Some news this week

Al Hamdulillahi rabbil aalameen; wa sallallahu alaa Muhammad wa sallim.

This week, al hamdulillah, there are some snippets of news that I do hope prove worth your while.

Another visitor from Manchester

As you guys may be aware, Faisal (to use Abu Eesa's term: the Scabby) came down to Pakistan this week. The saturday before last he graced us with a visit to Lahore (coming further down from Peshawar). Thus, again it was an occasion for a re-union in which of course Mobeen (the now visiting Scabby) was instrumental. We did demonstrate to him that Lahore was capable of producing a good steak (Shazad: that's not the one at the Club). I guess he is now back in Manchester but is scheduled to visit once again.

Acquisitions

I'm sure you all are quite aware the effect buying a new book always has on the Shaykh. Bi fadlillahi wa bi rahmitihi, some recent additions to my library are the source of similar pleasure for myself . Finally, after four months of planning I was able to go down to Urdu Bazar where the original Darussalam shop is and get hold of some classics: Hilyatul Awliya, Majmu' fatawa ibn taymiyah, SubulusSalam, Sayr-ul-A'laam-un-Nubula and Lisaan-ul-Arab. To allow price comparisons (with that bookshop Sh. K. goes to, i guess) the grand total was about £300. Fatawa was priced at £85 [11 vol, Beirut print] and Lisaan at £75 [14 vol]. Consdering that the 3 vol. English explanation of the 40 Hadith sold for around £50 I consider it a bargain. However, I am assuming the prices are inflated given the shady middleman only handed over these things at a location away from the shop and gave no receipts. Couldn't get hold of the Sh. Ibn Uthaymeen sharh of Aqeedatul Wasitiyya, though Sh. Fawzan's was available. Could any of you chk with Sh. K. for a low down on this sharh... would he recommend it or should I go for the Sh. I.U. one. If any of you is in Lahore, and interested in Arabic books here then I'd def. recommend a trip to Rahmaniya Mkt. in Urdu Bazar and look at D. us-Salam's Arabic collection. I did also see there, Al-Albani's Silsilatus-Saheeha (and Da'eefah).

Learning Arabic

No my Arabic still isn't of that grade that I could pick-up Fatawa and tell you what he said. Incidently, though, my original Arabic teacher (and my Uncle) was around yesterday offering to help me read Fatawa ibn Taymiyah on a private tuition basis. I've put myself down for a taster session but there is a hitch. He is a big fan of this "modern" scholar Javed al-Ghamidi who is being hailed by several rationilist types as the Mujtahid of this era. The new controversy I learnt was that he says that actually fatihah has 6 ayaat (not seven as indicated by 15:87). The "seven oft-repeated" is supposed to signify themes like makki madni, etc. This adds to a list which includes views such as the existance of only one qiraa'a, questioning of Zuhri as a reliable narrator, questioning the authenticity of hadith that have been agreed upon, the beard not being an issue to do with the shari'ah. There is another issue which I have not engaged with first-hand and that is the use of the Qur'an directly to calculate hier ratios without recourse to a standard method followed by Umar. In light of these ijma-questioning stances, i foresee the lessons being hijacked by other considerations... let's see how it goes... his Arabic lessons in the past have benefited me though.