الفتوحات الربانية على الأذكار النواوية-العلمية

Imam Nawawi’s famous al-Adhkar is one of those accepted works, found in nearly every Arabic-Speaking Muslim home. The Mashaikh have emphasised its importance to the extent that the following become a popular saying:

بِعْ الدار واشتر الأذكار

“Sell your house (if required) and purchase al-Adkhar”

Ibn ‘Allan, the author of the famous commentary on Riyad as-Salihin, Dalil al-Falihin, realised the need for a good commentary on this masterpiece, thus he authored al-Futuhat ar-Rabbaniyyah.

He gives you everything that you could require in a good sharh including detailed explanation of every line and pointing out the hidden meanings in various duas/adhkar. Being a senior sufi shaykh, he also filled the book with fawaid from the mashaikh, that really fill the book with ruhaniyyah.

He didn’t sacrifice the ilmi side though, with detailed discussion on the various fiqhi ahkam and rulings application to each situation.
For lughah, correct wording and dhabt of words in duas, there probably isn’t a better resource than this book.
As for the hadithi aspect, he had access to the amazing takhrij of al-Adhkar by Hafiz Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani. This takhrij is really high-level, being a collection of hundreds of majalis of Imla, wherein Ibn Hajar provides his own asanid for many riwayat and goes into detailed discussions on every hadithi aspect of each hadith. Ibn ‘Allan sifted through these detailed majalis and extracted the important takhrij and hukm on ahadith that would be required, which he then added to this work.

The result is a book that completely changes how you understand duas and adkhar. Sadly, this masterpiece is unknown to most of our ulama, yet is indispensable and deserves a place in every alim’s library.