The Best Books After the Qurʾān: A Comprehensive Scholarly Guide by Shaykh Muḥammad Bāzmūl

• The best book on the subject of tafsīr for the beginner student of knowledge is: Tafsīr al-Baghawī.

• The best book on matters of ʿaqīdah which the Muslim needs is: Kitāb al-Tawḥīd by Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb (d. 1206 ^AH)

• The best explanation of Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī is: Fatḥ al-Bārī by Ibn Ḥajr (d. 852 ^AH)

•  The best book on the methodology of calling to Islam is: Manhāj al-Anbīyā fī al-Daʿwāt īla Allāh by Shaykh Rabīʿ ibn Ḥādī al-Madkhalī

• The best book on aḥādīth pertaining to conduct and mannerism is: Riyaḍh al-Ṣāliḥīn by al-Nawawī (d.676 ^AH)

• The best book on the sciences of ḥadīth is: Marifatu Anwāʿī ʿUlūm al-ḥadīth By Ibn Ṣalāḥ (d.643 ^AH)

• The best book on Arabic terminologies and expressions is: Muʿjam Maqāyīs by Aḥmad Ibn Fāris al-Qazwīnī (d.395 ^AH).

• The best book on the methodology of verifying manuscripts is: the book by ʿAbd al-Salām Hārūn, Taḥqīq al-Nūṣūṣ.

• The best book on the methodology of authoring knowledge-based research is: Kayfa Taktub Baḥthan aw Risālatan by Aḥmad Shalabī.

•  The best book in refutation of the Shīʿāh is: Minḥāj al-Sunnah al-Nabawīyyah by Ibn Taimiyyah (d.728 ^AH)

•  The best book on illustrating the guidance of the Messenger ﷺ is: Zād al-Maʿād fī Ḥādī Khair al-ʿIbād by Ibn al-Qayyim (d.751 ^AH)

• The best book on the laws of Islamic governance is: al-Aḥkām as-Sulṭānīyyah by al-Māwardī (d.450 ^AH)

• The best book on comparative fiqh is: al-Awṣāṭ by Ibn al-Munthīr & al-Mughnī by Ibn al-Qūdāmah.

• The best book on the obscurities and intricacies of ḥadīths is a book entitled: Mushkil al-Athār by al-Ṭaḥawī.

• The best book on information regarding the companions is: al-Isābah by Ibn Hajr.

•  The best explanation of al-Miwaṭṭa by Imām Mālik is a book entitled: al-Tamhīd & al-Istithkār both authored by Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr al-Namrī.

• The best book that focuses on the Prophetic biography is: al-Sīrah by Ibn Hishām (d.218 ^AH) which he summarised from ibn Isḥāq’s (d.151 ^AH) al-Maghāzī wa al-Siyār (may Allāh have mercy on them both).

• The best book on the concepts of syntax (and functions of the particles, conjunctions and prepositions) is Mughnī al-Labīb ʿan Kutub al-Aʿrīb by Ibn Hishām an-Nahwī. He was ʿAbdullāh ibn Yūsuf ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿAbdullāh ibn Yūsuf, Abū Muḥammad, Jamāl al-Dīn (d.761 ^AH).

•  The best explanation of al-Nawawī’s Forty Ḥadīth is: Jāmī al-ʿUlūm wa al-Ḥikam by Ibn Rajab al-Ḥanbalī.

• The best book explaining al-ʿIlal (defects of ḥadīth) is: Sharḥ al-ʿIlal al-Ṣaghīr of al-Tirmithī by Ibn Rajab al-Ḥanbalī.

• The best book on the narrations of the Companions is: al-Muṣannaf by ʿAbd al-Razzāq al-Ṣanʿānī and al-Muṣannaf by Ibn Abī Shaybah.

•  The best book in refutation of al-Kawtharī is: al-Tankīl biome fī-Taʾnīb al-Kawtharī min Abāṭīl by al-Muʿallimī.

• The best book on the abrogating and abrogated verses of the Qurʾān is: the book of Ibn al-ʿArabī al-Mālikī and Ibn al-Jāwzī al-Hanbalī.

• The best book on the abrogating and abrogated ḥadīths is: al-Iʾlām al-ʿĀlam baʿdad Rūsūkhi bī Nāsīkh al-Ḥadīth wa-Mansūkhī by Ibn al-Jāwzī.

• The best encyclopaedic book on the subject of fiqh is: Mawsūʿat al-Fiqh al-Kūwaitīyah, which is unparalleled.

