حاشية الطحطاوي على الدر المختار-العلمية

While the Hashiyah of Ibn Abidin is the most famous Hashiyah on Haskafi’s famous fiqh manual, ad-Durr al-Mukhtar, anyone using it would notice the large number of ibarat that Ibn Abidin doesn’t explain, leaving one to look elsewhere to figure them out.

Most of these are explained well in Tahtawi’s Hashiyah, resulting in it being the preferred source for one trying to understand Durr. Yes, Ibn Abidin’s Hashiyah is much better when it comes to clarifying the mufti bihi.

Due to Tahtawi’s Hashiyah explaining the book much better and due to it being much easier to understand, it is on the recommended reading list in some Dar al-Iftas.

We really don’t understand how easy Allah Ta’ala has made access to these beneficial books for us in these times. I always share the following incident with my students that displays how our akabir were desirous towards attaining beneficial books and how they would spend huge sums to attain books that we can get at a fraction of the price today.

ذكر المؤخر عبد الحي الحسني في كتابه «نزهة الخواطر» قصة لطيفة، تبين لنا مدى حرص العلماء على اقتناء الكتب، فذكر في ترجمة الشيخ محمد نعيم اللكنوي: «كان حريصا على جمع الكتب النفيسة...وإنه باع داره التي كانت على جسر فرنكي محل واشترى بثمنها «حاشية الطحطاوي على الدر المختار» بستين ربية.» «الإعلام بمن في تاريخ الهند من الأعلام ص1375».

He sold his house to buy the Hashiyah on Tahtawi on Durr!

There are no good muhaqqaq versions of this book unfortunately. There is the old version in 4 large volumes, which many find difficult to read. And this newer edition in 12 volumes that is just typed out from the older edition, but nicely-typeset, with the headings and matn in red.