Author
Al-Kunti, Al-Mukhtar bin Ahmed bin Abi Bakr
Author Original
الكنتي، المختار بن أحمد بن أبي بكر
Type
Document
Language
Arabic
Digital
Yes
Manuscript
Yes
Pages Count
66
Library
King Abdul-Aziz Al Saoud Foundation for Islamic Studies and Human Sciences
Record ID
affichage_numerics3805
Notes
Printed manuscript
The beginning of the manuscript: Praise be to God, the One who causes causes and the One who frees necks, and prayers and peace be upon the faithful Prophet and all his family and companions. As for what follows, I received your book and found myself busy writing a book of approximately four books on the facts of the Qur’an and the Sunnah. I could not cut it short for anything, so I delayed your answer until I was almost finished with it. I saw that your companions had set out to walk. I looked through it, and the most important things in it were: explaining the position of piety, which is the position of the elite, and the issue of a woman’s sleep. A general issue is the common people of your country who pronounce the two testimonies of faith without any basis of truth or investigation, to the extent of their foolishness that they think that the Messenger is the brother of the Creator, may He be glorified and exalted, or his son. As for the question of true piety, the answer is
The end of the manuscript: I love you, O Messenger of God. So he said to one of them, “You have told the truth, and to the other, you have lied.” He was told that, and he said, “I found my heart loving the one I told the truth.” So I knew by that that he was sincere in his love, and I found my heart to hate the other. So I knew by that that he was a liar, because hearts take heed. His hypocrisy appeared after that. Al-Bayhaqi narrated it in miracles, and it was narrated from him, peace and blessings be upon him, that he said, “Men from my nation find in their records good deeds that they did not do, so they say, ‘Yes, our Lord!’” Let us find in our pages that we did not bring, so he says, “I learned from your intentions that if you were able to do it, you would do it, so I broadcast it to you in your pages, for the believer’s intention is better than his work, and I am of great merit. What we intended from your answer has been fulfilled with the enjoyment of what you did not intend, out of a desire to benefit you. May God’s blessings and peace be upon our Master Muhammad and his family and companions. Praise be to God, Lord of the Worlds, and may God’s peace, mercy, and blessings be upon you. It was completed by God at the hand of his writer, Muhammad Ibn Omar, to his sheikh, my master. Ibn Al-Mukhtar Ibn Al-Hayb, may God be pleased with everyone...and the end of his death was Migration on Sunday, the middle of Dhul-Hijjah in the year 1254. May God make us know her goodness and protect us from her harm, Muhammad, may God bless him and grant him peace, Amen.
- We did not find a statement about the title of the manuscript, but the name of its author was mentioned at the beginning of the dhariya: Our sheikh and role model, the one who created the fruits of secrets from the garden of types of knowledge, Sheikh Al-Sayyid Al-Mukhtar bin Abi Bakr Al-Kinti, then Al-Wafi, may God be pleased with him, said. After examining the manuscript, we found in it what confirms its attribution to Sheikh Al-Kunti, which is what was mentioned on page 8. The author said: “This section has a long explanation, and I have provided sufficient of it in our book called Nuzhat Al-Rawi wa Baghiyat Al-Hawi,” and this is attributed by the sources. For my daughter-in-law
This manuscript is more like a letter answering many different questions that one of Al-Kanti’s friends addressed to him. Among them we find a question about the status of piety in Sufi education, about a woman’s sleep, about the truth of faith, about the ruling on a traveler masturbating, about returning deposits, about istikharah during Hajj, about the difference between required politeness and reprehensible flattery, and about doing good deeds.
- Paper copy: We did not find any reference to the original from which it was copied
- The sheikh for whom this copy was written is Sidi bin Al-Mukhtar bin Al-Hayb Al-Abiri Al-Intasha’i, who died in the year 1283 AH = 1867 AD - See his translation in Al-Wasit fi Biographies of Chinguetti Writers, p. 240 - 243 - He was one of the students of the Kantiya school (named after Sheikh Al-Mukhtar bin Ahmad bin Abi Bakr Al-Kanti Al-Wafi) Al-Qadiriyah. He also had the good fortune and the right hand in spreading the Al-Mukhtariyya method in the desert and Sudan, as the scholar Al-Manuni wrote in his study of the Kantiya school referred to in the indexing sources.