• The best books on matūn al-ḥadīth are the six books of the Sunnah: Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim, Sunan al-Nisāʾī, Sunan Abi Dāwūd, Sunan al-Tirmithī and Sunan ibn Mājah.

• The best Musnād is: al-Musnād by Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal

• The best book which combines the six ḥadīth books is: Jāmīʿ al-ʾUsūl with the checking of ʿAbd al-Qādr al-Arnāʾūṭ.

• The best book on the laws of funerals is: Aḥkām al-Janāʾiz by al-Albānī.

• The best book in explaining the difficult (words of) ḥadīth is: al-Nihāyah fī Gharīb al-Ḥadīth wa al-Athar by Ibn al-Athīr.

• The best explanation of Sunan Abī Dāwūd is: ʿAwn al-Maʿbūd by Shams al-Haqq ʿAthīm Abādī.

• The best explanation of Sunan at-Tirmithī is: ‘Āriḍat al-Aḥwadī by Ibn al-Arabī and Tuḥfat al-Aḥwadī by al-Mubārakfūrī.

•  The best book on ḥadīths pertaining to Islamic rulings is: al-Mantaqā min al-Aḥkām by Majd al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Salām ibn Taymīyah and Bulūgh al-Marām by Ibn Ḥajr al-Asqalānī.

• The best books on the exegesis of ḥadīths pertaining to Islamic legal rulings are al-Badr al-Tamām by Sharaf al-Dīn al-Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad al-Maghribī al-Yamanī (d. 1046 AH / 1636 CE). This work was summarised by Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl al-Ṣanʿānī (d. 1182 AH / 1768 CE) in Subul al-Salām, which also serves as an explanation of Bulūgh al-Marām. Another outstanding work in this field is Nayl al-Awṭār by Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Shawkānī (d. 1250 AH / 1834 CE).

• The best explanations of Mishkāt al-Maṣābīḥ are those authored by Mullā ʿAlī al-Qārī (d. 1014 AH / 1606 CE) and Mirʾāt al-Mafātīḥ by Abū al-Ḥasan ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Salām al-Mubārakfūrī (d. 1353 AH / 1934 CE).

• The best books on Ḥanafī jurisprudence are Badāʾiʿ al-Ṣanāʾiʿ fī Tartīb al-Sharāʾiʿ by ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn Abū Bakr ibn Masʿūd al-Kāsānī (d. 587 AH / 1191 CE), and al-Hidāyah by Burhān al-Dīn ʿAlī ibn Abī Bakr al-Marghīnānī (d. 593 AH / 1197 CE), together with its commentary Fatḥ al-Qadīr (also known as Sharḥ al-ʿAjīz al-Faqīr) by Kamāl al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Wāḥid Ibn al-Humām (d. 861 AH / 1457 CE). He reached the chapter on guardianship before his death and was unable to complete the work, which was later finished by others. The commentary al-Bināyah ʿalā al-Hidāyah by Badr al-Dīn al-ʿAynī (d. 855 AH / 1451 CE) is also highly regarded.

• The best books on Mālikī jurisprudence are those authored by al-Qāḍī Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Wahhāb ibn ʿAlī ibn Naṣr al-Thaʿlabī al-Mālikī (d. 362 AH / 973 CE), particularly al-Maʿūnah fī al-Fiqh and al-Talqīn fī al-Fiqh al-Mālikī, as well as al-Kāfī by Yūsuf ibn ʿAbd Allāh Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr al-Namarī (d. 463 AH / 1071 CE).

•  The best book on Shāfiʿī fiqh is: al-Umm by ash-Shāfiʿī (d.204 ^AH) and its abridgement [al-Mukhtaṣar] by his student al-Muzanī. And its explanation Nihāyah al-Muṭṭalib fī Darayatil Math-hab by al-Juwaynī (d.478 ^AH)] which [al-Ghazālī (d.505 ^AH)] the author of al-Baṣiṭ relied on and abridged in al-Waṣīt. He then abridged al-Waṣīṭ in al-Wajīz [both by the same author of al-Baṣiṭ, al-Ghazālī (d.505 ^AH)]. Then ar-Rafīʿaī (d. 623 ^AH) summarised al-Wajīz with al-Muharir with two explanations [Fatḥ al-ʿAzīz Sharḥ al-Wajīz and Sharḥ al-Ṣaghīr] which were abridged thereafter. One of them was abridged by al-Nawāwī in al-Rawḍat al-Ṭālibīn. After them, Nihāyat al-Muḥtāj by ar-Ramlī and Tuḥfat al-Muḥtāj by Ibn Ḥajr al-Haytamī.

