Islam On The Rise: Classical Scholars

Ibn Rajab Al-Hanbali

Ibn Rajab Al-Hanbali - ‘Abdur-Rahmân ibn Ahmad ibn ‘Abdur-Rahmân as-Salâmi has been remembered in Islamic history as the great Hadith scholar Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali (based on the nickname of his grandfather, who was born in the month of Rajab). Born in Baghdâd in 736 H (1335 CE) to a family of Islamic scholars, he spent much of his life in Damascus, at first studying under Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyah and the other great scholars of his day, then later writing, teaching and issuing Islamic rulings and verdicts. During his time, no one was considered more proficient at Hadith than he.

Books of the Great Scholar Ibn Rajab Al-Hanbali[1335 -1393].

Ibn Taymiyyah

Ibn Taymiyyah - Ibn Taymiyyah is a much misunderstood figure around whom there is much controversy, doubt and misconception. The primary reason is because in an era of great departure from the Prophetic Sunnah, Ibn Taymiyyah reconnected the Ummah to the creed and methodology of the Salaf and in the process rebutted the various factions, from the Philosophers, Raafidah, Jahmites, Mu'tazilites, Ash'arites, Baatiniyyah, Qaraamitah, Christians and many others. Thus, enmity and animosity came to him from many different sectarian orientations. Conversely, there are also those who try to support their own misguidance by attachment to Ibn Taymiyyah and his writings, in particular the takfiris and Kharijites. This website is aimed at repelling the various doubts regarding Ibn Taymiyyah and his views. The picture is of a deserted region in Harran, Ibn Taymiyyah's birthplace, in South-East Turkey near to Syria.

A few collection of other classical texts.

Ibn al-Jawzi - He was, with Shaykh `Abd al-Qadir al-Gilani, the imam of Hanbalis and foremost orator of kings and princes in his time whose gatherings reportedly reached one hundred thousand, a hadith master, philologist, commentator of Qur'an, expert jurist, physician, and historian of superb character and exquisite manners.

Ibn Hisham - Abu Muhammad 'Abd al-Malik bin Hisham, or Ibn Hisham (died 833) edited the biography of Muhammad written by Ibn Ishaq. Ibn Ishaq's work is lost and is now only known in the recensions of Ibn Hisham and al-Tabari. Ibn Hisham grew up in Basra, Iraq, but moved afterwards to Egypt, where he gained a name as a grammarian and student of language and history. His Seerah is by far one of the best of Seerah.

Ibn Qudama al-Maqdisi -

Statements from the learned about him:
Aboo ‘Amr bin as-Salaah said: I didn’t see anyone like ash-shaykh Muwaffaq.
Ibn Taymiyyah said: No one possessing more understanding of the religion – fiqh – entered ash-Shaam - after al-Awzaa'ee - other than ash-shaykh al-Muwaffaq.
Al-Mundhiree said: He was al-Faqeeh al-Imaam, he narrated (ahaadeeth) in Damascus, he issued fatawaa and taught/gave lessons, he wrote books in fiqh and other subjects, summarized and long.
Adh-Dhahabee said: He was one of the eminent imaams and an author of many books.

Ibn Kathir said: Shaykh al-Islam, an imaam an ‘aalim, proficient, there was not found in his era nor before it by a long span of time, anyone possessing more fiqh – understanding of the religion – than him.

Imaam Abu Bakr Al Baghdadhee - He was one of the foremost scholars witnessed in his science, precision, memorization, and accuracy in the hadith of the Messenger of Allah e . He was an expert in its minute defects, its chains of transmission, its narrators and transmitters, the sound and the rare, the unique and the denounced, the defective and the discarded. The people of Baghdad never had someone comparable to Abu al-Hasan ‘Ali ibn ‘Umar al-Daraqutni after the latter, except al-Khatib.

Imam Al Qurturbi - He was a famous classical scholar. Imam al-Qurtubi May Allah be pleased with him was born in Cordoba, Spain and was an eminent Maliki scholar who specialised in tafsir, fiqh and hadith. He was also a prolific writer and authored many works, one of the most famous of them is his major volume Tafsir al Jami' li-ahkam al-Qur'an, better known as Tafsir al-Qurtubi.

