Al-Shawkani

His full name was Muhammad Ibn Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Abdullah al-Shawkani.[8] The surname "ash-Shawkani" is derived from Hijrah ash-Shawkan, which is a town outside San‘a’[9]

Born into a Zaydi Shi'a Muslim family, ash-Shawkani later on adopted the ideology within Sunni Islam and called for a return to the textual sources of the Quran and hadith. As a result, he opposed much of the Zaydi doctrine.[10] He also opposed Sufism.[11] He is considered as a mujtahid, or authority to whom others in the Muslim community have to defer in details of religious law. Of his work issuing fatwas, ash-Shawkani stated "I acquired knowledge without a price and I wanted to give it thus."[12] Part of the fatwa-issuing work of many noted scholars typically is devoted to the giving of ordinary opinions to private questioners. Ash-Shawkani refers both to his major fatwas, which were collected and preserved as a book, and to his "shorter" fatwas, which he said "could never be counted" and which were not recorded.[13]

He is credited with developing a series of syllabi for attaining various ranks of scholarship and used a strict system of legal analysis based on Sunni thought. He insisted that the ulama were required to ask for textual evidence, that the gate of ijtihad was not closed and that the mujtahid was to do ijtihad independent of any maddhab, a view which stemmed from his opposition to taqlid for a mujtahid, which he deemed to be a vice with which the Shariah had been inflicted.[14]

Salafis in Saada, would later claim ash-Shawkani as an intellectual precursor, and future Yemeni regimes would uphold his Sunnization policies as a unifier of the country[15] and to undermine Zaydi Shi'ism.[16]

Beyond Yemen, his works are widely used in Sunni schools.[17] He also profoundly influenced the Ahl-i Hadith in the Indian subcontinent (such as Siddiq Hasan Khan) and Salafis in Saudi Arabia and across the globe.[18]

He has been described as "an erudite, prolific, and original writer who composed more than 150 books (many of which are multivolume works)",[19] some of his publications including

• Nayl al-Awtar
• Fath al-Qadir, a well known tafsir (exegesis)
• al-Badr at-tali [20]
• Tuhfatu al-Dhakirin – Sharh Uddatu Hisna al-Haseen: a superb one volume commentary on the collection "Uddatu Hisna al-Haseen", on ahadith of Adhkar, by Ibn Al-Jazari (d. 833H)
• Al-Fawaid al-Majmu'ah Fil Ahadith ul Mau'zoo'ah a collection of fabricated hadith
• Irshad ul Fuhool – a book on Usul al-fiqh
• Ad-Durur ul-Bahiyyah fil-Masaa'il il-Fiqhiyyah - a concise Fiqh manual
• Ad-Daraaree Al-Mudhiyyah Sharh ud-Durur il-Bahiyyah - his detailed explanation of his Fiqh manual, Ad-Durur
• Adab ut-Talab wa Muntaha al-Arab - advice on the etiquette and manners of one who is seeking Islamic knowledge
• Al-Qawl ul-Mufeed fee Hukm it-Taqleed - An explanation of the ruling regarding blind following (Taqleed) of the opinions of Fiqh schools (Madhaahib) and its harms.
• Al-Sayl al-jarrar - includes the denunciation of a text written by the Zaydi Imam Al-Mahdi Ahmad bin Yahya.[21]

Arabic Wikisource has original text related to this article: Shawkani

• List of Islamic scholars

• Revival and Reform in Islam: The Legacy of Muhammad al-Shawkani by Bernard Haykel

• Book review: Revival and Reform in Islam: The Legacy of Muhammad al-Shawkani