This study wants to explore political thoughts of a major Muslim scholar in the field of prophetic tradition (Hadith) and Islamic studies, namely Ibn Hajar Al-'Asqalany. This study is important because a Hadith expert is often generalized as a textualist, and is not adaptable to changes of time (anti-context). The main questions of this study are whether or not the figure of Ibn Hajar can be included within the category of textualist and anti-context scholars, and what are his thoughts on

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... c politics? This study takes its main data from Ibn Hajar's seminal work Fath al-Bari, especially on Chapter of Laws (Al-Ahkam); as well as from other Hadith books as a comparison. These data are then analyzed through a descriptive-comparative method. The study finds out that Ibn Hajar is better categorized within the category of contextualist Muslim scholar ('ulama), whose political thoughts are constructive.