The Shaykh’s mention of the beginning of his path and the reason for his intense dedication to studying the science of hadith.
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
The Shaykh : One day, I found some issues of *Al-Manar* magazine at his place. I clearly remember reading an article in it by Sayyid Rashid Rida (may Allah have mercy on him), discussing the merits of al-Ghazali’s *Ihya* and criticizing it from certain aspects, such as its Sufism, for example, and its weak and flimsy hadiths. On this occasion, he mentioned that Abu al-Fadl Zayn al-Din al-Iraqi wrote a book on *Ihya* in which he traced its hadiths and distinguished the authentic from the weak. It is called *Al-Mughni 'an Haml al-Asfar fi al-Asfar fi Takhrij Ma fi al-Ihya min al-Akhabar*. My soul was greatly eager for this book, so I went down to the market asking for it, like a lovesick person, "Where is this book?" until I found it with one of the shopkeepers. It was four volumes, the al-Bab al-Halabi edition, on soft yellow paper. But I was poor, like my father, and could not afford to buy this book. So I agreed with its owner to rent it from him. I do not remember now if it was for a year or less or more.
The questioner : For money or something like that.
The Shaykh : Ah, the rent.
The questioner : The rent.
The Shaykh : The rent; I rented it from him. I did so and took the book, and I was almost flying with joy. I took it to the shop, and I would take advantage of my father’s absence after noon to be alone with my book. I made a plan to copy *Al-Mughni Takhrij al-Ihya*. I started copying, bought paper, and made myself a ruler, which was a piece of cardboard stitched with parallel lines of thread on both sides.
The questioner : Before I forget, Shaykh, what year was it when you started reading *Al-Manar*?
The Shaykh : Certainly, before the age of twenty; it might have been seventeen or eighteen, something like that.
So I would take this ruler and put it on the plate and press down on the threads. If the page was already printed, it would not be seen, because it was not a draft, and this was to straighten my handwriting. I started writing until I organized the first volume. When I reached the middle of the volume, an idea came to me: that I am now a beginner in seeking knowledge, and secondly, I am a non-Arab, and many hadiths pass by me that I do not understand.
The questioner : And peace be upon you.
The Shaykh :- And upon you be peace and the mercy of Allah and His blessings - or some strange words are hidden from me, which I later learned were from the obscure terms of hadith. So I said, why don’t I make use of some of the books that were in my father’s possession or library to explain these words that are hidden from me? So I did. But I had barely added some annotations when I went back and blamed myself and disparaged my work, because the first volume now appeared to have a contradictory style: the first section had no annotations, and the second section had annotations. I did not like this disparity, so I cancelled what I had done and resumed writing from the beginning of the book, using the method of annotation where necessary. And so the first volume ended, and I started the second. The difference is very clear between the first volume in terms of its annotations and the last volume and the one before it, because you see that in the first volume, most of the pages are *Al-Mughni* with few annotations, whereas later the situation was completely reversed. You would see some pages with one line at the top and the rest of the page filled with marginal notes, in a very fine script. We had quills for writing in Syria; some were for Arabic script and some for French script. They call these French quills because their tips are very fine. So I would write the annotations, which are in Arabic letters, with the French quill to distinguish the marginal notes from the original text. You would find the page full of this fine script, and at the top, with the Arabic quill, one or two lines, and so on. I felt that I benefited greatly from these reviews to fill the gap I felt due to my beginning in knowledge first, and due to my non-Arab status second. I benefited from this work a lot, and a very great deal. It is with me - and praise be to Allah - as a trace of this work.
The questioner : For money or something like that.
The Shaykh : Ah, the rent.
The questioner : The rent.
The Shaykh : The rent; I rented it from him. I did so and took the book, and I was almost flying with joy. I took it to the shop, and I would take advantage of my father’s absence after noon to be alone with my book. I made a plan to copy *Al-Mughni Takhrij al-Ihya*. I started copying, bought paper, and made myself a ruler, which was a piece of cardboard stitched with parallel lines of thread on both sides.
The questioner : Before I forget, Shaykh, what year was it when you started reading *Al-Manar*?
The Shaykh : Certainly, before the age of twenty; it might have been seventeen or eighteen, something like that.
So I would take this ruler and put it on the plate and press down on the threads. If the page was already printed, it would not be seen, because it was not a draft, and this was to straighten my handwriting. I started writing until I organized the first volume. When I reached the middle of the volume, an idea came to me: that I am now a beginner in seeking knowledge, and secondly, I am a non-Arab, and many hadiths pass by me that I do not understand.
The questioner : And peace be upon you.
The Shaykh :- And upon you be peace and the mercy of Allah and His blessings - or some strange words are hidden from me, which I later learned were from the obscure terms of hadith. So I said, why don’t I make use of some of the books that were in my father’s possession or library to explain these words that are hidden from me? So I did. But I had barely added some annotations when I went back and blamed myself and disparaged my work, because the first volume now appeared to have a contradictory style: the first section had no annotations, and the second section had annotations. I did not like this disparity, so I cancelled what I had done and resumed writing from the beginning of the book, using the method of annotation where necessary. And so the first volume ended, and I started the second. The difference is very clear between the first volume in terms of its annotations and the last volume and the one before it, because you see that in the first volume, most of the pages are *Al-Mughni* with few annotations, whereas later the situation was completely reversed. You would see some pages with one line at the top and the rest of the page filled with marginal notes, in a very fine script. We had quills for writing in Syria; some were for Arabic script and some for French script. They call these French quills because their tips are very fine. So I would write the annotations, which are in Arabic letters, with the French quill to distinguish the marginal notes from the original text. You would find the page full of this fine script, and at the top, with the Arabic quill, one or two lines, and so on. I felt that I benefited greatly from these reviews to fill the gap I felt due to my beginning in knowledge first, and due to my non-Arab status second. I benefited from this work a lot, and a very great deal. It is with me - and praise be to Allah - as a trace of this work.