A Madinan View On The Sunnah, Courtesy, Wisdom, Battles And History By Abu Muhammad Abdullah Ibn Abi Zayd Al Qayrawani Translated By Abdassamad Clarke

This Book
Malik said, “There is only one truth. Two contradictory statements cannot both
be correct," and “Knowledge is a light which Allah places wherever He wills. It
it not much narration of ahadith.” These apparently obvious but still powerful
statements set the tone for this book which gathers together tn one volume
matters which often challenge the cosy but fallacious consensus that modern
Muslims imagine to be so safely established. The beginning is an extensive
treatment of ‘aqidah according to the People of Madinah, and an examination
of the contentious subject of bid'ah - innovation in the deen. One of the
following chapters is an exposition of the relative merits of ahadith and amdl-
the practice of the People of Madinah - an argument which is rarely heard today.
A great deal of the book is on the noble qualities of character as exemplified by
men and women who held to them under extreme political pressure, in both
wealth and poverty.
The Author
Ibn Abi Zayd al-Qayrawani 310/922 - 386/996 at 17 years old wrote his
famous Risalah in response to a request from a friend for a book with which to
“teach children the deen as they learn the Qur’an” and that work went on to
become one of the key reference works for those concerned about the school of
the People of Madinah. He lived in Qayrawan under the shi’ah tyranny of the
Fatimids, where he resolutely kept alive the ‘aqidah and teachings of the people
of the Sunnah at great risk to his own life and safety.
The Translato