When I stand in the gallery of books watching the great works done by the early generation Muslim scholars I find my own tiny articles shrinking tinier.
Take the example of Imam Bukhari, He took 18 years to compile his Sahih Bukhari , but such is the legacy that he has left behind, that no Madrasa of ahl e sunnah wal jamat can list his Sahih Bukhari out of their syllabus. Imagine, every scholar of the Muslim community quotes Bukhari in his jumuah, khutbas, in his Eid and marriage Khutbas, or be it a session of Fiqh or any thing related to Islam, Bukhari is an essential book of our learning deen. Can you imagine the sawab e jarriya that this man must be receiving in his grave for past 1200 years and still many more to come?
Noted scholar from India, Mukhtar Ahmed Nadwi, who died a few years back, built around 360 Masajids for promoting the movement of the Qur'an and Sunnah, which I think is more than the number of Masajids built by the Moghuls in their tenure of 300 years. I am sad that the Ahlul Hadith or the Salafis of India don’t market his talks. In fact I tried in every corner of Peace TV library to find if there are any of his talks available to air on peace TV, but alas no one has recorded! By the time Peace TV began to be aired, the elderly man was too old and sick to face the lights and the cameras for hours. During my early days in Islamic studies, I had an opportunity to attend a few talks of him and I found them simple appealing and understandable. He served as Mufti e Haram for few years as well.Among the reasons why I regret for not learning Arabic, is that I am not able to read the master piece of Hafiz Ibn Hajar Asqalani ‘Fat’hul Baari’. It is a commentary of Sahih Al Bukhari, explaining in detail every Hadith that Imam Bukhari has narrated in his sahih. Perhaps many of my readers may not be knowing that there are no less than thirty scholars who have tried writing a commentary of Sahih Al Bukhari but without doubt, Fat’hul Baari gets the honor of being the best.
Ibn Taymiyaa, was not only a scholar but also a warrior who actually aroused and lead the Muslims to fight against the mighty Mongols after they devastated Baghdad and killed around fifty thousands of Muslims. Ibn Taymiyaa has the honor of being a teacher of other Titans in Islamic literature world, Ibn Kathir and Ibn Jauzi to name a few.
Every contemporary Tafseer of Qur’an gives a reference of Ibn Kathir. What Fat’hul Baari is to Hadith, Tafseer Ibn Katheer is to the Holy Qur’an. An excellent commentary of the Holy Qur’an! Besides penning the best commentary of the Holy Qur’an, Ibn Katheer also wrote al Bidaya wal Niahaya, in fifteen gigantic volumes on Islamic History.
My friend from Madina’s Islamic university tells me that there has been no Muhaddith of the caliber of Shaikh Nasiruddin Albani in the past three centuries after the death of Imam Suyuti. I wish some publisher translates his work ‘Silsila e ahadeeth sahihya”, a compilation of all Sahih ahadeeth and ‘Silsila e ahadeeth dhaeefa ‘ and a compilation of dhaeef ahadeeth. The books are in more than 20 volumes. Mukhtar Ahmed Nadwi once narrated his experience while in a journey with Shaikh Albani.
“ On the way the car broke down and we remained seated, Albani then got out of the car , I kept on wondering where the shaikh had gone to, so I too stepped out and inquired about the shaikh. He was beneath his car repairing it with his own hands. At that time Shaikh Albani was already 60.”
This is enough to make me worry as to what am I leaving behind for own my Sawab e Jaariya and you too should worry, as the Qur’an rightly puts “ tThat was a generation that has passed away. They shall reap the fruits of what have done and you shall reap the fruits of what you have done…. (Surah Al Baqarah ch 2, verse 132 )
Author : Nisaar Yusuf is still learning Islam and he can be reached at nisaar_yusuf@yahoo.com
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