AL-THATTVI'S METHODOLOGY IN HIS BOOK “BAYAZ-E-HASHMI”

Makhdoom Muhammad Hashim Thattvi was a great scholar of the seventeenth century belonging to the Thatta city of Sindh. Thatta was the capital of Sindh at that time and was famous for its abundance of high quality Islamic institutions which produced great scholars. He wrote one hundred and sixty books in Arabic, Persian and Sindhi on all disciplines of Islamic sciences such as Quranic Exegesis, Prophetic Traditions, Islamic Jurisprudence, Arabic literature, and Islamic History etc. However, unfortunately many of his books have vanished and most of those which have survived down to us are in handwritten form. Bayaz-e-Hashmi is the most comprehensive of all his books and is probably the last one as well. It is on the subject of Fatawa. Due to it being in handwritten form, people are unaware of its existence and cannot benefit from it. Through this article we have tried to introduce this hidden scholarly work of Makhdoom Muhammad Hashim Thattvi to the academic world to provide some opportunity for publication so that it becomes available for researchers and scholars to benefit from.