Mir'atuth Thullab fi Tashili Ma'rifati Ahkamisy Syar'iyyah lil Malikil Wahhab (مرآة الطلاب) [The Mirror of Students in Facilitating Knowledge of the Legal Rulings of the Sovereign Bestower]

Abstract

A transliteration and printed edition, by the Lembaga Naskah Aceh (NASA, Aceh Manuscript Institute), of the kitab Mir'atuth Thullab fi Tashil Ma'rifat al-Ahkam al-Syar'iyyah lil Malik al-Wahhab by Syekh Abdurrauf bin Ali al-Jawi al-Fansuri as-Singkili (c. 1615–1693), mufti of the Sultanate of Aceh and the greatest scholar of the Nusantara in the seventeenth century. This Malay-Jawi kitab was written at the request of Sultanah Safiatuddin Tajul Alam as a legal handbook for qadis and officials of the kingdom, and is regarded as the first Malay fiqh work to treat muamalah (transactions), munakahat (marriage law), and jinayah (criminal law) extensively, rather than ritual worship alone. Drawing on Fath al-Wahhab by Zakariya al-Anshari and the Syafi'i school tradition, the kitab expounds sale, usury (riba), pledges, partnership (syirkah), endowment (wakaf), marriage, divorce, inheritance, adjudication, testimony, and even hudud and qishash. This 602-page edition was prepared under the direction of Prof. Dr. Syahrizal Abbas, with transliteration by Muliadi Kurdi and Jamaluddin Thaib together with a team of correctors, so that this classical work may be accessible to present-day readers and serve as a reference for the history of Islamic law in Aceh and the Malay world.