The Evident Memorandum: A Translation and Commentary for Ibn al-Mulaqqin al-Shāfiʿī’s Al-Tadhkirah fi al-fiqh

This volume contains an original commentary for Al-Tadhkirah (The Memorandum), a legal primer for Islamic Law according to the later scholars of the Shāfiʿī school by Ibn al-Mulaqqin, an Egyptian scholar who died in 804 AH/1401 CE. The commentary introduces essential evidence for the core issues of Islamic Law from its primary sources (the Quran, Sunnah, legal analogy, and scholarly consensus).

The Arabic text of Al-Tadhkirah is approximately 8,500 words in length. It is two hundred words longer than Abū Shujāʿ al-Aṣfahānī (b. 433AH/1042CE)’s Matn al-ghāyat wa-l-taqrīb (published as The Ultimate Conspectus). Although the two are roughly the same size, Ibn Mulaqqin’s style is more economical than Abū Shujāʿ’s, allowing him to cover more within the same word count. And while Ibn Mulaqqin discusses more issues, he does occasionally skip a few details that Abū Shujāʿ includes.

The primary sources for comments in this book are Ibn Mulaqqin’s books of fiqh, including Sharḥ Mukhtasar al-Tabrīzī, ʿUjālat al-muḥtāj, and Khulāṣat al-fatāwī. The bulk of the commentary comes from Sharḥ Mukhtaṣar al-Tabrīzī. Comments and hadith in the commentary can be sourced back to either one of Ibn Mulaqqin’s fiqh texts or a Shāfiʿī fiqh text through an appendix that cross-references each chapter and section in this book against its sources.  Each hadith mentioned in the book is traced back to its primary sources, along with a reference to one or more of Ibn Mulaqqin’s hadith works. In the few instances where a hadith is not included in one of Ibn Mulaqqin’s works, it is referenced it to a Shāfiʿī text that does. Through this, readers can be assured that the hadiths cited here are ones that Shāfiʿīs themselves use.

Readers will find the book most beneficial after reading The Accessible Conspectus and Sharh al-Waraqat.

ISLAM AND DIPLOMACY provides a wide-ranging discourse on the relevance of Islam to global well-being and human security from legal, spiritual, moral and historical perspectives. As prevailing realities in the Middle East and many other parts of the world amply demonstrate, the tools of modern secular diplomacy are not always adequate to address violent sectarian or religious clashes and social tensions, nor to suggest long-term workable solutions for them. This book expounds the largely untapped potential of a faith-based diplomacy and suggest integrating religious norms as an added impetus to conventional diplomacy for the benefit of global peace and harmony. it is also demonstrates that Islam possesses a rich tradition of legal, spiritual and ethical values prioritizing peace and human security. Islamic heritage is also sufficiently nuanced to offer flexible paradigms for addressing problems of coomunal identity that may well be beyond the reach of traditional diplomacy, such as ethnic conflict, tribal warfare, and religious hostilities.