Risālah-i Puṣhto It̤āʻat-i ūlā al-amr (On the obedience of the ruler in Pashto) is a tract meant to encourage obedience to the ruler of Afghanistan. The expression ūlā al-amr refers to one who is foremost in authority, and the title of the book references a Qur'anic verse (5:59), "Oh Believers! Obey the Lord and the Prophet and those who are foremost in authority amongst you," which is quoted at the beginning of the work. Numerous quotes from the hadith literature (primarily from the collection of al-Bukhari) follow. The Arabic text of each hadith is followed by an explanation in Pashto, several of which equate disobedience with jahāla (ignorance, i.e. of religious precepts) and contrast it with shahāda (bearing testimony or witness to Islam). The aim of the work is thus plainly the garnering of legitimacy and authority for the then-ruling Afghan emir, Habibullah Khan (reigned 1901-19). The Persian original of this work was composed by Maulawi ʻAbd al-Rabb Khan (1878 or 1879-1919), who, ironically, appears to have been jailed for his involvement in the constitutional movement in the early 1900s against the authoritarianism of Habibullah Khan. By the time he composed the It̤āʻat-i ūlā al-amr, ʻAbd al-Rabb Khan was serving Habibullah Khan in the role of mullā-i darbār (court theologian). Both ʻAbd al-Rabb Khan and the translator, Salih Muhammad, were teachers at the Habibiya School founded by Habibullah Khan. The Pashto translation of It̤āʻat-i ūlā al-amr was printed by the Dar al-Saltanah press in Kabul. The cover states that it is the first Pashto work printed in Afghanistan, and that it was meant to be distributed free of charge. World Digital Library.
Manuscript. Persian Title from pasted label on cover. Scribe not indicated. Probably written in Iran. Paper: lined notebook paper, lines running vertically to the text; black ink. Text breaks off after the first line of "al-bāb al-awwal min al-wāḥid al-rābiʻ." Naskh; 17 lines in written area approximately 15.5 x 11.5 cm. 165 pages. Library of Congress. Persian manuscript, M5. Contemporary blue cardboard binding with black leather spine. With a small manuscript fragment 19 x 12.5 cm, 16 pages (25-28 lines), in very small nastaʻliq script. Also available in digital form on the Library of Congress website. Incipit: بسم الامنع الاقدس Explicit/Colophon: في ان للنقطة مقامين مقام ينطق عن الله ومقام ينطق عما دون الله ذلك مقام
In Persian. Preface signed: M. Youness. Label pasted on back cover: "Khayr Allāh Afandī kih az Masīḥīyat va baʻd az ʻAbd al-Bahāʼ murtadd shud". Probably written in Iran.
Jaz̲b al-qulūb ilá diyār al-maḥbūb (The attraction of hearts to the house of the beloved) by ʻAbd al-Haqq ibn Sayf al-Din Dihlavi (1551-1642) is a work in 17 chapters on the history and lore of the city of Medina. Surpassed only by Mecca in its importance to Muslims, Medina houses the tombs of the Prophet Muhammad and some of his close companions. The Hegira (or Hejira, the migration of Muhammad and his followers from Mecca to Medina, then known as Yathrib) in 622 was a pivotal moment in Islamic history and serves as the origin of the Islamic calendar. In the introduction of the work, Sayf al-Din lists Wafā' al-wafā' bi akhbār dār al-muṣṭafā̄ (The exhaustive history of the house of the Chosen One) by Nur al-Din Abu al-Hasan al-Samhudi (1440-1506) as his main reference. He also states that he commenced writing his work during a visit to Medina in 998 AH (1589-90) and completed it in Delhi in 1001 AH (1592-93). Although Sayf al-Din discusses the customs involved in the pilgrimage to Medina, the focus for much of his work is on the physical fabric of the city and the architecture of its religious and secular spaces (much of which has fallen into decay or been subject to deliberate dismantling in the intervening centuries). The present volume is the third edition of this work, printed and published by the famed Newal Kishore Press in Lucknow, India, in 1914. World Digital Library. On Prophet Muḥammad, -632; and history of Medina, Saudi Arabia.