Sheikh Mahfudh al-Tirmisi

MAHFUZ b. `ABD ALLAH AL-TARMASI
(K.H. Mahfudz Tremas, d. 1338/1920)


[Dictionnaire biographique des savants et grandes figures du monde musulman périphérique, du XIXe siècle à nos jours, Fasc. no 1. Paris: CNRS-EHESS, 1992, p. 30-31]




Mahfudz of Tremas was the most respected Javanese `alim of his generation. Born in Tremas (Pacitan district, East Java), he spent the better part of his life in Mecca, where the most influential Javanese kyai of the early twentieth century became his students. He takes the credit for widening the range of works studied in the Javanese pesantren to include the canonical hadith collections and usul al-fiqh, topics not previously studied there.
Mahfudz' paternal grandfather, `Abd al-Mannan Dipomenggolo, founded in 1830 the pesantren of Tremas, the oldest presently existing. He had studied in the famous pesantren of Tegalsari under its illustrious kyai, Kasan Besari (Hasan Basri), where one of his fellow students was the Surakarta court poet-philosopher Ronggowarsito. Later he visited the Middle East and studied with Sayyid Muhammad al-Shatta' in Mecca and with the shaykh al-Azhar, Ibrahim Bajuri (d. 1277/ 1860-1). After `Abd al-Mannan's death (1862), his son `Abd Allah succeeded him as the kyai of the pesantren Tremas.
Mahfudz was `Abdallah's eldest son. He received his first religious education from his father, studying the works that his grandfather had been licensed to teach by his Arab teachers. At a young age, he was sent to Mecca to continue his studies with the prominent Shafi`i scholar there, Sayyid Bakri (Abu Bakr b. Muhammad al-Shatta' ad-Dimyati, the son of his grandfather's Meccan teacher). All his life he remained close to the learned Shatta' family (originating from Dimyat in Egypt), into which he was virtually adopted; he was buried in the Shatta' family graveyard. He also studied with Sayyid Bakri's colleague and rival, Muhammad Sa`id Ba-Basil (who succeeded Ahmad b. Zayni Dahlan as Mecca's Shafi`i mufti) and various Indonesian `ulama resident in Mecca: Nawawi Banten (Nawawi b. `Umar al-Jawi al-Bantani), `Abd al-Ghani al-Bimawi and Muhammad Zayn ad-Din al-Sumbawi, all of whom taught in the Masjid al-Haram.
Mahfudz did not return to Java, preferring to remain in Mecca, where he was becoming a very prominent teacher. When his father died in 1894, it was a younger brother, Dimyati, who became the kyai at Tremas. Ironically, the fame of Tremas seems to be in large measure due to Mahfudz, although he never taught there. In Mecca, he had among his students Hasyim Asy'ari, Bisri Syansuri and Wahab Chasbullah (`Abd al-Wahhab Hasb Allah), who later, in 1926, were to found the Nahdlatul Ulama (Nahdat al-`ulama), Indonesia's major traditionalist Muslim organisation. These men are his best-known of his students, renowned because of their political activities. Besides them, he educated numerous others, including some who became influential teachers in their own right, such as `Ali al-Banjari (a Meccan resident of South Borneo origins), Muhammad Baqir al-Jugjawi (of Yogyakarta, but resident in Mecca), Muhammad Ma`sum al-Lasami (the founder of the pesantren of Lasem in northern Central Java), `Abd al-Muhit of Panji Sidarjo (another important pesantren, near Surabaya).
Many of Mahfudz' students founded pesantren upon their return to Java, which contributed to his lasting impact on the pesantren world. If in the twentieth century the pesantren curriculum is more varied than previously, this is in no small measure due to Mahfudz' influence. Hasyim Asy'ari, one of Mahfudz' favourite disciples, established after his return to East Java the pesantren Tebuireng near Jombang and became the first kyai to teach Bukhari's canonical hadith collection, an innovation in the pesantren curriculum, due to Mahfudz, that gradually spread. Other Javanese kyai became through him acquainted with such usul al-fiqh works, also previously unknown, as Subki's Jam` al-jawami` and Ibn Haja's Sharh Mukhtasar.
Mahfudz was also a prolific writer, the author of books on various Islamic sciences (all of them in Arabic). The one book still regularly reprinted and used in the pesantren is his Minhaj dhawi al-nazar, one of the more advanced works on Arabic syntax (a commentary on Bayquni's work). His most celebrated work, however, is the four-volume Shafi`i fiqh text Mawhiba dhi al-fadl, a commentary on `Abd Allah Ba-Fadl's Al-muqaddima al-hadramiyya that probably is the major Indonesian contribution to fiqh literature. The Mawhiba is rarely if ever taught in the pesantren; it is used by the senior kyai as a work of reference and is one of the works most frequently cited as authoritative in fatwa by Javanese `ulama.
Mahfudz' other writings include two voluminous works on usul al-fiqh, Nayl al-ma'mul (a supercommentary on Zakariya Ansari's Lubb al-usul and its commentary Ghayat al-wusul) and Is`af al-mutali` (a commentary on a versified version of Subki's Jam` al-jawami`), and another fiqh work: Takmilat al-minhaj al-qawim (additions to Ibn Hajar al-Haytami's Al-minhaj al-qawim).
He was not only interested in the intellectual sciences but also in Qur'anic recital (qira'a), on which he wrote no less than five books: on the readings of Ibn Kathir, Nafi`, Ibn `Amr and Hamza, and on the qira'a `ashara. Finally he authored two bio-bibliographical texts, Kifayat al-mustafid li-ma `alla min al-asanid (on the lines of transmission from the authors of classical texts to his own teachers) and Al-saqaya al-mardiyya fi asami kutub ashabina al-shafi`iyya (a survey of Shafi`i fiqh works and their authors). None of these works seem to be available in print, however.



