MRDF organised a weekend reading of work of hadith. A review of the weekend written by an attendee follows:

The Mukhtasar of Imam Bukhair titled at-Tajreed as-Sareeh by Imam Zabeedi has just over two thousand ahadith covering most of the chapters that Imam Bukhari (ra) complied in his Sahih.

The course began shortly before Salatul Maghrib on Friday evening with Sheikh Haitham and about ten students who had arrived.

As students turned up over the next two days, we were up to nearly twenty and Sheikh Akram joined us for the Saturday’s reading.

We began with Sheikh Haitham al-Haddad introducing the Mukhtasar and giving some details about the different Mukhtasar that have been complied. We discussed a little on the lofty status of the book complied by Imam Bukhari (ra) and Imam Muslim (ra) in their two Sahih’s and then shortly after, we started to read from the text.

The reading over the next two and a half days was done with some of the brothers taking it in turns to read, but mostly Sheikh Haytham reading and Sheikh Mohammad Akram Nadwi also covering much of the text.

Many times we would stop and have a discussion about different narrations that have come on the specific wordings if we found that there were some differences amongst our own books.

And like this, we read until after Isha until the evening became late and we decided that rest was needed before a long day of reading on Saturday.

We woke for the Fajr and then read from the text until Sharook had come in where we took a little break and prayed some cycles of prayer.

Some more rest was had and we woke in time for Sheikh Akram who came and lead some of the reading whilst also giving us some explanations of certain verses and also some fiqh opinions that came out of the ahadith.

By Saturday evening, we had managed to cover half of the text and knew that we would need to read much to complete the text before time evaded us in completing the text before Sunday evening.

We began Sunday morning and read until many of us were very tired and decided that a little rest would be needed to carry on.

We woke and carried on the reading and Alhumdulillah, by Asr time, we felt that the text could be completed, perhaps even before the Salah of Maghrib.

As the last few ahadith were read, the joy of having managed to sit through and listen to the reading of the entire text was a rush of faith that all the brothers felt. There was blessing in the circle and the angles were with us in finishing off the greatest text second only to the Quran itself.

There can be much said about the two sheikh’s that were with us and their effort in organising and taking part in so much of the actual reading. BarakAllahu fekuma wa Jazak’Allahu khairen.

Also, to the amir of the group, mashaAllah, a well done job – and may Allah (swt) reward and bless you.