Ibn Ḥajar states in Inbāʾ al-Ghumr bi-Abnāʾ al-ʿUmr: “While still a youth he composed Aḥkām al-Tanbīh.” We have already mentioned that he submitted the work to his teacher, Burhān al-Dīn al-Fazārī, who admired it and praised him.
From this we may reach a sound and well-grounded conclusion (1): al-Aḥkām al-Ṣaghīr is the very same book known as Aḥkām al-Tanbīh, or al-Aḥkām ʿalā Abwāb al-Tanbīh. It has been published in two volumes by Muʾassasat al-Risālah under the title Irshād al-Faqīh—a name supplied by the editor.
7 – al-Aḥkām al-Kabīr
Ibn Kathīr set out to compile a major work of legal rulings, but did not finish it; the work is in the field of fiqh. He refers to it in al-Bidāya wa-l-Nihāya (3/333): “We shall present everything peculiar to the Prophets, together with the distinctive qualities of our Prophet, at the beginning of the Book of Marriage in al-Aḥkām al-Kabīr, following the precedent of the compiling Imams and in emulation of Imām al-Shāfiʿī, may Allah have mercy upon him.”
Ibn al-ʿImād in Shadharāt al-Dhahab (8/398) and al-Dāwadī in Ṭabaqāt al-Mufassirīn (1/111) also mention the book, saying: “He embarked upon numerous comprehensive rulings and wrote volumes up to the chapter on pilgrimage.” Al-Suyūṭī remarks in Dhayl Tadhkirat al-Ḥuffāẓ (p. 361): “He began a large work on legal rulings but did not complete it.” Al-Maqrīzī adds that two volumes on purification and one on prayer were produced (2).
8 – Extraction of the Ḥadiths in Ibn al-Ḥājib’s Mukhtaṣar
Ibn Kathīr alludes to this undertaking in al-Bidāya wa-l-Nihāya (15/269), in his notice on Ibn al-Ḥājib (d. 646 AH): “His Mukhtaṣar in fiqh is one of the finest abridgments, incorporating the benefits of Ibn Shās, while his Mukhtaṣar in uṣūl al-fiqh gathers nearly all the advantages of al-Aḥkām by Sayf al-Dīn al-Āmidī. Allah—exalted is He—has favored me with memorizing it, and I have compiled notebooks discussing the prophetic ḥadiths he placed therein. Praise belongs to Allah.”
Ibn Qāḍī Shuhbah records in Ṭabaqāt (3/114): “He extracted the ḥadiths found in Ibn al-Ḥājib’s Mukhtaṣar, and his companion Shaykh Taqī al-Dīn Ibn Rāfiʿ made himself a copy of it.”
9 – Kitāb al-Ṣiyām (The Book of Fasting)
Ibn Kathīr refers to this work in Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿAẓīm (1/215; 3/512), saying: “We have treated this issue exhaustively in a separate work, Kitāb al-Ṣiyām; praise and favor belong to Allah.”
10 – al-Muqaddimāt (The Introductions)
In his abridgment of Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ’s Muqaddimah he cites this book and directs the reader to it (p. 57): “Whether a mursal ḥadith serves as evidence in religion pertains to the science of uṣūl; we have discussed the matter fully in our book al-Muqaddimāt.” Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Razzāq Ḥamzah lists the work (p. 27) among those connected with Ikhtiṣār ʿUlūm al-Ḥadīth, though it properly belongs to uṣūl al-fiqh.