Muhammad Zahid al-Kawthari

Muhammad Zahid al-Kawthari
محمد زاهد الكوثري
Personal
Born	1879 Düzce, Kastamonu Vilayet, Ottoman Empire
Died	1952 (aged 72–73) Cairo, Egypt
Religion	Islam
Nationality	Ottoman Empire
Denomination	Sunni
Jurisprudence	Hanafi
Creed	Maturidi[1][2][3][4][5]
Main interest(s)	Aqidah, Kalam (Islamic theology), Fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), Hadith studies, Shari'a (Islamic law), Sufism, Literature
Notable work(s)	Maqalat al-Kawthari, Mahq al-Taqawwul fi Mas'alat al-Tawassul, Al-Lamadhhabiyya Qantarat al-Ladiniyya
Muslim leader
Influenced by Abu Hanifa Muhammad al-Shaybani Abu Yusuf Abu Mansur al-Maturidi Al-Tahawi Al-Bayhaqi Al-Baqillani Al-Juwayni Ibn Asakir Taqi al-Din al-Subki Badr al-Din al-'Ayni Sibt ibn al-Jawzi Ibn al-Jawzi Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulsi Muhammad Ashraf Ali Thanwi
Influenced Muhammad Abu Zahra Abdullah al-Ghumari 'Abdullah al-Harari Gibril Fouad Haddad Sa'id Foudah 'Abd al-Fattah Abu Ghuddah

Muhammad Zahid b. Hasan al-Kawthari (1296 AH – 1371 AH/1879–1952) was the adjunct to the last Shaykh al-Islam of the Ottoman Empire, a Hanafi Maturidi scholar.

Overview[]

He was born in 1879 in Düzce, now in Turkey (back then in the Ottoman Empire), to family of Circassian descent. After the fall of the Ottoman Empire, the Kemalists began a violent crackdown on the religious scholarly class. Fearing that his life may be in danger, Kawthari fled to Cairo, then to Syria and finally returning to Cairo. There, he edited classical works of Fiqh, Hadith and Usul, bringing them back into circulation. In particular, he wrote short biographies of prominent personalities of the Hanafi school of thought.

Scholarly works[]

• Tabdid al-Zalam al-Mukhim min Nuniyyat Ibn al-Qayyim - Refutation of Ibn al-Qayyim.
• Bulugh al-Amani fi Sirat al-Imam Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Shaybani - a short biography of Imam Abu Hanifa's student who would compile the Zahir al-Riwaya.
• Al-Fara'id al-Wafiya fi `Ilmay al-`Arud wa al-Qafya - (The Abundant Peerless Matters in the Two Sciences of Prosody and Rhyme).
• Fiqh Ahl al-`Iraq wa Hadithuhum: Originally an introduction to Nasb al-Raya, it was published separately with Shaykh Abdul Fattah's footnotes.
• Hanin al-Mutafajji` wa Anin al-Mutawajji`- a poem on the horrors of World War I.
• Al-Hawi fi Sira al-Imam Abi Ja`far al-Tahawi - a biography of Imam Al-Tahawi.
• Husn al-Taqadi fi Sira al-Imam Abi Yusuf al-Qadi - a biography of Imam Abu Yusuf.
• Al-Istibsar fi al-Tahadduth `an al-Jabr wa al-Ikhtiyar - (The Obtainment of Insight Concerning Determinism and Freedom of Choice).
• Maqalaat ul Kawthari - a collection of his articles.
• Tafreed 'ala I'laa As-Sunan li-Ashraf Ali Thanwi wa Zafar Ahmad 'Uthmani.
• Al-Insaf fima Yajib I'tiqaduh (edited by him).
• Tabyin Kadhib al-Muftari fima Nusiba ila al-Imam Abi al-Hasan al-Ash'ari (edited by him).

Creed[]

A staunch Maturidi, he held^[6] a critical view of the Medieval Scholar Ibn Taymiyya and his student Ibn al-Qayyim.

Recent translations of Kawthari's work[]

Mufti Muhammad Anwar Khan Qasmi, a Deobandi scholar, has recently translated many of his works into Urdu and published them in Indian academic journals and magazines. For example, al-La Madhhabiyya Qintarat al-La Diniyya, an article Kawthari wrote equating non-conformism to irreligiousness, was translated by Qasmi with extensive footnotes and introduction by him and published by Deoband Islamic Research and Education Trust in 2013 under the title of Ghayr Muqallidiyyat: Ilhad Ka Darwaza. Also, Qasmi translated Kawthari's extensive introduction to Imam Ibn `Asakir's Tabyin Kadhib al-Muftari, published by the same Center in Deoband in 2013, under the title of Islami Firqe: Eik jaiza. Mr. Anwar Qasmi also translated and edited in Urdu one of his great books called Fiqh Ahl al-`Iraq wa Hadīthuhum: Originally an introduction to Naṣb al-Rāyah, which was published separately with Shaykh ʿAbdul Fattāḥ's footnotes. On the same pattern, other books of al-Kawthari like min ʿIbar al-Tārīkh fi al-Kayd lil-Islam, and his introduction to the book al-Asmā wa al-Sifāt of imam Bayhaqī, and al-Kawthari's footnotes on Dhahabi's Bayan Zaghal al-Ilam were also edited and translated my Mr. Qasmi and published from the same Center in Deoband.

See also[]

• Mustafa Sabri
• List of Hanafis
• List of Ash'aris and Maturidis
• List of Muslim theologians
• List of Sufis

References[]