The Letter of Singling Ḥajj, Tamattu' and Conjugation, Which is Best? of Kamāl Al-Dīn Abī Al-Maʻālī Muḥammad bin ʻAlī Al-Anṣārī Al-Shāfiʻi Known as Ibn Al-Zamalkānī (D: 727h)

Abstract

There is a great deal of scholarly disagreement about the best rituals, and Ibn Al-Zamalkani in this letter strived to present the issue and give preference to it according to his own judgment and the evidence that appeared to him, depending on the method of jurists in diligence and deduction. He titled his letter: (Singling Ḥajj, Tamattu' and Conjugation, Which is Best?). The researcher aimed to portray the letter verified in a scientific verification study to facilitate for students of knowledge to return to the subject and benefit from it. This is in addition to proclaiming the status of the compiler (Ibn Al-Zamalkani), as well as taking note of the totality of the sayings covering the issue, as Ibn Al-Zamalkani was keen to grasp them. Then after that, the researcher aims at studying the approach of the compiler in the letter and the method used in weighting. The researcher adopted the descriptive approach to provide an integrated depiction of the manuscript and to indicate its history and reliability. In addition, he used the comparative approach to compare the sayings of Ibn Al-Zamalkani and the sayings of other scholars and their arguments on the same issue. The research concluded results, most notably:

The manuscript possesses a high degree of reliability, as it was copied from the author’s copy, and was read by the author himself in the presence of a number of senior students of Sheikh Ibn Al-Zamalkani. Accordingly, the letter is correctly attributed to its compiler. This is in addition to the compiler's thorough comprehension of the sayings of scholars on the issue of the best rituals, and the ability of Ibn Al-Zamalkani to present them in an easy and clear manner. It also appeared from the compiler's method that he used the Shafi'i principles in depicting the issue and weighing in on it, although he referred to the books of all the four schools of conviction.