Syria and for those interested, a few copies will be available for sale at Azhar Academy (London) in the next week or so.
To understand the reasons for Mawlana Sindhi's onslaught on Allamah Ibn Abidin and his hashiyah, one would have to know the background to the matter.
Sindh always boasted great Ulama, especially in the Hanafi madhab, who inspite of the terrible desert conditions, would collect rare manuscripts from all over the world and build huge personal libraries, thereby giving themselves a solid base to work from.
One would thus find that while most other Ulama - when giving fatwa- would suffice on the famous, easily available Hanafi works, the Sindhi Ulama would reference dozens of rare works, often differing with others, due to being aware of quotes in Hanafi texts that others had never come across.
The culmination of this great legacy, seems to have come in the form of Allamah Muhammad Abid Sindhi's huge "Tawali' al-Anwar", a Sharh on Dur al-Mukhtar, possibly encompassing 60 volumes if printed!
I have a digital manuscript of it, in approximately 10000 folios (20000 pages)!
I have discussed this book here
Now, the Ulama of Sindh find it highly unfair and un-scholarly to pay so much attention to Ibn Abidin's work and leave aside the works of the great Sindhi Ulama, when the Sindhi's were masters in every field, especially Hadith and Fiqh, when Ibn Abidin was not a hadith master at all.
To add insult to injury, most Hanafi's worldwide, rely nearly completely on ibn Abidin's Hashiyah, accepting nearly anything put forward by ibn Abidin, no matter how incorrect it may be!
This formed great dislike in the Sindhi Ulama for the Hashiyah of Ibn Abidin, causing Mawlana Gulam Mustafa to attack him in that manner.
So, while the Hashiyah of Ibn Abidin definitely isn't close to as bad as claimed by Ml. Ghulam Saheb, it definitely isn't a book that should be blindly relied upon and given the final say in every matter.
As for Ml. Ghulam's praising of al-Lubab, all he said was "It is a concise, beneficial commentary", which is precisely what it is. It isn't used as a book of Fatwa, thus there was no need to discuss it from that angle. It's being a beneficial commentary doesn't make it a reliable book for Fatwa, just like Jawharah, Ramz al-Haqaiq etc.
...
Yes, many of those libraries still exist in Sindh, however access to them is extremly difficult.
Mawlana Ghulam Mustafa saheb was the Sindhi master on manuscripts and after him, Mufti Idris Saheb Sindhi, the Principal of Madrasah Qasimiyyah in Kandiyaro, took up the task of cataloging and identifying the various Sindhi manuscript libraries.
It was solely through the grace of Almighty Allah, that I was granted an opportunity to be a guest of Mufti Idris Saheb who arranged for me to visit some of the private manuscript libraries in Sindh.
Such was the respect and trust that the library owners had for Mufti Idris saheb, that they allowed me to take whichever manuscripts I wanted back to Mufti Sahebs Madrasah, where I would then sit for hours photographing them!
These manuscripts are worth thousands of dollars each!
Mufti Idris saheb's hard work resulted in the recent publication of a catalogue of Sindhi manuscripts, totally around 10 000 in number.
The publishers mentioned in the English preface to the catalogue:
"Dr. Muhammad Idress al-Sindhi was the moving spirit behind the whole exercise, who has been knocking on the doors of the owners of the private collections for many years and as a result of his personal initiative it became possible to conceive this voluminous publication"
Mufti saheb very kindly sent me a copy of this work, May Allah Ta'ala reward him.
Mufti Saheb would bring tears to anyone's eyes, with his numerous stories of how he came across valuable manuscripts, that had been destroyed or left to rot, by owners who were unaware of their value. I came across many manuscripts in Sindh that were terribly eaten-up.
Here is a picture of a page from a manuscript that was just slightly eaten up.
Many of the valuable collections were destroyed in wars, fires etc, while the remainder are kept in private collections, accessible only to close associates, with many of these manuscripts being sold for huge sums to manuscript collectors from all over the world.
As a number of the great Sindhi Ulama settled down in Madinah al-Munawwarah, the libraries of this blessed city is full of rare Sindhi works.
Mufti Idris saheb visited all the main Libraries in Makkah and Madinah and attained copies of the works of the different Sindhi giants.
http://www.sunniforum.com/forum/show...scholars/page3
New Arabic Books Being Published from the Subcontinent?
Originally Posted by Ansari
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