[Martin van Bruinessen]


Literature:
H. Aboebakar, Sedjarah hidup K.H.A. Wahid Hasjim dan karangan tersiar (Djakarta: Panitya Buku Peringatan alm. K.H.A. Wahid Hasjim, 1957), p 88.
Mahfuz b. `Abd Allah al-Tarmasi, Mawhiba dhi al-fadl `ala sharh muqaddima Ba-Fadl (n.p.: Matba`a al-`amira al-sharafiyya, n.d.).
`Umar `Abd al-Jabbar, Siyar wa tarajim ba`d `ulama'ina fi al-qarn al-rabi` ashar li al-hijra (Mecca: Mu'assasa Makka li al-taba`a wa al-i`lam, 1385/1965-6), pp. 323-4.
Yasin b. M. `Isa al-Padani, Al-`iqd al-farid min jawahir al-asanid (Surabaya: Dar al-Saqqaf, n.d.), passim.
Muhammad S.H., Mengenal Pondok Tremas dan perkembangannya (Tremas, Pacitan, 1986).

Important works in the Shafi'i school

As Salamu alaikum,

Find links to some of the more important works in the Shafi'i school in pdf format:

Nihayat al-Matlab fi Dirayat al-Madhhab - Imam Haramayn al-Juwayni

http://www.archive.org/download/NhayatulMatlab_160/nmdm01.pdf

al-Bayan Sharh al-Muhadhdhab - Imam al-'Imrani

http://www.archive.org/download/bmesbmes/bmes01p.pdf

Kitab al-Umm, al-Bahr (al-Ruwyani), al-Hawi al-Kabir and many more;

http://www.waqfeya.com/category.php?cid=84

Audio explanation of al-Iqna' & Sharh Ibn Qasim by Shaykh Rushdi al-Qalm.

As Salamu alaikum wa Rahmatullah,

al-Iqna'

http://www.archive.org/details/Elaknaa-001

Sharh ibn Qasim al-Ghazzi

http://www.archive.org/details/ibn_elkassem-2

Enjoy !

