Reliance of the Traveller

Umdat as-Salik wa 'Uddat an-Nasik (Reliance of the Traveller and Tools of the Worshipper, also commonly known by its shorter title Reliance of the Traveller) is a classical manual of fiqh for the Shafi'i school of Islamic jurisprudence. The author of the main text is 14th-century scholar Shihabuddin Abu al-'Abbas Ahmad ibn an-Naqib al-Misri (AH 702-769 / AD 1302–1367). Al-Misri based his work on the previous Shafi'i works of Imam Nawawi and Imam Abu Ishaq as-Shirazi, following the order of Shirazi's al-Muhadhdhab (The Rarefaction) and the conclusions of Nawawi's Minhaj at-Talibin (The Seeker's Road).

Quotes

• Reliance of the Traveller - "It is not permissible to give zakat to a non-Muslim" (h8.24).

• Reliance of the Traveller, p17.2 - "May Allah curse him who does what Lot's people did."

• the indemnity for the death or injury of a woman is one-half the indemnity paid for a man. The indemnity paid for a Jew or Christian is one-third the indemnity paid for a Muslim. The indemnity paid for a Zoroastrian is one-fifteenth that of a Muslim.
  • (o4.9) Reliance of the Traveller

• (r8.2) - The Prophet said, "He who settles disagreements between people to bring about good or says something commendable is not a liar. ... Kulthum added, "I did not hear him permit untruth in anything people say, except for three things: war, settling disagreements and a man talking with his wife or she with him (in smoothing over differences)
  • Reliance of the Traveler (p. 746 - 8.2)

• Retaliation is obligatory (A: if the person entitled wishes to take it (dis: o3.8)) against anyone who kills a human being purely intentionally and without right....
  o1.2 The following are not subject to retaliation:
  -1- a child or insane person, under any circumstances
  -2- a Muslim for killing a non-Muslim;
  -3- a Jewish or Christian subject of the Islamic state for killing an apostate from Islam (O: because a subject of the state is under its protection, while killing an apostate from Islam is without consequences);
  -4- A father or mother (or their fathers of mothers) for killing their offspring, or offspring's offspring.
  • Reliance of the Traveller: A Classic Manual of Islamic Sacred Law . Ahmad ibn Naqib al-Misri, Edited and Translated by Nuh Ha Mim Keller (p. 508, o1.1-2)

• It remains part of Islamic law to this day that the life of a Muslim is worth more than that of a non-Muslim. A manual of Islamic law certified as reliable by al-Azhar, the foremost authority in Sunni Islam today, specifies that “the indemnity paid for a Jew or Christian is one-third the indemnity paid for a Muslim. The indemnity paid for a Zoroastrian is one-fifteenth that of a Muslim.”78
  • Ahmed ibn Naqib al-Misri, Reliance of the Traveller (‘Umdat al-Salik): A Classic Manual of Islamic Sacred Law, translated by Nuh Ha Mim Keller (Amana Publications, 1999), section o4.9. quoted from The History of Jihad: From Muhammad to ISIS (2018), Robert Spencer ch 3.

• Dealing with a Rebellious Wife - When a husband notices signs of rebelliousness in his wife (whether in words, as when she answers him coldly when she used to do so politely, or he asks her to come to bed and she refuses, contrary to her usual habit; or whether in acts, as when he finds her averse to him when she was previously kind and cheerful), he warns her in words ("Your obeying me is religiously obligatory"). If she commits rebelliousness, he keeps from sleeping (having sex) with her without words, and may hit her, but not in a way that injures her... it is permissible for him to hit her he believes that hitting her will bring her back to the right path.
  • Reliance of the Traveller M10.11