Imam An-Nawawee - Imam Yahya ibn Sharaf al-Nawawi was Born in the village of Nawa in Southern Syria, Nawawi spent most of his life in Damascus where he lived in a simple manner, devoted to Allah, engaging single-mindedly in worship, study, writing and teaching various Islamic sciences. The life of this world seems scarcely to have impinged upon him. He was a versatile and extremely dedicated scholar whose breadth of learning was matched by its depth. Imam Nawawi died at the young age of 44 years.

Imam Shamsu ed-Deen Dhahab - He was Hafiz, scholar of Hadith, and historian. He wrote many interesting books such as Tazkirat al-Huffaz, Islamic Countries, History of Islam, The Biography of Well-known Nobles, The Biographic of Notes of the Hadith Transmitters, Classes of Readers, Prophetic Medicine, Greatest Leadership, Moderate Balance in Evaluating the Transmitters, Mustadrak on "Mustadrak AI-Hakim" Furthermore, he summarized many other books.

Ibn Kathir

Ibn Kathir - His full name was Abu Al-Fida, 'Imad Ad-Din, Isma'il bin 'Umar bin Kathir, Al-Qurashi, Al-Busrawi. He was born in 1301 in Busra, Syria (hence Al-Busrawi).

In his book, Al-Mu jam Al-Mukhtas, Al-Hafiz Adh-Dhaliabi wrote that Ibn Kathir was, "The Imam, scholar of jurisprudence, skillful scholar of Hadith, renowned Fagih and scholar of Tafsir who wrote several beneficial books."

Further, in Ad-Durar Al-Kdminah, Al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar AlAsqalani said, "Ibn Kathir worked on the subject of the Hadith in the areas of texts and chains of narrators. He had a good memory, his books became popular during his lifetime, and people benefited from them after his death."

Also, the renowned historian Abu Al-Mahasin, Jamal Ad-Din Yusuf bin Sayf Ad-Din (Ibn Taghri Bardi), said in his book, AlManhal As-Safi, "He is the Shaykh, the Imam, the great scholar `Imad Ad-Din Abu Al-Fida'. He learned extensively and was very active in collecting knowledge and writing. He was excellent in the areas of Fiqh, Tafsfr and Hadith. He collected knowledge, authored (books), taught, narrated Hadith and wrote. He had immense knowledge in the fields of Hadith, Tafsir, Fiqh, the Arabic language, and so forth. He gave Fatawa (religious verdicts) and taught until he died, may Allah grant him mercy. He was known for his precision and vast knowledge, and as a scholar of history, Hadith and Tafsir."

Ibn Hajji was one of Ibn Kathir's students, and he described Ibn Kathir: "He had the best memory of the Hadith texts. He also had the most knowledge concerning the narrators and authenticity, his contemporaries and teachers admitted to these qualities. Every time I met him I gained some benefit from him."

Here Are a few books of from his vast collection.

Al Bidayah Wan Nihayah[Bangla]
1. Volume 1
2. Volume 3
3. Volume 4
4. Volume 9
Biographies of the Rightly-Guided Caliphs
Book of The End
Stories of The Prophets
Stories of The Qur'an
The Battles of The Prophet
The Islamic View of Jesus
The Spiritual Cure
The Signs Before The Day of Judgment

Imam Al-Ghazali
Imam Al-Ghazali - Al-Ghazali is one of the greatest Islamic Jurists, theologians and mystical thinkers. He learned various branches of traditional Islamic religious sciences in his home town of Tus, Gurgan and Nishapur in the northern part of Iran. He was also involved in Sufi practices from an early age. Being recognized by Nizam al-Mulk, the vizir of the Seljuq sultans, he was appointed head of the Nizamiyyah College at Baghdad in AH 484/AD 1091. As the intellectual head of the Islamic community, he was busy lecturing on Islamic jurisprudence at the College, and also refuting heresies and responding to questions from all segments of the community. Four years later, however, al-Ghazali fell into a serious spiritual crisis and finally left Baghdad, renouncing his career and the world After wandering in Syria and Palestine for about two years and finishing the pilgrimage to Mecca, he returned to Tus, where he was engaged in writing, Sufi practices and teaching his disciples until his death. In the meantime he resumed teaching for a few years at the Nizamiyyah College in Nishapur.