Muqaddimah of Ibn Salah explained-Shaykh Abd al-Fattah Abu Ghuddah

As Salamu alaikum,

Shayh Abu Ghuddah's (may Allah have mercy on him) audio explaination of Ibn Salah's Muqaddimah in the science of Mustalah Hadith.

http://www.archive.org/details/MokadematIbnAlsala7

The Fiqh of Fasting (Matn Tahrir)

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

The Fiqh of Fasting

from Sheikh al-Islam's
Tahrir Tanqih al-Lubab



The conditions and integrals of fasting


The conditions for the validity of fasting (c: are four);

1.Islam
2.Intellect
3.Purity from menstruation and the like
4.To know that the time for fasting has entered



The conditions for the obligation of fasting (c: are three);

1.Islam
2.To be legally responsible
3.To be able to bear the fast



The integrals of fasting (c: are three);

1.The nightly intention
2.The fasting person
3.To avoid everything which nullifies the fast









Types of fasts



All fasts are (c: of four types);

1.Obligatory
2.Supererogatory
3.Disliked
4.Unlawful



The obligatory fast is of three types;

1.That fast which must be in succession. This type consists of: fasting Ramadhan, the expiation for dhihar, murder, and intentional intercourse during a day of Ramadhan.

2.That fast which must be separated. This type consists of: fasting(t: as an expiation ) for those performing the 'Umrah first or Hajj and 'Umrah simultaneously, missing a Hajj rite, leaving out a necessary rite, and expiating for a vow in which separation is a prerequisite.

3.That fast which can either be in succession or separated. This type consists of: making up a fast of Ramadhan, expiating for intercourse performed in a state of Ihram, expiating for an oath, or expiating for shaving, hunting, cutting down a tree, wearing a sewn garment, applying perfume, being prevented from completing the integrals of Hajj or 'Umrah after having entered Ihram, and trimming the nails or oiling the hair of the head or beard in a state of Ihram.



The supererogatory fasts are many, the most emphasized are fifteen;

1.on Monday
2.on Thursday
3.during the 1st ten days of Muharram
4.during the inviolable months
5.on the day of 'Arafah
6.on the 9th of Dhul Hijjah
7.on the 9th of Muharram
8.on the 10th of Muharram
9.to fast every other day
10.to fast every two days
11. to fast a day when one does not find anything available to eat
12. to fast the month of Sha'ban
13. during the 1st six days of Shawwal
14. on the full moon days and the two days that follow it
15. on the 28th and the following days of each month



The disliked fasts include:

1.the fast of a sick person, traveler, pregnant woman, nursing woman or an old person who fears a severe difficulty.
2.the supererogatory fast of a person who has obligatory make up fasts.
3.singling out the fast of Friday, Saturday or Sunday.
4.to fast everyday of the year, if one fears some harm from doing so.



The unlawful fasts include:

1.fasting on the two 'Eids
2.fasting on the three days following 'Eid al-Adha
3.the fast of a menstruating woman or a woman with postnatal bleeding.
4.fasting on the day of uncertainty without a reason
5.fasting during the second half of Sha'ban except when one joins the fast with the fasts one has been performing prior to mid-Sha'ban or when one fasts during it for some reason, such as a make up or when it coincides with the days one habitually fasts, in such cases it is not unlawful.



Things that nullify the fast


Things that nullify the fast include:

1.something perceptible reaching the body cavity, even if it be an injection or the water from rinsing the mouth and nose due to exaggerating in the act.
2.vomiting intentionally
3.ejaculation--except when it occurs while asleep--by looking or by fantasizing
4.intentional intercourse when one does it willingly and knows it is unlawful.
(portion left untranslated)


Expiating for a fast

It is obligatory for the person who nullified their fast through deliberate intercourse to pay an expiation in addition to making up the nullified fast. It is obligatory to refrain from all things that nullify the fast for someone who;

1.sinfully vitiated their fast
2.forgot to make the nightly intention,
3.ate thinking that dawn has not yet appeared
4.ate thinking that the sun has set and it becomes clear that it has not
5.learns that the 1st day of Ramadhan entered on the 30th of Sha'ban
6.or when water reaches the body cavity through exaggerating when rinsing the mouth and nose.


Nullifying the fast during Ramadhan


Nullifying the fast during Ramadhan is (c: of six) types;

1.Obligatory- with the obligation of a make up,this is for the woman with menstruation or postnatal bleeding.

