The Shaykh mentioned part of his biography with his father in the pursuit of knowledge, and his frequenting of the Zahiriyyah Library in Syria in Damascus.

The Shaykh : If you are resting, instead of tiring you by standing up... There is no god but Allah, my Lord is Wise and Knowing. The truth is that I feel that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) has been, and continues to be, if Allah wills, very kind to me since I was a child. I only graduated from the regular primary school. My father was one of the strong Hanafi jurists, strict in his adherence to the school, may Allah have mercy on him. I studied under him in the old way, some Hanafi jurisprudence like al-Quduri, and some books on the science of morphology (sarf), which the Arabs have abandoned and occupied themselves with only grammar (nahw). Yes, that is right.

The questioner : Morphology is the brother of grammar.

The Shaykh : Yes, that is right; perhaps morphology is more important than grammar, because grammar only strengthens the words... The point is, I studied under him and some other shaykhs a little of jurisprudence in Maraqi al-Falah, and a little of grammar and rhetoric, but I did not continue in that as was the case with students in the past, not recently. I found myself turning to studying books that are strange to me now, fictional stories, the story of Antarah ibn Shaddad, the story of Dhat al-Himmah and the heroes, do you know these stories? ... And then I moved on to studying history, and a person from among you from Egypt made it easy for me, whom Allah sent to Damascus. In order to make a living, the man bought up the contents of offices, and he had a shop in front of the largest mosque there, the Umayyad Mosque. The width of the shop was less than a meter, its width from the inside was less than a meter, and its facade was about two and a half meters. He scattered the books on the sidewalk for passersby, and in them were books of all shapes and colors, ... He scattered these books, in them was the good and the bad, as they say in Damascus. I do not know if this saying reached you: "O you who enter Egypt, do not turn or look, there are thousands like you." O you who enter Egypt, thousands means if you are good, there are thousands of good ones, and if you are bad, God forbid, there are thousands of bad ones too... So these scattered books, every person has his own goal, and as they say in Syria, "Here I got stuck on a book with some parts of al-Manar, and the path opened up before me, and I walked in the path of hadith; then Allah (Mighty and Majestic) willed that I learned the trade of watchmaking from my father, and it was the means to my livelihood, and with it I married and built my humble home there; but I was free and I remain free, by the grace of Allah, ... , ; so I would work in the shop for an hour or two, extracting my daily sustenance just enough, and I would close the shop and go to the Zahiriyyah Library. These are the hanging scrolls from the Zahiriyyah Library, these are all hadiths, yes, arranged in alphabetical order, yes; and now I have left the Zahiriyyah Library, but I do not say in exaggeration that I have left it, but I have come close to leaving it because of these hanging scrolls; because I selected the elite from thousands of manuscripts there; and what is mentioned and narrated are two things, and I mention them for history: I do not believe there is a shop, not only in Syria and not only in the Arab countries, but in the whole world — and Allah knows best — that is half a watch shop and half a library inside. I work for the time I think I have obtained my daily sustenance, then I enter the library, which is half the shop from the inside. When the time for the Zahiriyyah came, I closed the library and went to it; the second thing that is mentioned for history, and I also believe it does not exist except at that time, is that it was made easy for me to benefit from the manuscripts of the Zahiriyyah as it was not made easy for a high-ranking official in any library in the world, if he wanted to benefit. How so? This is the elevated library, and I used to place the ladder, so I would stand on the ladder and turn over the books; because these books contain everything and anything, we are now talking about manuscripts, they contain everything and anything. This book is good, I recorded it in a draft while I was on the ladder, not an electric elevator or an electric staircase like the bridges in some countries, no, I passed through more than ten thousand hadith books, from a treatise the size of a notebook to volumes of over a hundred parts, large and bulky, like what is the history of Ibn Asakir... This is a copy, yes, this is nineteen volumes, nineteen volumes, and that one was abridged by Badran al-Suri... , this is the original, the important one. In this way I passed through all the manuscripts, I recorded their names at a time when no one was allowed to enter the manuscript library, so any person who wanted to study would submit