Ismail Kamdar – My Favorite Book on Islamic Law

			Salam Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh but hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen wa salatu salam ala Nabi
according. So this is the first video in a new series in which I'm going to be discussing some of
the books that changed my mind. And the reason for putting together the series is, a lot of you have
been asking me what are my favorite books of all time.
		

			As someone who read about 60 books a year, I have a lot of favorite books. So what I decided to do
was to read look at the books that shaped me as a person that after reading that book, I was a
different person from before it, and to share with you the book, what it's about who the author is,
and why it made such a big difference in my life. And initially are going to do one video, in which
I go through the top five books that I ever read.
		

			I won't do it that way, because then I'll rush through the books, and I wouldn't give a
		

			a good enough explanation of the books. So what I'm going to do instead is I'm going to do one book
per video. And for the first video, I want to start off with a book that shaped my understanding of
Islamic law of Sharia. And
		

			this is a very important topic to me, because
		

			when I first started studying and teaching Islam,
		

			I never used to spend too much time in the field field of fake.
		

			The way fake was initially taught to me, was in a very robotic way, like a book from 300 years ago
would be presented to us. And we'd be told these are the rules, no questions, don't look at the
evidences just follow what The Book says. And a lot of what that book said didn't make any sense to
me and wasn't relevant to the time and place I was living in. So I kind of thought that what fit is
that's how it works. And I didn't really get into the subject too much. I follow the rules. But I
didn't want to do more reading on the topic. I didn't want to go further into the topic now. 20
years later fit is one of my three areas of expertise along with Tafseer and history. So how do you
		

			go from me not enjoying the subject of fit at all, to specializing in this area? Well, it all began
with one book that I read about, I would say about 60 or 7018 years ago, right? And I still got my
copy of it.
		

			The brilliant result of democracy to Sharia, by the late SHEIKH AHMED prohibit Shu Rahim Allah. So a
result of female policy, the Sharia has been translated into English as a treatise on Mikaze Sharia
and published by triple it. And this is, to me, the most important book I ever read in my life on
Islamic law. This book changed my entire perspective on what Islamic law is, how it works, and what
the role of a scholar is supposed to be like, in fact, and this book is so important, I've read it
at least three times, over the at least once every five years. I read this book, again, in light of
what I learned after that, so to get into it, the author of the book is to me, perhaps the greatest
		

			scholar of the 20th century, and one of the most underrated scholars of the past generation, Sheikh
Mohammed door, he sure was the movie of Tunisia. You were the Maliki Mufti of Tunisia. He passed
away about 50 or 60 years ago. And he was an absolute giant of Islamic knowledge, not just in
physical but of Syria as well. So if you look at the shelf behind the entire food collection, the
one that was from here all the way today, that's his work. That's, if I see this is my favorite book
avec. That's my favorite book of contemporary I've seen
		

			to have written a book like that on the sea of the 20th century after the downfall of the caliphate.
It's amazing. And somebody actually did that. When you read it, it's a phenomenal work like almost
every public speaker I know of who that's the WCF lectures. That's the book that they reference the
most. That's the one of the main sources from which they get rid of CFR. It's truly a masterpiece.
But so is his book on fake, right. And this book, changed my life in a variety of ways. Number one,
this was my introduction to La Casa de Sharia. So when I initially graduated, as a Hanafi scholar, I
had not heard of the concept of mocassin Sharia and they don't realize why, because this concept is
		

			more common amongst Maliki and Shafi jurists, and it is amongst the Hanafi tradition, not to say
that he's not there. It's just not as common. Right. So for example, the great Hanafi scholars sha
Allah definitely. He wrote a lot on this topic in his Bucha
		

			Allah Allah Allah another one of my favorite books. But aside from him, most of the classical works
on My Courses are Sharia. Were either written by Maliki or Shafi, in this case among the
contemporary Maliki from the generation before us, and what is Mombasa? The Sharia? Because it means
goals or objectives, because in the Sharia means what is the objective behind the laws of Islam? And
what even unsure Rahim Allah captures in this book is the whys of Islamic law. Why did Allah reveal
the truth? Why did Allah sin downloads? Why did Allah sent down morality? Why does Allah kill what
do we do? Why has he made certain things haram? Why has he made certain things up? And how does
		

			understanding the Y affect our application of the law?
		

			Now for me, this book was groundbreaking. And it was paradigm shifting, when I first read it 18
years ago, because up until that point, I did not look at Islamic law as something that had
reasoning behind. It simply was the book says this, that's what you do. The book says that that's
what you do. And by the book, I'm not referring to the Quran and Sunnah. I'm talking about something
written in India about 300 or 400 years ago, that we just follow it. And we don't ask any questions.
There was no reason there was no logic. There wasn't even any scriptural evidence. It just was what
the book says you do. That was the understanding of Fick I had until that point. So when I first
		

			read this book, and when I saw how he brings in the Quran, and the Sunnah, and the example of the
prophets, or even the Sahaba, and how they understood law, and how he understood the flexibility of
the law based on circumstances, and when he explained the goals of Islamic law. So for example, he
explains that all of Islamic law revolves around facilitating that which is beneficial for us and
removing that which is harmful to us. And so Allah wants to facilitate that which is beneficial for
us. So we instituted marriage, you give parents right to give children rights.
		