2.Permissible- with the obligation of a make up. This is for the sick person and traveler who may shorten their prayer.

An expiation in addition to a make up are obligatory upon (c: two);

1.a person who broke the fast out of fear for someone else.

2.A person who delayed making up a missed fast of Ramadhan until the next Ramadhan comes.

An expiation alone is obligatory upon an old perso; a make up alone is obligatory upon an unconscious person and the like. As for an insane person, neither a make up nor an expiation is due upon him.







What is disliked while fasting


The disliked acts while fasting are (c: ten):

1.verbal abuse
2.to delay breaking one's fast
3.to chew gum
4.to taste food
5.to perform cupping
6.to have cupping performed
7.kissing which does not induce desire
8.to enter a bath house
9.to use the toothstick after noon
10. to look at something permissible with desire


Things which reach the body cavity but do not break the fast


Things which reach the body cavity but do not break the fast include;

1.something which reaches the body cavity either forgetfully, being ignorant that such a thing nullifies the fast or out of coercion.
2.something which reaches the body cavity along with saliva and one is unable to spit it out.
3.dust from the street or flour from sieving
4.a fly and the like reaching the body cavity



و الحمد لله رب العالمين

7/7/2010

The prayer's preliminaries

The book of prayer
Prepared by the Faqir, Mahmud Adams




Based upon
Safwat al Zubad
Of
Allamat Ahmad bin Rislan al Shafi’i


In the name of Allah, most merciful, most compassionate. All praise belongs to Allah most high, lord of the entire universe. May Allah send prayers and peace upon the Chosen one al Tihami, and upon his family and companions.


Part 1 : Preliminaries

1. The obligation of prayer

1.a The prescribed prayers are obligatory upon all those who are;

a) Muslim
b) Legally responsible
c) Free from menstruation and post-natal bleeding.


1.b The legal guardian is obliged to;

a.) Order the child to pray at the age of seven
b.) Hit the child (if he leaves the prayer) at the age of ten.


If the child reaches puberty during the prayer, the prayer is considered valid and need not be repeated when the prayer is complete.


2. The times of prayer

2. a There is no excuse to delay the prayer except in the following circumstances;

a.) Forgetfulness
b.) Sleep
c.) Joining prayers
d.) Coercion

2. b Duhr prayer

Duhr prayer’s time begins after the sun reaches its zenith and last until the shadow of an object becomes equal to it, minus the shadow present when the sun was at its zenith.

2. c ‘Asr prayer

‘Asr prayer’s time begins when Duhr prayer exits. Its preferred time lasts until the object’s shadow becomes twice the size of the object. It is permissible to perform ‘Asr prayer until sunset.

2. d Maghrib prayer

Maghrib prayer’s time enters when the sun sets and lasts, according to the old view of al Shafi’I, until the red twilight disappears.

2. e ‘Isha prayer

‘Isha prayer’s time enters when maghrib exits, by the disappearance of the red twilight. The prayer’s time lasts until true dawn, which is: a widespread transversal light upon the horizon. The preferred time lasts until a third of the night has elapsed and it is permissible to perform it until true dawn.

2. f Fajr prayer

Fajr enters with true dawn. The preferred time lasts until there is a glow in the sky and its permitted time lasts until the rising of (a portion) of the sun.


Other matters related to the prayer’s time,

1. It is recommended to hasten to perform the prayer in the first of it’s time. The merit of praying in the first of it’s time is attained when one occupies oneself, at the beginning of the time, with one’s needs (such as, purification or covering the nakedness) after the time has entered.

2. It is recommended to delay the performance of Duhr due to severe heat in a hot region. This is for a person who seeks to pray it in a group and is coming from a distance. It is not recommended to delay the Friday prayer.


3. Times when prayer is forbidden

3. a Prayers without a reason (or a reason succeeding the prayer, such as two raka’ts of Ihram) are forbidden in the following times;

a. after Fajr prayer until sunrise
b. after ‘Asr prayer until sunset
c. the moment the sun begins to rise until is has fully risen
d. when the sun is at its zenith until noon, except on Friday
e. when the sun yellows until it completely sets.


