A Hanbali Epitome: A Student’s Guide

Salah is one of the five pillars on which the edifice of Islam rests. Most of us feel that we already know all there is about salah – the formal prayers of a Muslim. However, very few individuals actually do justice to it or derive any worldly or spiritual benefits from it.

Salah & Its Essential Conditions is an effort to detail the essential prerequiires of salah. Moreever, it takes a detailed look at its importance along with the different types of obligatory and voluntary prayers. It alsa presents an illustrated guide to help those who wish to learn or correct the performance of their prayers.

Inshallah, all those who wish to improve their salah will find plenty of help in this book whether they are looking for information on cleanliness and purify, locating the direction of qibla, improving their congregation during salah, making up for the missed salah, or joining acongregation when the imam has already sarted the salah, or joining a congregation when the imam has already started the salah. All in all, it is a relevant handbook on what the Prophet (saw) has described as the coolness of his eyes.

In this book, the author has widely described the main principle of Taqleed. He says that Allah and Prophet Mohammed (SAW) has not ordered us to follow any opinions and interpretations. So there’s a possibility of being correct or incorrect in the opinions because there are many issues on which the Imams had different views and they explain them according to their own reasons and speculations, but the real and true Islam is based on the book (Quran) and Prophet’s Sunnah.

Allah says: “But no, by your Lord, they can have no Faith until they make you judge in all disputed matters between them, and find in themselves no resistance against your decision, and accept them with full submission.” And the prophet said: “I leave you with two things as long as you hold them tightly, you never go astray: they are the book of Allah and my Sunnah.” In this sense, the author has described the difference between different Madhahib (madhabs/mazhabs), and their views and urged to follow only the Quran and Sunnah.

This book deals with the epidemic of smoking, which enslaves many of today’s Muslims, and which is aggravated by that most victims belittle its dangers and deny its prohibition.

This book includes a discussions of intoxicants, establishing the prohibition of various practices associated with them, as well as penalties (in both lives) for those who partake in them.

This book also includes a discussion of narcotics, with an overview of marijuana and qaat (or khat). Based on their established effects and harms, we conclude that narcotics are strongly prohibited, except in very limited medical settings.

This book, we hope, will provide many Muslims with guidance toward a healthier, cleaner and worthies Islamic personality. My Allah grant us guidance and facilitation.

This book offers a detailed presentation of the theory of Muslim law (usul al-figh). Often regarded as the most sophisticated of the traditional Islamic disciplines, Muslim jurisprudence is concerned with the way in which the rituals and laws of religion are derived from the Qur’an and the Sunna – the precedent of the Prophet. Revelation, which is given to man to restore unity and help him achieve a just and devout order in society as well as in the soul, must be interpreted so as to render it practicable in every culture, while not betraying its spirit and immutable provisions. To achieve this, additional sources of legal authority are recognized, including consensus (ijma), analogical deduction (qiyas), public interest (maslaha) and local customary precedent (urf). In employing these, the jurist guards the five principles which it is the purpose of Islamic law to uphold, namely, the right to life, sound mind, property, lineage and religion.