But in this collection of thoughts very little justice seems...

But in this collection of thoughts very little justice seems to have been done to the subject of “Doctrines of Fiqh”. If the review is done in the context of book writing methodology, then it appears that there are some good qualities; however, means of finding solutions to day to day problems are missing and that is what is required in the “Doctrines of Fiqh”. Also the material presented does not seem to be satisfactory. It does not appear to be a consistent and organized effort.

As mentioned earlier a reader does not receive any material relevant to ways of solving problems and secondly there is lack of energy and freshness. To top it off, in this hefty 670 pages long collection, one gets an impression only four or five times that the discussion on the real subject is about to start. For example, Babe Khairul Wahid, Babul Ijmaa, Babul Qias, Babul Ijtihad, Babul Istehsan, Babul Ikhtilaf. But unfortunately the expectation dies out rather quickly.

As Muhammad Ahmad Shakir writes, “This point was not highlighted in the original manuscript. I gave this caption to this chapter. Someone else has scribbled this subject on the border with red ink; etc, etc.” After all this discussion one questions if it is possible to extract any knowledge about the “Doctrines of Fiqh” from Al-Risala and secondly who would accept that the thought was unique and came ahead of others.

[^1]: See Al-Fihrist by Ibn Nadeem; Wafiatul Ayan by Ibn Khalkan; Al A’laam by Zarkali; and Fawaidul Usul by Dr. Mahmud Shahabi [^2]: Al-Risala, p 11 [^3]: Al-Risala, page 12 Previous…