These are suggestions for the beginning student of knowledge to consider when building his personal library. Many students, without knowing better, purchase books due to their famous title, or based on a recommendation without investigating further about the book itself, its available publications, or considering whether one would really benefit from it or not in their studies and life. What follows will be information about building one’s student library, and some general study tips. Anyone reading this who feels some info should be added or modified, please let me know so I can try to keep this updated insha’Allah.

 

Contents of this article:

1 – Introduction

2 – Aqeedah Library

3 – Fiqh & Usul

4 – Quran Studies

5 – Hadeeth Studies

6 – Arabic Studies

7 – Miscellaneous

 

Important Introductions

Here are some necessary starter points for beginning students of knowledge to understand about book buying.

Is the print (الطبعة) and edition (الإصدار) important?

Between two different prints of the same book may be a great difference. The range of differences may be in:

• The presence of an “academic index” [فهارس علمية] for easy referencing. The book will then have separate indices for verses, narrations, places and people mentioned, issues discussed, poetry lines, etc.
• The presence of text not found in another copy because of what was known and available to one muhaqqiq and not another.
• Referencing alignment known as عَزْو. When scholars and authors quote from previous books, they will frequently mention a volume and page number without mentioning when or where that quoted edition was published except as their sources at the end of the book. Obviously, each publication differs in page numbering. Their referencing frequently refers to the first publication made available, which, thankfully, is often in agreement with the Maktaba Shamela print. Later publications could be better in many ways, but unless the page numbers of the original print are labeled in the margins of the newer print, you will not be able to refer to that newer print when verifying a quote, nor will you be able to quote from it yourself without stating the printing warehouse, year and edition of the book.
• The correction of some text that was displayed incorrectly in another copy. For example, between the Maktab Islami print of Tayseer al-Azeez al-Hameed and the Dar-al-Somaa’ee print, one copy has the word “شكر” and another copy has the word “شرك” in one spot which obviously changes the meaning completely. Along these lines are errors in diacritical marks, word ordering, etc. Mistakes like these are the most detrimental since they impair your ability to understand the author’s intended message. These errors could confound you and you may suspect your grammar skills or be searching in various dictionaries for the meaning of a word without knowing that the muhaqqiq mistakenly copied it improperly or the publishing house erred in its printing.
• Better footnoting within the text itself. Like mentioning where a hadeeth is to be found in the original source books, explaining the meanings of some not-often used words, or making note if the author has contradicted a principle of Ahl-Sunnah wal-Jamaa’ah so that the reader is not adversely affected, etc.
• A befitting muqaddimah, like mentioning the subject of the book, its importance, validity of its attribution to the stated author, previous publications of the book, a brief biography of the author, etc. When you buy the book, you probably already know its importance or about its author, but you may not always (especially when it’s required reading for a class), and in that case, where would you expect to find it except as a prelude to their own works?
• Lastly, the overall appearance of the print. You may like older copies with yellow pages to feel more of a connection with the subject and author. You may prefer white pages since it may be easier to write in the sides. And some books with yellow pages have thick pages to make the book more voluminous, others have thin “bible pages”—to compress the book, and in that case, if you write or underline on one side, it may be visible on the other side of the page. Depending on the book’s purpose—heavy study or casual reference, you may

How do I know which print is better between two publications?

The goal behind a good tahqeeq/تحقيق is nothing more than presenting the book as the author intended. The Muhaqqiq does this by searching the world’s libraries (via their internet databanks or calling them personally or reading about what they have in their storage) and then gathering all the transcripts, fragments and publications available of the book up to date, comparing them, and then re-writing the book itself and clarifying to the reader any discrepancies between the مخطوطات/handwritten manuscripts as well as previous publications/editions. Tahqeeq is used for the books of scholars that have passed away and never published their works through a printing warehouse. Technically, we could add scholars whose works were published based off of their audio recordings—i.e. they did not publish it themselves. For more on this topic, refer to one of the books on كتابة البحث العلمي والتحقيق المناقشة

