How we write

Sourced, school by school

The backbone of the guides is Ibn al-Qayyim’s Tuḥfat al-Mawdūd bi-Aḥkām al-Mawlūd, his book on the rulings of the newborn. Where the four Sunni schools differ, we give each school from its own books, with volume and page: the Ḥanafīs from Radd al-Muḥtār, the Mālikīs from al-Dardīr and al-Dasūqī, the Shāfiʿīs from al-Majmūʿ, Tuḥfat al-Muḥtāj and Nihāyat al-Muḥtāj, and the Ḥanbalīs from al-Mughnī and Kashshāf al-Qināʿ.

Ḥadīth, graded

Every ḥadīth outside Bukhārī and Muslim carries its grading and the name of the scholar who graded it. We do not use a weak ḥadīth as proof. Where a well-known report is weak, we say so plainly, in a box of its own.

Arabic, copied

The Arabic on this site is copied from its source, never retyped, and each passage links to where it was copied from. The English is our own plain rendering of the meaning.

Names

The meaning of each name is taken from the classical Arabic dictionaries, such as Lisān al-ʿArab and al-Qāmūs al-Muḥīṭ, and cited. For names that are not Arabic in origin, such as many prophets’ names, we say so and cite who explains them. If we cannot source a meaning, we leave it out rather than guess.

Not a fatwa

This is general guidance. Your own imam knows your family and your community; where the schools differ, ask which view they follow.

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