Tadrib al-Rawi editions

Tadrīb al-Rāwī editions

Question

I have recently purchased Tadrīb al-Rāwī with the taḥqīq (research) of Shaykh Muḥammad ʿAwwāmah. Would this edition be sufficient for me or are there extra benefits in the taḥqīq of Shaykh Māzin al-Sarsāwī?

بسم الله الرحمن الرحیم

Answer

The Tadrīb al-Rāwī published with the detailed footnotes and commentary of Shaykh Muḥammad ʿAwwāmah (b. 1358/1940) is very comprehensive and is the best edition to date. Shaykh Māzin al-Sarsāwī’s edition has very brief footnotes primarily focusing on providing references. One additional feature of his edition is that he highlights the variations found in different manuscripts much more. Shaykh Muḥammad ʿAwwāmah only highlights the variations that have a material benefit in mentioning them as he himself has mentioned in the introduction (1:41). He also used more manuscripts than Shaykh Māzin so mentioning all the variations would have lengthened the book substantially. So, Shaykh Māzin’s edition highlights the variations of different manuscripts more. In addition, in some places, Shaykh Māzin also highlights variations from a cited source (for example page 307), not highlighted by Shaykh Muḥammad ʿAwwāmah (3:155). Another advantage of his edition is that he has added some sub-headings in square brackets after “Tanbīh”, “Fāʾidah”, “Takmīl” and similar terms, so readers can easily understand the subject of that sub-section. Thus, if a person merely wishes to read Tadrīb al-Rāwī, then Shaykh Māzin’s edition is more convenient, more user friendly and it is shorter in size. These are some benefits of this edition. However, from a substantive perspective on the subject matter of the book, the edition does not have much extra benefits, as that was not Shaykh Māzin’s objective.

Allah knows best

Yusuf Shabbir

22 Jumādā al-Thāniyah 1445 / 5 January 2024

Approved by: Mufti Shabbir Ahmed and Mufti Muhammad Tahir