Thus, the muhaqqiq never adds his words within the text itself. Everything else (like hadeeth referencing, explaining unfamiliar words, places, individuals, etc) is an added bonus and is the difference between a regular tahqeeq and a “تحقيق علمي”. And most books do not contain all of those ingredients unless it is a masters or doctorate project. However, when the scholars state which publication is best, they will do so based upon a better tahqeeq of the original author’s text, but not so much based upon other additions, since it is assumed that the reader has the ability to look up a hadeeth, line of poetry, unfamiliar word, name, or city. For looking up a hadeeth, person, place, etc, the first step may simply be typing the subject/sample/text into google and searching. Without that ability, one may search for ahaadeeth in the Dorar Saniyah hadeeth encyclopedia which carries the rulings of al-Albani or my personal favorite, the Islamweb hadeeth encyclopedia. As for looking up people or places, try, معجم المؤلفين  or  معجم البلدان to begin with as well as معجم القبائل العربية. As for finding the sources of lines of poetry… beats me!

How can I find out the best print of a book I want to buy?

Start by asking the scholars who specialize in that subject matter or searching online forums for discussions on the book and its best print. To date, there is almost not a single book that I’ve searched for on Ahl alhdeeth dot com except that I have found a discussion about the best prints available. If you have two different prints of the same book in front of you, how can you then tell? First of all, look to the introductions and see how many manuscripts and publications/نسخ the muhaqqiq relied upon. Also, check which one was published later, since the later muhaqqiq likely looked at previous publications, saw some problems with them which called him towards making a newer publication—he should mention that in his introduction. Also, some muhaqqiqs are well known for better work than others. And almost anything published as part of doctorate project is usually decent. If there is no difference up to this point, then look at any other benefits which cater to you as mentioned above—like one publication may mention the hadeeth authenticity whereas the other may not. But the best way is simply comparing the text of the two, reading through both at the same time and comparing a couple pages. Sometimes there will even be discrepancies between multiple publications even when the muhaqqiq is the same, so do not be hasty when purchasing.

Is there anything else I should consider when choosing a print or when buying books in general?

New and better prints continuously appear, which is why I hesitate to reveal this list, since it may be obsolete. Also, as the old adage goes, don’t judge a book by its cover: it may seem like what you want, but unless you are certain, read the table of contents and the intro—some books have misleading titles and the author’s introduction may say, “this book is about such and such, so if you’re looking for this and that, look elsewhere” and this will save you money. Also, fewer volumes of a book—as is becoming more common these days—will be cheaper, lighter and take up less space. But before choosing it over a copy that has more volumes, make sure that the smaller print is bearable, as you may be reading these books well into old age, and make sure there is room to write any notes along the sides of the text if it is not a reference book. Sometimes even if it is a reference book, you may want extra room in case you discover an error in the print. Also, briefly skim through the pages of the book just to make sure there is ink on all the pages—some copies may contain several blank pages or bent pages that were printed incorrectly but you would not see that with a quick look. Lastly, there is not any one publishing house whose publications are always the best, although I have never heard of a horrible publication coming from

دار ابن الجوزي، دار طيبة، دار عالم الكتب، دار عالم الفوائد، مؤسسة الرسالة، دار المنهاج، مكتبة العبيكان

so if you need a book quickly and see a print from one of these, it should be okay. And I rarely here of the best copy coming from any of these publishing houses (and sometimes the worst!):

دار الكتب العلمية، المكتبة العصرية، دار إيحياء التراث

And there are many muhaqqiqs whose works usually receive approval from critics no matter the publishing house, however, many stick with one publishing house.

As for books written by today’s scholars who write their manuscripts on the computer, or their students compile them from their duroos with the final “okay” from the shaykh, these are generally fairly similar—except a copy could have some typos within the text which is the fault of the publishing house usually (الأخطاء المطبعية). If an author/muhaqqiq is still alive, get the most recent edition since he may revise what he wrote or add more information as he sees need or change his wording based upon what may have led to confusion.

