Thread by @ProAdil_27

Sh Muḥammad ʿAwwāmah al-Ḥanafī:

“Yes, among the breaches of trust and the violations of fairness is altering and tampering with the texts of the scholars, just as happens with some people of desires. And the last one I have come to know who has fallen into this pitfall is—

Ustādh ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Arnāʾūṭ, may Allāh have mercy on him. {¹}

This was in the book al-Adhkār by al-Imām al-Nawawī, in the edition he recently published in the year 1409 AH. For Imām al-Nawawī, may Allāh Almighty have mercy on him, said at the end of the Adhkār of the Book—

of Ḥajj {²}: “A section on visiting the grave of the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ and the adhkār related to it,” and he spoke under it appropriately, repeating the phrase “visiting the grave” multiple times, and he mentioned the story of al-ʿUtbī. The aforementioned ustādh altered it—

to:– “Chapter on visiting the mosque of the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ.” And he altered everything beneath it that did not align with the changed title, and he deleted the story of al-ʿUtbī!!

And to understand the ugliness of what this man has done, two things must be observed:—

First: He altered and tampered with a book that fills every corner and gathering. There is hardly a Muslim household or public or private library without this book. So he tampered not with a rare book inaccessible except with difficulty, but with a widespread, accessible text.

Second: The aforementioned ustādh had previously edited the book al-Adhkār in the year 1391 AH and printed it at al-Mallāḥ Press in Damascus, and the statement of al-Imām al-Nawawī appeared in it as it originally was. Then behold, he now comes forth with this tampered edition,—

undermining himself by his own hand. We seek refuge in Allāh from that and from its likes.

And al-Kawtharī, may Allāh have mercy on him, said in the fifth article of his Maqālāt (1): “The first duty of a scholar is honesty in transmission.” So if this is the case, then what of—

presenting the author’s own text and editing his book, especially when he is an Imām whose words are relied upon and followed, such as al-Imām al-Nawawī, may Allāh Almighty have mercy on him!!”

Footnotes

¹) “I write this on the basis that he is the one who did that, and that he is the one responsible, since his name was printed on the book. And Allāh knows best what lies beyond that. Then I learned, based on correspondence between me and the Shaykh, and between me and—

the publishing house, that an official authority had requested that from the Shaykh, so that action was not initially from him by his own choice. Then it came from him by his approval, when he corrected the printing proofs with his own hand.”

²) And this book was not the only one from which that story was omitted; rather, it was also removed from the book al-ʿUddah Sharḥ al-ʿUmdah by [Bahāʾ al-Dīn] al-Maqdisī, in Ḥanbalī fiqh, page 209, you will see that after reflecting on the third footnote.

And such, then, is the (lack of) trustworthiness of these publishers and editors.