Book Review: ar-Rihlat-ul-Akheerah Lil-Imaam-il-Jazeerah

ar-Rihlat-ul-Akheerah Lil-Imaam-il-Jazeerah

(The Final Journey of the Imam of the Arabian Peninsula)

Written by Umm Salamah as-Salafiyyah (hafithahallah)

Pages: 450

Printed by Daar-ul-Aathaar San’aa, Yemen

I received this copy some time ago by my brother Aboo ‘Abdillah (hafithahullah) of Hujjah Publication in Brooklyn, New York, may Allah reward him. I have been going through it whenever I get a chance and while it is a bad habit of mine to read seven to ten books at one time, I really got deep into this one.

It chronicles the final years of the Hadeeth Scholar of Yemen ash-Shaykh Aboo ‘Abdir-Rahman Muqbil bin Haadee al-Waadi’ee (rahimahullah) from the time of his diagnosis with cancer to his travels throughout Yemen, Saudi, America, and other places.

The author Umm Salamah is one of Shaykh Muqbil’s wives and she really put together a very beneficial and tear-jerking account of this noble scholar. It is filled with poetry, newspaper readings, the Shaykh’s final will and testament, the Shaykh’s legal rulings, lectures he gave to his students while receiving treatment abroad, and accounts of his meeting with many prominent Muslim rulers and scholars while residing in Makkah.

It also contains his retraction of what he said against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and a clarification to remove the doubts used by those who make Takfeer on the Ruler and its Scholars in that great country.

There is also an entire section of the two hundred and twenty legal rulings he gave while in America most of which were presented to him by Shaykh Fareed ‘Abdullah (hafithahullah) and the American Salafis who went to visit him during his treatment.

This is an amazing book and one that every seeker of Knowledge should have on his or her shelf. Please keep the Shaykh in your Du’aa’s and ask that Allah forgive him of his shortcomings and grant him the highest place in Paradise for his efforts in teaching the Book and the Sunnah.