For more on book buying and building one’s library, listen to the speech of AbdulKareem al-KhuDair on how a student of knowledge should build his library. However, this speech, and this shaykh’s advice in general on book buying, is more directed towards those students who are working on becoming scholars. There’s nothing to stop you from trying to become a scholar, but the world of books is very large, life is short—a few books that Allah puts a lot of blessing in are greater than a thousand books in your home that are never opened or their benefits are forgotten and wasted and they are ultimately sold to a used book store to collect dust, or worse, thrown away by unappreciative heirs. And there is no contradiction between this and having lofty goals—the world has witnessed that some of the most successful scholars were those who learned greatly from moderate resources, even though being widely read (سعة الاطلاع) is a praiseworthy and invaluable quality. To balance between this and that, I recommend following the advice of ibn Abbaas who said: “العلم أكثر من أن تحصى فخذ من كل شيء أحسنه” so find the best book of every topic.

The mashaayakh generally advise students to take the “middle ground” when buying books—not being extravagant and buying every book with benefit—as there is no book without some benefit, and perhaps no book will completely suffice you over another—yet not being reserved to the point that a lot of benefit passes you by and you are ignorant to some branches of study and do not even realize it. So to get the most complete and beneficial book or two, within your perceived ability to benefit from it if you live a long life, from every division of every branch of knowledge would be most prudent. And from the benefits of having a moderate sized library is that, when you pass on, your children and grandchildren can benefit from it, or if not, then they are donated to the libraries of the Muslims and other students. For more on the benefits of purchasing books, read this.

Reading books during undergrad academics…

If you are going to study any specific subject within your university curriculum, one strategy I found beneficial and recommend at times is delaying extracurricular studies of that subject until after your academic studies of that subject matter are completed—or at the very least, you may study the other subject beforehand, but preferably not during your classes and especially not during the testing days. In the West, we are tested on our knowledge, overall understanding and ability to express and use it—and thus we can “test out” of subjects without even taking the class. However, in the Islamic University of Medina, and some other institutions, you are tested specifically upon what you learn within that class from that teacher. Thus, if you are asked about the definition of a word, your answer could be wrong if you respond with another scholar’s definition, evidence, tarjeeh, classification or ruling. In fact, a teacher might be upset by that, seriously. In postgrad, instructors like that students do independent research (duh that’s what post-grad is all about), but the undergrad is a different story, and teachers rightfully feel the need to make sure the students are properly getting a good wholesome foundation. Studying the subjects during the class itself may bring unneeded confusion to your university life unless you know nothing about the subject at all and simply want to gain a basic familiarity.

Having said that, delay studying, for example, seerah, until after you’ve studied it during your class, but, until then, you may read the history of the prophets, which is not a part of the university curriculum. But after your seerah class, read as much as you want and can about the life of the Prophet ﷺ , and so forth with every other subject. The only time I recommend and encourage going against this principle is if you can start from the very beginning of the class with the book you want and then follow through and note everything the teacher says which is different from the book. I recommend this path especially for any subject that’s your specialty and you feel confident that you’ll be able to distinguish between what the teacher said and what your book(s) contain. For example, in the da’wah college, our main specialty was aqeedah, and alhamdulillah we covered all main issues of `aqeedah in relative depth—i.e. the evidence for it and brief argument against contest. So in addition to following along with the sheikh, if you read a couple detailed and advanced books on the topic of each semester, then you would come out an expert of the subject and hardly have to study more of it beyond review, unless you planned on doing postgrad in that field.

A note about studying books…

As the scholars say, “العلم صيد والكتابة قيده”. So to get the most out of a book that you’re reading by yourself, you will want to write a تلخيص of that book in your own words—a summary of the benefits without all of the fluff, and then re-read and edit your summary and teach it to others and the knowledge you gained will remain for many years. For example, many students rely on summaries of Tafseer ibn Katheer, but if you read the real ibn Katheer and then wrote your own summary of it, you would not have to return to someone else’s summary every time you wanted to give a dars of it or are asked a question. Along these lines is turning a book into a poem, which some students and scholars do who are very proficient in Arabic. Another method of studying books, with a little less benefit than the former, is to take two or more books of the same subject matter—for example, 2 detailed books of Hanbali fiqh. Then use one of them, perhaps the one with more benefit and more space, as your teaching review source book. Whatever you gain from other books/tapes, you write in the side of your source book. If you run out of room, you may write those benefits on a paper, note card or post-it and stick it in the book at its appropriate spot. This way, whenever you review that book, you’re reviewing several explanations. Then, whenever you read a new explanation of that book, you can do so while reviewing your source and recording new benefits into the original.

