Shaykh Abd al-Hakim al-Haqqani (b.1956) One of the notable contemporary scholars and jurists of Afghanistan, Shaykh Abd al-Hakim al-Haqqani was born in 1956 in the village of Tulukan, Qandahar Province, Afghanistan. A scholar whose career has encompassed teaching, authorship, and the judiciary, he currently serves as the Qadi al-Qudat of Afghanistan. He began his religious education in his native region, studying the Qur'an alongside the foundational disciplines of the traditional curriculum. His early studies encompassed Persian literature, Arabic grammar and morphology, logic, Fiqh, Kalam, prophetic biography, Usul al-Fiqh, and Tafsir. He later travelled to Shaykh Sayyid Ubaid Allah Akhundzadah in 1976 and read al-Mutawwal in Balaghah under him. In pursuit of the higher sciences, Shaykh Abd al-Hakim subsequently travelled to Pakistan and enrolled at the renowned Dar al-Uloom Haqqaniyyah in Akora Khattak in 1977. There he studied under a distinguished group of scholars, including Shaykh Abd al-Haqq al-Akorwi, Maulana Abd al-Halim al-Zarobwi, Mufti Muhammad Farid, Maulana Muhammad Ali al-Swati and others. His studies encompassed the major collections of Hadith as well as advanced works of the rational sciences. He studied parts of Al-Tirmidhi under Shaykh Abd al-Haqq. With Mufti Muhammad Farid he studied the first part of Bukhari, Tirmidhi and Sunan Abi Dawood, as well as the first half of Tafsir al-Jalalayn. He studied the 2nd part of Bukhari, Muslim and Tafsir al-Baydawi under Maulana Abd al-Halim al-Zarobwi. Shaykh Abd al-Hakim graduated from Dar al-Uloom Haqqaniyyah in 1980. Following the completion of his studies at Akora Khattak, he went to Balochistan and did Dawrah Tafsir under Maulana Jan Muhammad. Following his graduation, Shaykh Abd al-Hakim devoted himself extensively to teaching. He taught the standard texts of the traditional curriculum at a number of madrasahs in Balochistan, including Madrasah Tadris al-Qur'an, Mazhar al-Ulum in Shaldarah, and Nur al-Madaris. After the withdrawal of Soviet forces from Afghanistan and the fall of the Communist government, he returned to his homeland and began teaching in his native village of Tulukan, where he remained for two years. He subsequently moved to Sangin District in Helmand Province, where he continued teaching Dawrah Hadith, before teaching for approximately three years in Qandahar. Following the US-led intervention in Afghanistan in 2001, Shaykh Abd al-Hakim travelled to Pakistan and resumed his teaching activities there. In 2003, he established Jamiah Dar al-Uloom al-Shar'iyyah in Quetta and taught there for approximately fourteen years. Increasing security pressures and threats from the former Afghan government eventually restricted his ability to attend the mosque and madrasah. During this time he focused on reading, researching and writing. Among his writings are: *Zad al-Muhtaj fi Tahqiq al-Minhaj - A critical edition of the first volume of Minhaj al-Sunan Sharh Jami al-Sunan of Mufti Muhammad Farid al-Zarobwi, supplemented by Shaykh Abd al Hakim's explanatory discussions and annotations. *Al-Zad al-Shar'i fi Tawdih Jami al-Tirmidhi - A critical edition and continuation of the second volume of Minhaj al-Sunan *Zad al-Mahaafil fi Sharh al-Shama'il *Rawdat al-Qada - A work on jurisprudential principles and regulations governing the Islamic judicial system, containing 1,379 judicial principles. *Tatimmat al-Nizam fi Tarikh al-Qada fi al-Islam *Tahqiq Mu'in al-Qudat wa-l-Muftin - A critical edition of Mu'in al-Qudat wa-l-Muftin by Maulana Shams al-Haqq al-Afghani with Shaykh Abd al-Hakim's footnotes. *Manaqib al-A'immah al-Sittah *Al-Tahqiq al-Ajib fi hall Sharh al-Jami
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