As for the prayers with a reason preceding the prayer, it is not forbidden to perform them in the aforementioned times. Such as;

a. a vowed prayer
b. a current prayer
c. two rak’ats of tawaf
d. greeting the masjid
e. the prostration of thanks
f. the eclipse prayer
g. funeral prayer
h. a prayer offered in the Haram of Makkah



4. Places where prayer is disliked


It is disliked to perform the prayer in the following places:

a. a bathroom where clothes are removed
b. a camel’s resting place
c. an excavated grave
d. a pathway
e. a slaughterhouse

Similarly, it is disliked to pray while one is holding back urine, wind or stool and to pray in the presence of food while one is craving it.


5. Recommended prayers

5. a The emphasized sunnah prayers connected to the obligatory prayers are;

a. two raka’ts before Fajr
b. two raka’ts before and after Duhr
c. two raka’ts after Maghrib
d. two raka’ts after ‘Isha

The remaining sunnah prayers connected to the prescribed prayers are; two additional raka’ts before and after Duhr and four raka’ats before ‘Asr.

5. b The recommended prayers are;

a. the two ‘Eid prayers
b. the two eclipse prayers
c. the drought prayer

d. the witr prayer; which minimally consists of one raka’t and maximally consists of eleven raka’ts. It’s time extends from ‘Isha prayer until Fajr prayer.

e. Tarawih prayer


f. Duha prayer; which is optimally eight raka’ts and is minimally two raka’ts. It’s time extends from sunrise until noon
.
g. The optional prayers offered at night (tahajjud)

h. Greeting the masjid; It consists of two raka’ts in one closing Salam and no more (than one closing Salam). The prayer is attained by (performing) the obligatory prayer or another optional prayer, though not by praying one raka’t alone nor the funeral prayer or prostration of thanks and Quran recital. One repeats the prayers for each time one enters, even if frequent.

i. Two raka’ts after the sunset.


6. Making up missed prayers


6. a It is recommended to make up optional prayers associated with a time that have elapsed, though not the prayers associated with a reason.

6. b It is preferable to make up missed obligatory prayers immediately and in order if one does not fear the current prayer’s time will expire.

Misc.issues

1. It is permissible to delay the pre prayer sunnahs and it is still considered to be a current performance. It is not permissible to pray the post prayer sunnahs before one prays the prescribed prayer. The time of the pre and post prayer sunnahs exits with the expiration of the prescribed prayer’s time.

2. It is permissible to pray while seated in the non obligatory prayers, even if done without an excuse, although the merit of doing so is half.


Bibliography;

1. Mawahib al Samad fi Hal alfaz al Zubad, Ahmad bin Hijazi al Fishni
Matba’at bin Halabi, Fattani Thailand

2. Ghayat al Bayan sharh Zubad ibn Rislan, Shams al Din al Ramli
Dar al Kutub al ‘Ilmiyyah, Beirut Lebanon 1994

3. Safwat al Zubad, Ahmad bin al Husayn bin ‘Ali bin Arsalan al Ramli
Dar al Minhaj, Jeddah 2005

Manhaj al-Tullab (2) The book of purification/water

The book of purification;


Water

Purifying water is the only purifying liquid among liquids. Purifying water is that water which can be termed water without a necessary qualification.

Water that has changed excessively by mixing with something that could have been avoided is not purifying, with the exception of earth and sea-salt even when thrown into the water.

Severely hot and cold water are disliked as well as water heated by the sun with it’s necessary preconditions.

A small amount of water previously used in an obligatory purification is not purifying.

2 qullahs of water do not become impure by mere contact with filth, though if the water changes it becomes impure. 2 qullahs roughly equal 500 Baghdadi Ritls. If the change disappears on its own or by water being added to it, it is again purifying. Less than 2 qullahs becomes impure, like any other liquid, by mere contact with filth, though dead creatures without flowing blood unintentionally thrown in and filth that cannot be seen are among the exceptions.

If the water reaches 2 qullahs through additional water and is unchanged, the water is purifying.