Teachings of Islam according to Zakariyya Kandahlawî

Teachings of Islam according to Zakariyya Kandahlawî:

The work The Teachings of Islam, the third volume of which we present here, constitutes the French translation of the main work in Urdu by Zakariyyâ Kandahlâwî published for the first time in India more than seventy years ago.

Imam Kandahlâwî, born in 1898 in India, was a scholar specializing in the study of the Prophetic Traditions which he taught for more than fifty years in one of the most renowned Islamic institutes in India. He was very renowned, throughout the Indian subcontinent and far beyond, as a “master of Traditions”.

He also became famous for the voluminous Arabic commentary of Imam Malik's Muwatta' in 17 volumes.

Kandahlâwî's work in Urdu, now translated into 31 languages and published in 32 countries, provides a detailed, penetrating, remarkably vivid and incisive analysis and exposition of Islamic precepts and practices based on the Qur'an and the Prophetic Traditions. . The different books that make up the work have the immense interest of offering a dual simultaneous approach: that of the tasawwuf (the spiritual way) and that of the sharî'a (Islamic law) giving Islam the most complete vision, the richest and most concrete there is.

Kandahlâwî's works in Urdu are well known and studied throughout the English-speaking Muslim area from India and Pakistan to South Africa. They are, on the other hand, not widespread in French-speaking circles. We hope to fill a regrettable gap with this translation work, of which we present the third volume. The work of sincerity and its virtues which deals with sadaqa (charitable act) in its essence and in its true practice.

Kandahlâwî has brought together a large number of Koranic verses and prophetic traditions on this very important subject of sadâqa. For faith withers and weakens if it is not nourished by good works. Far beyond material alms, authentic sadaqa is based on a sincere, powerful and certain faith of which it is the proof and which it reinforces. In its broadest and deepest sense, it cuts across, in fact, all the Islamic practices of which it occupies the centre.

This book is divided into 7 chapters, as follows:

• Chapter 1: Virtues of Spending God's Way.

• Chapter 2: Condemnation of avarice.
• Chapter 3: Safeguarding family ties.
• Chapter 4: The importance and virtues of zakat.
• Chapter 5: Dangers of non-payment of zakat.
• Chapter 6: Exhortation to contentment and patience.
• Chapter 7: Testimonies of sincerity