Indonesian Nahdlatul Ulama scholar, later Rais Aam of the NU, who as a student at the pesantren of Sarang wrote two Arabic works on the Sullam: al-Murannaq and Izālat al-muttaham on al-Damanhūrī’s Īḍāḥ al-mubham.
Life
KH M. A. Sahal Mahfudh was one of the leading scholars of the Nahdlatul Ulama; NU Online, writing shortly after his death in 2014, calls him the late Rais Aam (supreme leader) of the PBNU and notes his honorary doctorate from the State Islamic University Syarif Hidayatullah in Jakarta. Most of his Arabic books were written while he was still a student (santri) at the pesantren of Sarang, at about twenty-four or twenty-five, in the early 1960s; one, a commentary on al-Suyūṭī’s al-Ashbāh wa-l-naẓāʾir, after he had settled at Kajen.
NU Online lists ten of his works, most of them explanations of standard pesantren texts in law, legal theory and Arabic grammar. Two are on logic: al-Murannaq, an explanation of al-Akhḍarī’s Sullam al-munawraq, ‘the logic book widely used in pesantren’, and Izālat al-muttaham, an elaboration of al-Damanhūrī’s commentary on the poem, Īḍāḥ al-mubham min maʿānī al-Sullam. There is no record of when the two were finished; Kiai Sahal remembered writing both at Sarang. They show the Sullam and al-Damanhūrī’s commentary as the core of logic teaching in the Javanese pesantren.
Uncertain or disputed
- Dates of birth and death are not given in the source consulted (NU Online, 2 February 2014, already calls him ‘the late’).
- Whether al-Murannaq and Izālat al-muttaham were printed, and the exact form and vocalisation of their titles, could not be checked.
Works
- al-Murannaq المُرَنَّقُ — بر al-Sullam al-munawraqAn explanation of the Sullam, written at Sarang (NU Online). Printing not known; the vocalisation of the title is not given in the source.شرح
- Izālat al-muttaham إِزَالَةُ المُتَّهَمِAn elaboration of al-Damanhūrī’s Īḍāḥ al-mubham min maʿānī al-Sullam, written at Sarang (NU Online).حاشیه
- Ṭarīqat al-ḥuṣūl ʿalā Ghāyat al-wuṣūl — بر شیخالاسلام زکریای انصاریNotes on Zakariyyā al-Anṣārī’s Ghāyat al-wuṣūl, his commentary on Lubb al-uṣūl; finished 15 Ramaḍān 1380/3 March 1961.حاشیه
Reception
His two works are among the Indonesian aids to the Sullam described in ‘The Sullam in the madrasa’ and ‘Commentaries, glosses and translations’.
Sources (1)