And when you study a book with a shaykh, read the matn and read an explanation before attending the dars, and then whatever new is mentioned, write it in the sides in pencil, or write it in a notebook and then after the dars re-write it nicely in the sides with ink. Then, if you have unanswered questions from your reading, you can present those after the lecture, much appreciated.

This is how to get the most benefit out of the most important books to you. As for those subjects that you just want to know about without any great need to pass on the knowledge or continuously progress—for example, the history of the Arabic language sciences, then one could read the book, underline what is important, and then when finished, reread the underlined portion, and then the information will remain for a while. If you want, you may even, during your second reading, highlight the more important info from that underlined info. Thus, whenever you want to re-read the most important points, skim through the highlighted info and finish the book in under an hour. Everyone may have their own style that suits them. Some students seek knowledge after having studied a lot in a university whilst many others have not and are in the dark on how best to proceed.

Before addressing each branch of knowledge individually and what will benefit you the most from it, there is a need to remind ourselves to some etiquettes in seeking knowledge. As it is said, management is doing an activity quickly and correctly, but leadership is choosing the right activity to busy with. You do not want to waste a moment, much less several years, climbing a ladder only to find out it was placed against the wrong wall. First of all, do not take on too many activities in the beginning, but see how well you can balance and benefit from each one, and gradually add more if your time and mental capacity allows. Also, if you are unsure what path to take in studying a certain science, but you are choosing between more than one recommended/proven paths, think for a bit, pray istikhaarah, choose one and seek Allah’s Help, put your trust in Him and go for it متوكلا عليه.

Second, begin at the beginning of each field. It is said: “من حُرّم الأصول حرم الوصول”. When studying a branch of knowledge, you begin with a basic yet encompassing view to put everything in “a big picture” (التصور العام). Hence, when you take in more advanced topics and delve deeper into their divisions, you know what it will ultimately lead to and you are not confused—you can “take a step back”. This also highlights the importance of attendance—since everything you learn is only built upon what you learned before it. So whenever you have gaps in your knowledge, that which is placed on top of it will sink into the gap, unsupported, and may not be understood correctly. You never read in the biography of great scholars “used to skip a couple lessons, every now and then.” Rather, most of the great scholars were the earliest to arrive, sitting as close as possible to their instructor, attentive and analyzing.

Thirdly, learn from other students, preferably graduates, what you will need to study most outside of your collegiate studies. For example, if you are in the Da’wah college, then the most important thing you will need to study elsewhere is fiqh, hadeeth studies and tafseer. However, it is good to have a strong nahw background before Usool al-fiqh, since the main pillar of Usool studies are based on the Arabic language. Also, a student should place before everything else, memorization of the Qur’an and the study of tajweed and strive for, eventually, completing an ijaazah.

Your college may give you some good samples of tafseer, nahw, aqeedah, fiqh, and hadeeth studies, but the goal of the Islamic University of Medina [I can’t speak for other schools] is NOT to turn you into a scholar of ANYTHING, rather, it is to give you the tools to become a scholar and present some samples of how the scholars conduct their business and some of the results they’ve reached, and then you should make the best out of your time considering what the city offers outside the university.

So be shy of reading too much while you are studying in the city and the scholars are alive and teaching. Save most of your book/cassette goals for after graduation. Real knowledge comes from the scholars. Books and tapes are for understanding, reference, research, and increased development after you have already built a strong base from a live teacher and benefited from their manners and presentation. However, if you are at a certain point in your studies and want to study a certain level of fiqh studies for example or Usool and cannot find a teacher at that moment giving those duroos, then there’s no harm in benefiting from the tapes online, since that’s what they’re there for originally. But remember, no one ever got an ijaazah from a cassette player.

