الجوهرة المنيفة في شرح وصية الإمام أبي حنيفة

al-Jawharah al-Munifah fi Sharh Wasiyyat al-Imam Abi Hanifah

A concise classical commentary on the celebrated theological Waṣiyyah attributed to Imām Abū Ḥanīfah (d. 150 AH), written by the Ottoman Ḥanafī scholar Mullā Ḥusayn ibn Iskandar al-Rūmī al-Ḥanafī (d. c. 1084 AH / 1673 CE). Manuscript evidence preserves the author's own description of the work as a “concise commentary” upon the Waṣiyyah, and numerous manuscript copies attest to its circulation within the later Ḥanafī scholarly tradition.

The underlying Waṣiyyah presents a compact statement of the doctrines associated with the early Ḥanafī theological tradition. Its discussions encompass faith and its relationship to deeds, the Divine Attributes, the Qurʾān as the uncreated Speech of Allah, human actions and divine creation, ability (istiṭāʿah), the rank of the Companions, and the realities of the Hereafter, including punishment in the grave, resurrection, the Scale, the Vision of Allah and intercession. Al-Jawharah al-Munīfah expands these compressed formulations and places them within the developed terminology and argumentation of later Ḥanafī theology.

A particularly important feature of the work is its relationship with Akmal al-Dīn al-Bābartī’s (d. 786 AH) earlier Sharḥ Waṣiyyat al-Imām Abī Ḥanīfah. Mullā Ḥusayn explicitly drew heavily upon al-Bābartī, effectively condensing, refining and reorganising his explanation while adding observations of his own in certain places. Modern research has also identified among his sources Baḥr al-Kalām of al-Nasafī, works of Ḥadīth and other theological literature. The result is a relatively compact presentation of the Waṣiyyah grounded firmly in the classical Ḥanafī theological heritage.

The commentary is also notable for its treatment of transmitted material. Mullā Ḥusayn supplements the theological discussions with Qurʾānic verses, Ḥadīth and reports concerning matters of the unseen, particularly Paradise and Hell. Modern critical study has noted that some of the material transmitted in its concluding portions includes weak reports and Isrāʾīliyyāt, an aspect that should be borne in mind when using the work as a source for Ḥadīth.

Al-Jawharah al-Munīfah is thus a useful text for students interested in early Ḥanafī creed and its later Māturīdī exposition, especially when read alongside al-Bābartī’s more extensive commentary. Its historical popularity is reflected in the survival of at least several dozen manuscript copies in Turkish collections and in early printed editions, including an Indian printing from the beginning of the fourteenth Islamic century.

A modern standalone edition was also published by Dār al-Rayāḥīn, Amman, in 2023, critically edited and annotated by ʿAyn al-Ḥaqq al-Qāsimī, with an introduction by Mālik Khālid al-Sayyid.