Reading Fazail-e-Amaal

By Mufti Taqi Usmani
Posted: 21 Rabi-u-Thani 1424, 21 June 2003


Q.) I would like to know your opinion on reading the book Fazail-e-Amaal by Maulana Muhammed Zakariya Kandhhalvi R.A. Many Saudi Alims have issued fatwas on the reading of the mentioned kitab that it contains too many weak and fabricated hadiths and that it is not permissible to read it. Please comment. [N Ahmed (UK)]

A.) The books of Fazail-e-Amaal are written by Molana Muhammad Zakariya Saharanpuri who himself was a very prominent scholar of Hadith and it is not imaginable that he had included some fabricated Ahadith in those books. However, it is true that some Ahadith of those books are of weak chain of narrators. But in the case of Fazail such Ahadith are accepted by a large number of Hadith scholars because they do not lay down the rule of Shariah. Rather, they mention the merit of an act that is already proved through an authentic source. Therefore, if these books contain such Ahadith it does not make any big difference and a Muslim can safely benefit from them.