a request and be given only one book. If he finished studying the book, they might bring him another book, or they might not; but my Lord (Mighty and Majestic) made the employees there subservient to me, and among what Allah made subservient to me was a dark room that does not see the sun, but it has a light bulb, not like these bright bulbs now, a small bulb; so I worked in it day and night, I worked where there was no one from the employees at all except the guard, so I was placing the ladder and I was as if I was alone in that library until I recorded the names of all the books that I feel we need to study. After I finished this draft, I took the names and recorded them on cards, small cards like these here, then I classified these cards, I gathered them under the names of their authors, each author and his books, then I made an index for them. If you saw the index and I showed them the index, but it is okay, just look at the index and look at the material life I was living, extreme poverty, no, it is not this, but rather
The manuscript, which is the original of this, is, in any case, this. Look at the manuscript, here, here. Perhaps there is... leave it if so. The important thing is that the original of this is an index, meaning a booklet like this, made of this paper. Look at the paper; this is the paper used for wrapping goods, for sugar and tea, and so on. Praise be to Allah, the reward is in proportion to the hardship. Yes, I compiled an index from this paper. I classified the cards I had collected on paper like this, and I ended up with an index. After that, I placed the index before me. Now it was time to read these books. In the first stage, I climbed the ladder and wrote down the names and titles. Then came the second stage, which was reading these books. Here, I had to make a formal request, but I do not request a single book in their style; I might request a book like the history of Ibn Asakir, which is in volumes. So we requested, and they assigned these people to me, and they bring me whatever books I want. I study the book and give it a translation. The cards are only for the names of the books and the authors. Now I give a brief translation: first, is the author trustworthy or not? Second, what is the subject of the book? Is it about hadiths, is it about the biography of the Prophet, is it about the biographies of the Companions? And if it is about the biographies of the Companions, does it contain hadiths or not, and so on. The final stage, after I have finished it, is to complete the index. We have a friend who knows my approach in my scholarly work completely. The man is from Aleppo, his name is Abd al-Rahman al-Basha. He was an employee in Riyadh in some schools, and it seems he has passed away, may Allah have mercy on him. He was appointed director of the Zahiriyyah Library. Our friend rushed to this director and said to him, so-and-so has an index for some of the manuscripts in the Zahiriyyah. In this index, there are books that the indexes of the Zahiriyyah Library do not know. Indeed, because in the books coming in their indexes, there is a book on hadith, but in my private study, I knew the name of the book and I knew the author of the book, so I recorded these facts in my index. And he said he has such and such, so if you take advantage of your presence as director, print this index. He told him, let the author write me samples on cards according to the rules followed today. So I immediately submitted the cards to the Scientific Academy there, the Arab Scientific Academy, which is commercial, located at the Zahiriyyah Library. The Academy agreed, and as a result, this book was printed. After that, the final stage came. Bring me, so-and-so, please, such and such a book. I study it, and whenever I find a hadith, I record it on a sheet of this paper. So I have this first row, and behind it a second row. Now I have been deprived, for a reason, of the Zahiriyyah Library, but I have what compensates me for anything from it. All of this is by the guidance of Allah and His success, otherwise, what would have driven me to emigrate from Damascus to here ten years ago? He was attentive to me, and He has the favor and the grace. I hope that Allah, Mighty and Majestic, will take us all under His success and mercy. This is a brief word, and praise be to Allah.

The questioner : I tell you, if you come down to Egypt, our house is your house there, O my master. From now on, Your Excellency, you have a house in Egypt, if Allah wills. And I will leave my address withThe Shaykh : Abu al-Yusr, and whenever you please, come and stay with us as long as you wish, a year, two years, three, four. Welcome to you there. And if you remain there, may Allah bless you and preserve you.

The Shaykh : May Allah reward you with good and may Allah bless you. And my promise is that I will also enjoy your company here.
Abu Layla You say a year, two years. Say an hour, two hours.
I believe that thisThe student : is Abu Ishaq al-Huwayni, and Allah knows best.