The Mayor of Jurisprudence

According to the doctrine of Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal

Author's name: Ibn Qudamah al-Maqdisi

Investigation: Ahmed bin Wajih Al-Qatou’i

Part of an introduction

In the name of God, the most gracious, the most merciful

All praise is due to Allah. We praise Him, seek His aid, ask His forgiveness, and repent to Him. We seek refuge in Allah from our evil deeds. He whom Allah guides, none can misguide, and he whom Allah misguides, none can guide.

May God protect us from evil and guide us to Him. I bear witness that there is no god but God and I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger. May God’s prayers and peace be upon him, his family, and his companions.

Now then;

God Almighty did not command His Prophet to ask for more knowledge except in the sense of knowledge, as He said: “And say, ‘My Lord, increase me in knowledge.’” [Taha: 114], and the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, said: “Whoever…”

God wants good for him and gives him understanding of the religion.” (1)

It is not hidden from the individual students of knowledge - let alone their elite - the noble status and great value of the science of jurisprudence, and this science has continued to progress and develop from one era to the next.

To an era that began with the era of prophecy and legislation and what came from God and His Messenger of the legal rulings established in the Book and the Sunnah, which the noble companions received from

During his lifetime, may God bless him and grant him peace, and after his death, may God bless him and grant him peace, the Companions spread out, conquering the East and West of the Earth, carrying with them the legacy of prophecy, which they had learned and comprehended from their Prophet, conveying God’s verses and rulings, striving to make the most of the new issues and jurisprudential incidents that came to them. The Successors learned from them and grew up with excellence, and learned from them the scientific schools in Kufa, Medina, and other centers of Islam. These Successors were established upon them, each one of them taking the method of the Companions he had learned from, influenced by their methods of reasoning.

And this knowledge continued to be acquired by scholars from generation to generation, until the era of the Four Great Imams came. God decreed for them acceptance and favor with His servants, and provided for them those who disseminated their sayings and edited them until they became recognized doctrines that were issued from and referred to. The companions of each of the Imams edited and refined his sayings, and composed long and short works on that.

The followers of each school of thought continue to innovate to bring the jurisprudence of their imam closer to their followers and students through explanations, simplification, and the collection of fatwas, and the establishment of...

Jurisprudential summaries that enable the student to compile and memorize the jurisprudence of his imam. The Hanbalis were not immune to this jurisprudential movement; they were keen to

He wrote a collection of the Imam’s fatwas and sayings in what is known as narrations, and this was collected in the famous issues, including those collected by his sons Abdullah and Salih, and those collected by Abu Dawud al-Sijistani, Harb al-Karmani, and others.

As for summaries, their imams have written many jurisprudential summaries, such as Al-Kharqi’s Mukhtasar and Al-Muqni’, and among their most beneficial and important jurisprudential summaries are:

The pillar of jurisprudence, Al-Muwaffaq Al-Din Abu Muhammad Abdullah Ahmad bin Ibn Muhammad bin Qudamah, Al-Juma’ili, then Al-Dimashqi Al-Salihi Al-Hanbali - yes, by God - (d. 620 AH). The status of this book and its distinguished features are not hidden from the general students of knowledge - let alone their elite - the most important of which are:

1- It is a summary, as he has summarized many of the details found in other summaries, so you will hardly find in the chapter anything but the most important issues and their principles. Then he wrote “Al-Kafi” and mentioned in it more than two narrations, sometimes he mentions three, sometimes four, and sometimes he includes all that was narrated from the Imam, and he mentions the evidence, so that the student learns how to deduce from the evidence and the method of reasoning from the report.

He wrote the book “Al-Mughni” for those who had completed it, in which he mentioned the sayings of the scholars, those who agreed with the school of thought and those who disagreed with it, with evidence, so that the student would be qualified for ijtihad. Because if the student relies on a text and correctly conceives its issues - by reviewing the commentaries and footnotes, competing with the sheikhs and studying his peers - he will provide evidence for these issues, look into the statements of the people of knowledge, those that agree and those that disagree, and weigh their evidence. Then he will come out with a stronger statement, and after that he will be qualified for ijtihad. Then we say to him then - if he has completed a text in this manner -: Understand the Qur’an and Sunnah. But before that, directing him to understand the Qur’an and Sunnah directly is a waste of time for him. The well-trodden path among the people of knowledge, which has been used for centuries, and upon which the nation has agreed, and upon which the scholars of Islam have followed one another, is the successful means for acquiring jurisprudence and other things from this book that is in our hands. It is a solid, average text, suitable for beginners among students, beneficial, and its author composed it to be the first step on the ladder, the ladder of ascending to the summit of knowledge. We know that the second step is with its author, Al-Muqni’. Then "Al-Kafi", then the sciences.

The purpose of the previous statement is to let you know that the book “Umdat al-Fiqh” is not the only book by Ibn Qudamah on Hanbali jurisprudence, and that he did not compose many books haphazardly, but rather that he wrote this book to be for beginners among students of knowledge. Therefore, it was appropriate for him not to mention any disagreement, and to refrain from mentioning the narrations in the school, and not to pay attention to the branching issues, and he shortened it so that he would not elaborate on the evidence and proofs, let alone discuss and debate the statements of the opponents and present their evidence and arguments.