I was quite fortunate to attend part of the first maqra’ah whereby al lu’lu wal marjaan was recited, which was quite an experience. However, this time round, I was able to attend the whole reading whereby we read ‘Umdatul Ahkaam in entirety. We started about 10:45am (the start time was meant to be 10am) after waiting for those who had to come from many hundreds of miles away and we ended up finishing around 7.30pm on the same day, taking breaks for dhur and ‘asr.

Benefits:

Although a maqra’ah may seem to many to be devoid of much benefit; I beg to differ! Perhaps for someone to truly recognize the benefits they really need to attend, but here are some of the benefits of attending such blessing gatherings that I have come up with:

To attain the barakah (blessing) of sitting in such blessed gatherings.
To be aware of the ahadith. It is important for every seeker of knowledge to be aware of the ahadith that are agreed upon, and a maqra’ah is truly an amazing way to achieve this noble objective.
It is important that a student of knowledge has a good understanding of the tabweeb (chapter ordering) of a book and the main ahadeeth in each chapter. This is essential when a student of knowledge engages in research. Again the maqra’ah facilitated that very well.
It is a good way to compare different prints and versions.
Make corrections to print errors which could lead to problems for the student of knowledge in the future.
To learn from the valuable insights of Sheikh Haitham and subtleties of knowledge (lataa’if). This ranged from useful tips in memorizing hadeeth to past experiences with other scholars etc.
I am sure the other attendees benefitted in other ways that I have not mentioned, but I hope these benefits are enough to encourage others to come to the next maqra’ah because they are truly missing out on a great deal!

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the book, here is some brief information about the book:

‘Umdatul Fiqh by Abdul Ghani al Maqdisi (d.600h) is a famous text that contains hadith pertaining to juristic rulings (ahkaam) from al-Bukhari & Muslim. Like Bulugh al Maram ibn Hajar, the author leaves out the chains of narration and suffices with the name of the Sahabi. The ordering of the chapters falls in line with Hanbali fiqh as the author himself was hanbali, yet despite that many scholars from other schools of thought paid great attention to this text, such as Ibn Daqeeq al ‘Eid and ibn al Mulaqqin.

Available prints:

The book was printed 3 times in Egypt, first by Muhammad Rasheed Ridha, then by Matba’ah as-sunnah al Muhammadiyyah (1371h) with tahqeeq by Sheikh Muhammad Hamid al Faqi, and then by al Matba’ah as-Salafiyyah (1376h) with the supervision of Muhib ud-Deen al Khateeb.

There is also the very good print published by Dar ath-Thaqaafah al ‘Arabiyyah with the checking of Mahmoud al Arna’oot. (1993)

Commentaries:

1. al I’laam bi Fawaa’id ‘Umdatil Ahkaam - by Ibn al Mulaqqin ash-Shafi’ee (804h). This commentry is probably the most exstensive one available. An excellent print of this commentry is available to download from here , published by Dar al ‘Aasimah by al Mushayqih and forwarded by Sheikh Bakr Abu Zayd and Sheikh Fawzan. At 11 volumnes, it is a huge commentry for such a small text and as therefore expected is rich in content. Sheikh Bakr Abu Zayd mentions that this commentry was exstensively used by Badr ad-Deen al ‘Ayni for his ‘Umdatul Qaari’ Sharh Saheeh al Bukhari (although the author does not explicitly mention that). Ibn Hajar also referred to it many times whilst writing his Magnus Opus: Fath al Bari.

2. Ihkaam al Ahkaam - By Ibn Daqeeq al ‘Eid. Although smaller than al I’laam it is still considered by many to be the most common commentry available. Ahmad Shaakir has done a great service to this book with a valuble tahqeeq for it.

3. Mawaarid al Afhaam ‘ala Salsabeel ‘Umdatil Ahkaam - By ‘Abdul Qaadir al Badraan al Hanbali (author of the famous: al Madkhal Ilaa Madhdhab al Imaam Ahmad).

4. Tayseer al ‘Allaam - by ‘Abdullah ibn Saalih Aala Bassam. This is a very popular comtemporary commentry and is without doubt an essential book for beginning students of Fiqh al Hadeeth. It is carachterised by the simpleness and ease of the book and clear expressions used by the author in addition to mentioning the various opinions of a particular matter.

Wassalamu ‘alaykum

taken from www.mrdf.co.uk