Shaykh Raḥmat Allāh al-Sindī’s Risālah fi Bayān al-Iqtidāʾ bi al-Shāfiʿīyah wa al-Khilāf fī Dhālik

By Mln. Ibrahim Hamid (Takmīl Graduate, 2019)

There are places in Ibn ʿĀbidīn’s Radd al-Muḥtār where Ibn al-Humām’s student, Raḥmat Allāh al-Sindī, is cited from. The first is in Kitāb al-Ṣalāh, v. 2, p. 304, where Ibn ʿĀbidīn discusses praying behind a Shāfiʿī. Another is in v. 2, p. 377. And also in Kitāb al-Ḥajj, v. 3, p. 254, where he cites from Sindī’s work(s) on the rites of the pilgrimage.

Upon locating a manuscript for his treatise, Risālah fi Bayān al-Iqtidāʾ bi al-Shāfiʿīyah wa al-Khilāf fi Dhālik, which is probably the reference indicated to in Ibn ʿĀbidīn’s first citation from him, it seemed prudent to transcribe the work in order to provide a digital version of it. This has been done, and it may be found below.

Shaykh Raḥmat Allāh al-Sindī

His name is Raḥmat Allāh b. ʿAbd Allāh b. Ibrāhīm al-Sindī. He was born in Sind, which is one of the provinces in modern-day Pakistan. He grew up there, his upbringing being one of wholesome piety. Thereafter, he traveled with his father to Gujrat, and then to the Hejaz.

In the Hejaz, he studied hadith with Ibn ʿArrāq, the author of Tanzīh al-Sharīʿah, and other scholars who were present in the Holy Land at the time. Then, he returned to India.

In India, he stayed in Gujrat. Gujrat had become like his homeland because of his prolonged residence in the area. He remained there teaching for several years, and countless students of knowledge benefited from him.

Towards the end of his life, he returned to Makkah. Ḥājī Khalīfah mentioned that he passed away sometime after the year AH 962. There is some discrepancy in the biographical literature regarding a more specific death date; thus, Ḥājī Khalīfah’s was relied on here.

(Aʿlām, 3:19; Kashf al-Ẓunūn, 2:1831, al-Nūr al-Sāfir, 3:136; Nuzhat al-Khawāṭir, 4:339)

The First Folio from the Manuscript