We went for a lunch visit and brought the band to party. Some months ago, Sayyid Muhammad Mehdar al-Habshi asked me …

We went for a lunch visit and brought the band to party.

Some months ago, Sayyid Muhammad Mehdar al-Habshi asked me to come by his village for a visit and told me to bring friends. When I finally got round to it, he said five of you is not enough. Neither was eight. Then twelve and he still wanted more. In the end we got a student band and it was almost 25 of us.

He lives in an old classic house in Ghorfa, which is about 45 minutes away from Tareem. If you keep on driving, ten minutes after you’ll reach Hawta – is the home of Habib Ahmad bin Zain al-Habshi, the closest student of Imam al-Haddad 300 years ago.

They studied together for forty years, with the teacher mid way up the narrow staircase in his house, and the disciple the next step below him. Among the fruit of this relationship is manifested in the close relationship between the descendant families of these two until today even in lands far away from Tareem.

Sayyid Muhammad is a munsheed, imam of a mosque and a trader. A munsheed is a person who recites poems. As a descendant of Habib Ahmad, he memorizes more than many of Imam al-Haddad’s work. He once demonstrated eight styles of reciting Qad Kafani, each suited for a type of occasion.

Habib Ahmad’s most known work is al-Risālat ul-Jāmi’at. There are two English translations available today, Essentials of Islam translation and annotations by Shaykh Abdul Aziz Fredericks and the recently published The Encompassing Epistle translation and annotations by Shaykh Musa Furber.

This is the second book of fiqh taught to first year students in my school, although it covers beyond fiqh. I used to not be fond of the subject before coming here, but I must say that this book quite remarkably changed how I approached the subject. If possible, try to learn it with a good teacher.

I forgot to mention, that our host is a poor man. Who is, obviously rich. His big heart lives in this small house of uneven walls, non symmetrical corridors, fragile floors and a roof the have partially collapsed.

Meanwhile have a good Friday and enjoy the video.

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