By Shaykh Husain Kadodia
[This piece was originally written as an informal discussion on the commentaries of al-‘Aqidah al-Tahawiyyah. We have reproduced the piece in an article format with added contributions at the end from scholars and students who commented on it.]
Here are some Arabic resources on al-‘Aqidah at-Tahawiyyah:
1- Sharh al-Ghaznawi
By Abu Hafs Siraj ad-Din Umar ibn Ishaq al-Ghaznawi al-Hindi d.773 AH.
The author restricted himself to what is required by a student, very rarely adding more than this, making it the most beneficial commentary for students. I highly recommend Ghaznawi’s Sharh, which could be taught in full in place of the matn, instead of just being used by the teacher during his mutala’ah. The book was printed ages ago in Qazan, Russia and was extremly rare. I managed to get a copy from Maktabah al-Azhar. This edition was based on the authors draft copy (musawwadah) and is thus shorter than his final copy.
It was then edited using three manuscripts of the authors final copy and printed by the Kuwaiti Ministry of Waqf, incorrectly attributed to Akmal ad-Din al-Babarti. Dr. Abd as-Sattar Abu Ghuddah, who is apparently an Ash’ari, spoiled this edition by filling it with pseudo-Salafi aqidah footnotes, from Ibn Abi al-Izz’s Sharh. His excuse when asked about it was that the dean of the institute refused to allow the book to be printed without the footnotes.
This edition was used by the Syrian Muhaqqiq Abd as-Salam Shannar when producing his edition, published by Dar al-Beiruti. His footnotes should be much better, as we have seen from his other aqidah tahqiqat. He also didn’t realise the incorrect ascription to al-Babarti.
The book was then edited by two Egyptians and printed by Darah al-Karaz of Cairo, correctly ascribed to al-Ghaznawi. They relied upon the incomplete Qazan edition, another manuscript of the draft copy, as well as a manuscript of the final copy, however this manuscipt is riddled with errors. Mufti Abdur Rahman Mangera and I read through this entire manuscript together and found it to be terrible. This manuscript is the backbone of this print, rendering it one of inferior quality.
The best edition to use would probably be the Kuwaiti edition or the Syrian Dar al-Beiruti one, I haven’t compared them so cannot comment on how good a job the muhaqqiq of the Syrian edition did in copying the Kuwaiti one.
The Kuwaiti edition could be downloaded from here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?zzjmdmygofk
while the Darah al-Karaz edition is available here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?11wot4zyzyy
2- Sharh al-Maydani
By Abd al-Ghani al-Ghunayni al-Maydani d. 1298 AH.
It is extremly detailed and very high level, delving deep into many intricate aqidah issues. The biggest problem with his sharh is his great reliance on Sharh al-’Aqa’id an-Nasafiyyah of at-Taftazani and Ibn al-Humam’s al-Musayarah, both famed for the intricate and difficult to understand ultra-concise passages. Every few pages contains portions that will leave one baffled and force one to resort so commentaries of Sharh al-Aqaid and al-Musayarah to fully grasp them.Maydani also doesn’t discuss certain relevant issues, leaving one stranded. Then add to this his mixing between Ashari and Maturidi schools, seemingly attempting to harmonise differences without clearly stating the views of each clearly and you would understand the difficulty in relying solely on this commentary when teaching the Tahawiyyah.
His sharh was printed in 1970 by Dar al-Fikr, edited by Muhammad Muti’ al-Hafiz and Muhammad Riyadh al-Malih. They used three good manuscripts, but don’t seem to have used them very well, resulting in the book containing a large number of errors. We read through this edition as well with Mufti Abdur Rahman and found many errors, with it even missing lines at places.
Abd as-Salam Shannar then produced his edition from Dar al-Beiruti and admitted relying on the Dar al-Fikr edition, however he claimed to have used a manuscript in some difficult places. I have yet to see any sign of this, as his edition contains all the same errors as the Dar al-Fikr one.
A few brothers typed out the Dar al-Fikr edition and uploaded it. It can be downloaded from here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?mn2yjeydn4v
A scanned version of it can be downloaded from here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?5m2xz3mm0i5
3- Sharh al-Qadi ash-Shaybani
By Qadi Isma’il ibn Ibrahim ash-Shaybani d.629 AH.
A concise commentary, discussing selected portions of the text, covering most of the important points. Printed by Dar ar-Rashid in Riyadh in 1413 AH using a number of manuscripts, then copied by Ahmed Farid al-Mazidi and printed by Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyyah in 1426 AH..
[It can be downloaded here]
4- Nur al-Yaqin fi Usul ad-Din
By Hasan Kafi al-Aqhasari al-Busnawi d. 1024 AH.
A detailed beneficial commentary, much more user-friendly than Maydani’s work and a suitable aid for the teacher. Its one downfall is the author’s extensive reliance on the problematic sharh of Ibn Abi al-Izz, quoting paragraphs verbatim from it, without attribution to him. He apparently was aware of the problems with that sharh, not relying on it in most of the problematic areas, however there do seem to be a few problematic quotes from it in this sharh.
Published in Riyadh by Maktabah al-Ubaykan in 1417 AH, with a pseudo-Salafi editing, however the muhaqqiq seems to have did a good job and didn’t fill the footnotes with too much of their usual rebuttals.
5- Sharh Qari Muhammad Tayyib
By the principal of Dar al-Ulum Deoband d.1403 AH.
A beneficial commentary, with special attention to the Qur’anic verses proving each tenet of belief. It contains a number of beneficial discussions, not found in other available commentaries.
Printed a few times, amongst them the Deoband Gulista Kitab Gar edition of 2000. Recently translated into English by Mufti Afzal Hoosen Elias and printed by Zamzam publishers of Karachi.
6- Izhar al-Aqidah as-Sunniyah bi Sharh al-Aqidah at-Tahawiyyah
By the leader of the infamous Ahbash, Abd Allah al-Harari d. 1429 AH.
Full of fawa’id and quotes from rare works, this detailed commentary is extremly beneficial and an example of Harari’s solid grounding in all fields especially ‘aqidah. While his constant attacks on the Wahhabis could be considered an added benefit to this work, his obsession with them seems to spoil it more than anything else.
Printed by his publishing house Dar al-Mashari’ with the last edition with additions probably being the 2007 one. Dar al-Mashari’ also printed a concise rendering of this commentary entitled Mukhtasar Izhar al-Aqidah as-Sunniyah in addition to another one entitled Ad-Durrah al-Bahiyyah fi Hall al-Alfaz at-Tahawiyyah.
There are a few other beneficial commentaries still in manuscript form, such as al-Qala’id fi Sharh al-Aqa’id by Jamal ad-Din al-Qunawi d.777 AH. It has been highly rated by many, with Allamah Kashmiri praising it as the best commentary of at-Tahawiyyah. A colleague here in South Africa is editing it, dua is requested that he gets the opportunity to complete it.
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