Imam Ibn al-Qayyim

Imam Ibn Al Qayyim[1292-1350] - For most Muslims who have heard of him, Ibn al-Qayyim al Jawziyyah's name is inseparable form that of his teacher, the 7th / 13th centuryHanbalî reformer, Ibn Taymîyah. It is true, in fact, that Ibn al-Qayyim was the principle compiler and editor of his teacher's writings, and had it not been for him, that voluminous body of work might never have survived. It is also true that Ibn Taymîyah's point of view had a profound effect on the young man, who at twenty-one years age, became his student and companion. One of Ibn al-Qayyim's own students would later write, 'Above all, his love for Ibn Taymîyah was so great that he would never disagree with anything he said. Rather, he supported him in everything and was the one who edited his books and spread his teachings.' In fiqh and theology , both men wrote from aHanbalî position, and Ibn al-Qayyim criticized the same things that his shaykh had so adamantly opposed: innovation (bid'ah), Greek influenced Muslim philosophy, Sh'ism, the doctrine of wahdat ul-wujûd, or 'oneness of being' (attributed to Ibn Arabî) and by extension, the extreme forms of Sûfism that had gained currency particularly in the new seat of Muslim power, Mamluk Egypt and Syria.

However, two elements set Ibn al-Qayyim's writings apart from those of his shaykh. The first is his tone. Ibn Taymîyah wrote 'with the eye', as it were, and Ibn al-Qayyim added to that 'the heart'. As a contemporary editor of his works has written, 'Although he moved within the sphere of Ibn Taymîyah's influence, following him in most of his religious rulings, he was more ready than his teacher to be lenient and amiable to those with whom he differed.' A typical example of this may be found in his magnum opus, Madârij as-Sâlikîn ('The Travelers Stages'), which is a long commentary on a treatise by the 5th / 11th century Hanbalite Sûfî, Abdullâh al-Ansarî al Harrawî. Taking exception to something al-Ansarî wrote, Ibn al-Qayyim prefaced his comments with, 'Certainly I love the shaykh, but I love the truth more.'

Imam Ibn Hajar Al-Asqalani

Imam Ibn Hajar Al-Asqalani[1372-1448] - The full name of the famous Imam Al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar Al-'Asqalani is Abul-Fadl, Shihabuddin Ahmad bin 'All bin Muhammad bin Muhammad bin Ahmad Ai-Kinani AshShafi'i. Ibn Hajar Al-'Asqalani was born on 10th Sha'ban, 773 H. in Egypt, where he grew up also. He memorized the Qur'an at the age of nine years and also memorized Al-Hawi, the book Muktasar of Ibn Al-Hajib, and other books. He traveled to Malika and listened to the teaching of its 'Ulama. While he admired the knowledge of Hadith and began to acquire it from the great Sheikh in Hijaza, Ash-Sham, Egypt and stayed with Az-Zain Al-'Iragi for ten years. He also studied under Al-Balqini, Ibn Al-Mulaqqin and others. Many eminent Sheikh of his time approved his knowledge and allowed him to give religious verdicts and teach.

He had learned the two sources (Qur'an and Hadith) from Al-'Izz bin Jama'a, the language from Al-Majd Al-Fairuzabadi, the Arabic from Al-'Amari, literature and poetry from Al-Badr Al-Mushtaki and writing from a group of professors. He also recited some parts of the Qur'an in all the seven styles of recitation before At-Tanukhi.

He occupied himself with the promotion of the knowledge of Hadith, so he dwelt in its study, teaching, writing and giving Fatawa (religious verdicts). He also taught the Tafsir (interpretation of the Qur'an), the Hadith, the Fiqh (jurisprudence) and preached at many places like Al-Azhar, Jami' 'Amr and others. He also dictated to his students from his memory. Many highly educated people and distinguished scholars traveled to him to acquire from his vast knowledge.

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