And if you were to ask about them you would be told, “This one is a physician, the other a historian, the third an engineer….”
Let me return to the ḥadith master of his age and say:
Although he worked single-handedly, Allah—exalted is He—blessed his time and his knowledge; his works became numerous and the ummah derived great benefit from them.
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His adoption—may Allah have mercy on him—of the earlier scholars’ habit of giving their books rhyming titles; for example:
(a) Irwāʾ al-Ghalīl fī Takhrīj Aḥādīth Manār al-Sabīl (Quenching the Thirst: documenting the ḥadiths of ‘Manār al-Sabīl’).
(b) Rafʿ al-Āṣār fī Tartīb Aḥādīth Mushkil al-Āthār (Lifting the Burdens: arranging the ḥadiths of ‘Mushkil al-Āthār’).
(c) Ghāyat al-Marām fī Takhrīj Aḥādīth al-Ḥalāl wa-l-Ḥarām (The Utmost Goal: documenting the ḥadiths of ‘The Lawful and the Prohibited’).
—and many others. -
Some of his book titles spell out the contents in detail, even when the title becomes lengthy; such as:
(a) al-Radd al-Mufḥim ʿalā man Khālafa al-ʿUlamāʾ wa-Tashaddada wa-Taʿaṣṣaba wa-Alzama al-Marʾah an Tastura Wajhahā wa-Kaffayhā wa-Awjab wa-Lam Yaqnaʿ bi-Qawlihim innahu Sunnah wa-Mustaḥabb (The Devastating Refutation of those who oppose the scholars, adopt harshness and bigotry, oblige the woman to cover her face and hands and declare it compulsory, refusing to accept their statement that it is merely sunnah and recommended).
This title tells us that the book is a rebuttal of his opponents on the question of ḥijāb, and that the author shows therein—according to his view, may Allah have mercy on him—that a woman’s uncovering her face and hands is not forbidden, and that covering them is not obligatory but sunnah or recommended.
(b) Ṣaḥīḥ al-Isrāʾ wa-l-Miʿrāj wa-Dhikr Aḥādīthihimā wa-Takhrījihā wa-Bayān Ṣaḥīḥihā min Saqīmihā wa-Sard mā Ṣaḥḥa Minhā fī Siyāq Wāḥid bi-Uslūb Farīd Badīʿ lā Tarāhu fī Kitāb (The Authentic Collection on the Night Journey and Ascension: citing their ḥadiths, documenting them, distinguishing the sound from the unsound, and presenting what is authentic in a single narrative with a unique, beautiful style found in no other book).
(c) Qiṣṣat al-Masīḥ al-Dajjāl wa-Nuzūl ʿĪsā, peace be upon him, wa-Qatluh Īyyāh ʿalā Siyāq Riwayat Abī Umāmah, may Allah be pleased with him, Muḍāfan Ilayhi mā Ṣaḥḥa ʿan Ghayrih min al-Ṣaḥābah (The Story of the Antichrist, the Descent of Jesus—peace be upon him—and his slaying of him, following the narration of Abū Umāmah with the addition of what has been authenticated from other Companions).
(d) al-Naṣīḥah bi-l-Taḥdhīr min Takhrīb Ibn ʿAbd al-Manān li-Kutub al-Aʾimmah al-Rajīḥah wa-Taḍʿīfih li-Miʾāt al-Aḥādīth al-Ṣaḥīḥah (A Sincere Counsel Warning against Ibn ʿAbd al-Manān’s corruption of the authoritative books of the leading scholars and his declaring hundreds of authentic ḥadiths to be weak).
Such descriptive titles are not blameworthy, and the Shaykh has noble predecessors in this regard. Of what comes to mind are:
(a) the book Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Ḥibbān, whose full title is al-Musnad al-Ṣaḥīḥ ʿalā al-Taqāsīm wa-l-Anwāʿ min Ghayr Wujūd Qaṭʿ fī Sanadihā wa-Lā Thubūt Jarḥ fī Nāqilihā (The Authentic Musnad Arranged by Sections and Categories, with no break in its chains and no established criticism of its transmitters);
(b) al-Istidhkār al-Jāmiʿ li-Madhāhib Fuqahāʾ al-Amṣār wa-ʿUlamāʾ al-Aqṭār fīmā Taḍammanah