• The best books on Ḥanbalī fiqh are: al-Muqniʿ and al-Kāfī both authored by ibn Qudāmah (d.623 ^AH). The most important explanations of al-Muqniʿ are: al-Mubdiʿ fī Sharḥ al-Muqniʿ by Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbdillah ibn Mufliḥ al-Ḥanbalī, Abū Isḥāq (d.884 ^AH) and al-Inṣāf fī Maʿrifati al-Rājiḥ min al-Khilāf ʿAla Math-hab al-Imām Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal by ʿAlī ibn Sulaymān al-Mardāwī, Abūl Ḥasan (d.885 ^AH). And from the best books of the math-ḥab are: Kashāf al-Qinʿa and Daqāʾiq ʾUli al-Nohā li Sharḥ al-Muntahā commonly known as Sharḥ Muntahā al-Irādat by Manṣūr ibn Yūnus ibn Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn ibn Ḥasan ibn Idrīs al-Bahūtī al- Ḥanbalī (d.1051 _^AH).

• The best book on Usūl al-Fiqh is: al-Risālah of al-Shāfiʿī (d.204 ^AH) for the non-beginner student. And the best books for a beginner student of knowledge are those authored by Abū Ishāq al-Shirāzī (d.476 ^AH), specifically al-Lumʿa [fī Uṣūl al-Fiqh] upon which Abū Walīd al-Bājī based his book, Iḥkām al-Fusūl fī al-ʾUsūl; and the book al-Rawḍat al-Nāthir by ibn Qudāmah which has been summarised from [al-Ghazālī’s] al-Mustaṣfa and Muthakirah ʿAla Rawḍat al-Nāthir Uṣūl al-Fiqh by al-ʿAllāmah Muḥammad al-Amīn al-Mukhtār al-Jaknī, al-Shanqiṭī, the author of Aḍwā al-Bayān. It contains precious edits and audits. May Allāh reward him with good.

•  The best book on Takhrīj al-Furūʿ ʿAlā al-Uṣūl is: the book of [Shihab al-Dīn Maḥmūd] Zinjānī Takhrīj al-Furūʿ ʿAlā al-Uṣūl; and the book Miftāḥ al-Wuṣūl ilā Binā al-Furūʿ ʿAlā al-Uṣūl by al-Talmasānī; and Aḥkāmu al-Aḥkām Sharḥ Umdatul Aḥkām by ibn Daqīq al-ʿEīd. And al-Shanqiṭī placed great concern on this subject in ʿAḍwa al-Bayān. May Allāh have mercy upon them all.

I will end with the following conclusions:

1. I have mentioned these books based upon my own knowledge and study of them. However, with regard to some of these works, I have relied upon the statements and evaluations of the people of knowledge.
2. Describing a particular work as “the best” in its field is similar to the terminology used by the muḥaddithūn when they say, “The most authentic report in this subject is such and such.” By this, I do not mean that everything contained within that work is necessarily correct. Indeed, Allāh ﷻ has reserved perfection exclusively for His Book. Praise is given to a work whose merits outweigh its shortcomings.
3. If any of the authors of the aforementioned books fell into error, then the correct position towards them is to recognise that they are people of knowledge. We accept that in which they were correct and leave that in which they erred. We hold that they receive two rewards for what they were correct in, and one reward for their mistaken judgements.
4. Some of the books mentioned are suitable for both beginners and advanced students of knowledge, while others are appropriate only for advanced learners. If a student reads a book and does not understand it, he should seek a qualified shaykh to explain it to him. If he is unable to find such a teacher, then he should look for another book on the subject that is more accessible to him.
5. Furthermore, there is no harm in studying under a firmly grounded shaykh from the people of the Sunnah, whether in these works or in others. The foundation of learning lies in studying at the hands of scholars, not merely in reading books.
6. Finally, the best books after the Book of Allāh ﷻ and the books of the Prophetic Sunnah are those that are founded upon the Qurʾān and the Sunnah. They do not oppose Islamic legislation, nor do they support innovations. Rather, they follow sound evidence and adhere to the methodology of the Salaf.
7. With regard to books related to instrumental sciences, it is sufficient to become acquainted with their fundamental principles, without excessive immersion. This includes the sciences of language, uṣūl, expressions, grammar (naḥw), technical terminology (muṣṭalaḥ), and similar disciplines.
8. The primary objective of seeking knowledge is to understand the explanation of the Qurʾān and the meanings of the noble aḥādīth, and to implement them in practice, thereby attaining success and happiness in this world and in the Hereafter.