Jazariyyah Sharh with Translation pdf download

Jazariyyah Sharh with Translation

اللآلئ النقية شرح المقدمة الجزرية

By Muhammad Saleem Gaibie

JAZARIYYAH SHARH WITH TRANSLATION

Book introduction

This is the third part in the Murshid al-Qārī series, a commentary on the famous Muqaddimah al-Jazariyyah of Ibn al-Jazarī.

 I have tried to keep the discussions very simple and basic so that students and readers may easily comprehend the topics deliberated. However, unlike the first two books, some of the matters discussed here are intricate and a discussion of them is unavoidable.

Therefore, it is of utmost importance that students gain a solid foundation by first mastering books one and two before endeavoring to study this present work.

The format of the book is the same as book two: after the text is given, there are headings for translation, vocabulary, and explanation.

The translations are kept in the context of the rules being explained. However, certain chapters have not been translated since the verses only hold examples of words in the qur`ān, which are then presented under the heading explanation.

This is most commonly found in the chapter of the thā`s, the chapter on the cut and joined compounds, the chapter on the tā`s, and a few other verses in various chapters.

I have also not discussed the variances in the text of the Jazariyyah as it might tire the student and since they are detailed in my work, al- Wajāzah. Those who are interested in these text variations may refer to it.

Finally, I have added a chapter about the tā`s at the end of this commentary because Ibn al-Jazarī alludes to them in the current work. It is not part of the Jazariyyah, but the keen student may find it of interest.

His full name is Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn ˘Alī ibn Yūsuf al-˘Umarī al-Dimashqī.2 His nickname [laqab] is Shams al- Dīn and he had two patronyms [kunyatān]: Abū al-Khayr and Abū Muhammad; the first is more widely used. He is commonly known

simply as Ibn al-Jazarī. The ascription ‘jazarī’ derives from the Arabic

word ‘jazīrah’ which means ‘a peninsula’. Most experts are of the view that it refers to Jazīrah Ibn ˘Umar, a town in Turkistan.3 The eponymous Ibn ˘Umar is ˘Abd Allāh ibn ˘Umar, a man from Mosul in Iraq. Some have suggested that it signifies Jazīrah ibn al-Khattāb al-Ta˘labī, a port city in Armenia.4

The father of Ibn al-Jazarī – a merchant by trade – spent forty years yearning for a child but to no avail. At the well of Zamzam whilst performing Hajj he supplicated that Allah grants him a son.

His prayer was answered and in the year 751 AH on a Saturday night, the 25th of the month of Ramadān, just after the completion of the nightly Tarāwīh salāh-prayers, Ibn al-Jazarī was born.5

Ibn al-Jazarī’s father, himself a devout Muslim, revered the Islāmic sciences and had a special inclination to the study of the Qur`ān.

He therefore presented his son to his personal Sheikh, the renowned Hasan al-Sarūjī, at a tender age to begin his instruction in the Qur`ānic sciences. In this way father and son are recorded in the annals of history as contemporaries, having been students of the same master.

Ibn al-Jazarī successfully memorized the entire Qur`ān at the early age of 13 and a year later, in 765 AH, was selected to lead the community in salāh. He soon followed this singular feat with an initiation into the study of the various qirā’āt [Qur`ānic readings] at the hands of the master reciters [qurrā’] of the Levant.6 Notables amongst his many teachers from the Levant include Ibn al-Sallār, Ahmad al-Tahhān and Ahmad ibn Rajab.

The study and rendering of the entire seven readings [sab˘ah qirā’āt] were conducted under the tutelage of such masters as Ibrāhīm al-Hamawī and Abū al-Ma˘ālī ibn al-Labbān which he completed in the year 768 AH.

In the same year, he journeyed to Hijāz [now part of Saudi Arabia] for Hajj where he again studied the seven readings, this time as directed in al-Kāfī of Ibn al-Shurayh and al-Taysīr of Abū ˘Amr al-Dānī under the Imām of Medina, Muhammad ibn ˘Abd Allāh.

On his return to Damascus, he made preparations to study in Spain by Sheikh Muhammad ibn Yūsuf al-Andalūsī but was discouraged by his father. Instead, in 769 AH, he journeyed to Egypt where, under the tutelage of Ibn al-Sā`igh and Ibn al-Baghdādī, he learned to combine the seven variant readings as indicated in al-˘Unwān, al-Taysīr, and al- Shātibiyyah.

He also read the twelve readings [qirā’āt] to Abū Bakr ibn al-Jundī according to many variant turuqs. In the course of his reading to Ibn al-Jundī, he reached the Qurānic verse in Sūrah Nahl at which point Ibn al-Jundī passed away. Ibn al-Jazarī was, therefore, unable to complete his reading to Ibn al-Jundī but had fortunately previously acquired ijāzah [permission] from him. The remainder he completed by Ibn al-Sā`igh and Ibn al-Baghdādī.

He returned to Damascus for a short period until a desire to visit Egypt once again caused him to depart for Cairo in 771 AH. He resumed his studies with Ibn al-Sā`igh but now added the readings