Introduction

Al-Furu' fi al-Fiqh al-Hanbali was authored by Shams al-Din Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Muflih al-Maqdisi al-Hanbali (d. 763 AH / 1362 CE), one of the most distinguished students of Taqi al-Din Ibn Taymiyyah and among the foremost Hanbali scholars of the eighth Islamic century. Ibn Muflih was renowned not only for his mastery of Hanbali jurisprudence but for his extraordinary precision in reporting the positions of Imam Ahmad and the school's later authorities. He studied directly under Ibn Taymiyyah over many years, and his works reflect that formative relationship — particularly in their insistence on grounding legal positions in textual evidence and in their careful engagement with the full spectrum of scholarly opinion within the Hanbali tradition. Al-Furu' represents the culmination of his jurisprudential career and stands as the most comprehensive Hanbali fiqh encyclopedia produced in the classical period.

The defining characteristic of Al-Furu' is its systematic cataloguing of disagreement within the Hanbali school itself. Where many fiqh manuals present a single authoritative ruling on each question, Ibn Muflih instead maps the landscape of Hanbali opinion: he records the primary transmission from Imam Ahmad, the variant transmissions, and the positions of major school authorities such as Abu Bakr al-Khallal, Ibn Hamid, al-Qadi Abu Ya'la, Ibn Qudama, Majd al-Din Ibn Taymiyyah, and others. This approach makes Al-Furu' an unparalleled reference for determining the range of legitimate positions within the madhab on any given question, and it explains why later Hanbali scholars — including al-Mardawi in Al-Insaf — turned to it as a primary source when seeking to establish the school's most authoritative (rajih) ruling.

Al-Furu' covers the full breadth of Islamic fiqh: the chapters on purification, prayer, fasting, zakah, and pilgrimage are followed by extensive coverage of commercial law, marriage and divorce, bequests and inheritance, criminal law (hudud and qisas), judicial procedure, and the treatment of non-Muslims under Islamic governance. Throughout, Ibn Muflih cites the relevant hadith evidence and frequently notes when a Hanbali ruling is contested by scholars of other madhhabs, providing a comparative dimension that enriches the reader's understanding of where and why the schools diverge. The work is an indispensable companion to Al-Mughni for any student seeking depth in the Hanbali tradition.

Al-Furu' is a text for advanced students and scholars. Its value lies precisely in its comprehensiveness and nuance, qualities that presuppose a reader already capable of navigating fiqh terminology and following complex chains of scholarly reasoning. Those beginning their study of Hanbali fiqh should start with shorter manuals before engaging this encyclopedia. Islam.wiki presents Al-Furu' with English chapter introductions that orient each section's topic and highlight key intra-school debates, enabling researchers to locate the discussions most relevant to their needs. The work remains, alongside Al-Mughni and Al-Insaf, one of the three indispensable pillars of classical Hanbali jurisprudence.