So how do I understand the list you presented?

When I began studying in Medina, I was first given a book list by a graduating student from the Shariah College. Some shaykhs also have lists for students to collect from. Some lists only mention the greatest books of every field with nothing suitable for beginners or intermediates. Other lists show every book suitable for a beginner and every book for an intermediate – but the goal is to get through these stages quickly to the level of expertise, and perhaps ultimately, ijtihaad in that field. So these lists may not mention that the first five books for example are good for beginners and that you would be well off with only one of them or a couple. And these days, more specialists are writing introductory books for their fields—and they are excellent, but they should not occupy a significant amount of shelf space. However, one benefit of having several “beginner” books is that they are decent for teaching from—so have a couple, but choose wisely. And the zakat of knowledge is teaching, so you will want to have an arsenal of supplies suitable for teaching out of, or make your own, which is ultimately better. Many scholars are also publishing new intermediate level books in every field, especially in hadeeth studies, usool al-fiqh, and Arabic. I did not include too many of these books on this list, since most teachers still recommend the classics, but it could be that some of these books really are more befitting, at this stage or another, and Allah knows better.

Some lists mention the best print but most only mentioned the titles, and almost never is there a mention on the methodology of progression or significance of each book. I tried to combine all that and more to make it a lot less (on the wallet of a student) and more beneficial by mentioning something about the significance of most books, and arranging them in order of their required experience level. Also, if more than one book is at a level (approximately), and if the student does not want to spend years and years as a beginner, I have placed those books on a single line with “OR” between the titles. And if you find yourself forced to study something advanced that is above your level, returning to some of those “beginner” books brings harmony to much confusion. However, it is the more advanced books that will ultimately protect you from misguidance insha’Allah from some of the doubts, questions, misconceptions that the laymen come with which the beginner books rarely address in specific. So get a solid foundation, and then build on it.

Also, there is frequently difference of opinion over the best publication. If I did not mention a publication, then I have only seen one but do not want to pressure you into getting it since I don’t feel it is a great publication or do not know of a good one in existence or other reasons. If you see or hear of a different publication which seems better than what I mentioned, check to see if it is better at meeting your needs. But do not buy any extra copy of a single book (selling your spare) unless 1) the other one has more than one clear advantage over what you currently have and 2) you intend to refer to it often.

I tried to make this list complete and rounded—containing something of the best available for most/all topics of every branch of study, so if you skip over the purchase or download of any book, that is your choice, but it would make your library more “complete” to put something in its place fulfilling the purpose.

In most tiers, I emboldened my personal favorite.

Note that most of the books in my lists are classical texts and academic works written before the early 2000s. There are tons of recent writings in maqasid, financial stuff, etc. published by specific publishing houses.

One thing that I add without holding back are the books of Ibn Taymiyyah and ibn al-Qayyim, since the works of these blessed individuals address a vast majority of the questions that bother Muslims, and only those who read their works know that. Some Muslims today may have doubts and think that they’re the only people in 1400 years to have those doubts, but ibn Taymiyyah and ibnul-Qayyim address tons of those issues throughout their works, may Allah forgive and have mercy on them and reward them well.

For the most part, I tried to write down here many books that are recommended a bit more than the rest or I personally found extraordinarily beneficial to a point that it would be better than other books of that subject which I chose not to recommend although they may be great. And for nearly everything, I previously heard from someone else more respectable recommend it.

Lastly, there have been many recent technological aids in the field of Islamic knowledge. I personally enjoy having a book between my hands I can underline in, write in the margins, and take to lectures. But nonetheless, the electronic sources are extremely helpful when you have them available to you and for referencing or quick questions. One of which is the indespendable FREE PDF library Waqfeya.

Next, there is المكتبة الشاملة which is a program containing a monstrously large amount of volumes in “.bok” form (you are able to copy/paste from it) available here. There are also new things coming out that are even greater than these. There are other programs and websites that fulfill the work of specific books (especially reference works) and I may mention some of them throughout.