			He gave us the right to herba, he wants to protect us from that which is harmful to us. So Allah
subhanaw taala, He prohibited riba He prohibited alcohol, He prohibited gambling, because they are
harmful to us when he explained the law industry, and then from there, he breaks down some of the
Maxim's of this, that difficulty makes the law relax a bit. And culture has a role in shaping
certain secondary aspects of law. So some things in the secondary areas of law may be practiced in
one way in South Africa and a different way in the USA. And that's fine, because there is a
diversity of offerings, the diversity of culture. When you first read this book, I had never heard
		

			of any of that. I had literally never heard of any such concepts. And this book made me fall in love
with the concept of fake and Sharia, and law, costing the Sharia and provided via the goals of
Islamic law and the maxims of Islamic law. And we did study further I read every possible book I
could find on the topic I studied, either part of my Bachelor's program is attended lectures by
scholars on these topics. And essentially, this became one of the areas that I specialize in, and I
ended up even teaching it at the university level. But it all started with this one book. And just
to give you an idea of some of the concepts that he covers, in this book, it talks about the concept
		

			of masala right now, this is a bit of an overused term in our times. But when I first heard of it,
it was amazing. And really, when it's applied properly, it's a very important job. And what masala
means is that sometimes you have to look at the greater good that what's going to bring about more
benefit for the ummah. I know in certain contexts, this concept is misused today. But for a scholar,
it's very important to in doing that you look at the Messiah, you don't just look at the text, but
you look at the wisdom and the reasoning behind the law and what's going to achieve the goals of the
Sharia.
		

			He talks about things I've never heard of before when it comes to Islamic law. He talks about what
is freedom in Islam? How does it differ with Western concept of freedom? What kind of freedoms? Will
Islam actually secure for the residents of an Islamic country? What does equality mean in Islam? How
does it differ from other ideas of equality? And how would that be applied in an Islamic land?
Right? So he mentioned very clearly that equality in Islam is not the same like what the the other
nations would say. So for example, we believe that men and women have different roles in a marriage,
but they equal in the sight of Allah they equally responsible for their good deeds and their sins,
		

			and He has equal chance of getting into paradise, but they have different responsibilities in the
family unit. And he's very clear about all of this.
		

			So there are some truly
		

			Meeting topics here he has a whole section on family law and finance law on how the judges can use
this concept in,
		

			in working on court cases. And he really shows one of the most important things I took from this
book were three things. Number one, that there's wisdom behind the laws of Allah has revealed. And
once I understood the words, the wisdoms behind the law, I fell in love with the law. And then the
Sharia itself became to me a proof that Islam is the true religion that no human being could have
invented, this law says that it has to come from the Creator. Number two. The second thing that I
took from this is that some aspects of Islamic law, specifically the secondary aspects, are
flexible, they are flexible, based on culture, based on circumstance based on muscle, aha, based on
		

			difficulty, all of these things that again, that he has actually been done by Allah. But there is a,
a is room for diversity within our law, that certain things can be practiced in one way in South
Africa, and a different way in the USA.
		

			And
		

			the third thing that I took from this book, is that there's a lot of sciences behind law behind the
Vic, that you need to master in order to truly appreciate the fact you see, the mistake I made when
I was younger, was it I just approached Vic, as law that this is the book, we study it, memorize it,
you follow it? I did not study the behind the scenes science sciences that shaped the law. So for
example, Maqasid to Sharia the goals of Islamic law that shapes the law, provided the Maxim's of
requirement VTR are these formulas that summarize the laws of Islam. So for example, illustrate to
to the jury when they see extreme difficulty causes relaxation of the law, this is a maximum effect,
		

			that when when is a difficult situation, the law relaxes. Another example would be other local
culture is the deciding factor, that when there's a clash of cultures, and both sides are halal, you
need to follow the local culture.
		

			This is an important behind the scenes science that you need to study to understand and to apply
Islamic law properly. I have of course, also learned the principles of Islamic law which I did study
when I was younger, but not properly and not
		

			not to the level that needed to be studied and to go back and re study again, in my 20s. So that
journey began with this book. And this is why right to today when anyone asks me, hey, especially
with any student of knowledge, someone's doing the Alinea program or being in Islamic Studies asked
me what book they should read to understand the Sharia or Fick better. This is the number one book I
always recommend to them. If you haven't read this book, then there's a lot of things you are not
understanding about Islamic law. And you need to get this book read if you are a student of
knowledge if you are someone who appreciates or wants to appreciate the field of figure Sharia and
		

			what's your understanding of the timber level. This is the book to read. So yeah, this is the first
book on the list of books that shaped the way I think this is my favorite book on Islamic law. The
book or reseller FEMA calls into Sharia A Treatise on the concept of Sharia by the late great Maliki
scholar Muhammad Attali immature Russian Mark Levin Allah have mercy on the author except his good
deeds and forgive his errors and give him the reward of anyone who benefits from any of these books.
Until next time, Salaam Alaikum Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh