Imam Jalal al-Din al-Misri al-Suyuti {849 AH-911AH}

Abd al-Rahman ibn Kamal al-Din Abi Bakr ibn Muhammad ibn Sabiq al-Din, Jalal al-Din al-Misri al-Suyuti al-Shafi`i al-Ash`ari, also known as Ibn al-Asyuti(849-911 AH ) (c. 1445-1505 AD), the mujtahid imam and renewer of the tenth Islamic century, foremost hadith master, jurist, Sufi, philologist, and historian, he authored works in virtually every Islamic science.

He was raised as an orphan in Cairo, he memorized the Qur'an at eight and then several complete works of Sacred Law, fundamentals of jurisprudence, and Arabic grammar; after which he devoted himself to studying the Sacred Sciences under about a hundred and fifty shaykhs. Among them the foremost Shafi`i and Hanafis shaykhs at the time. He travelled in the pursuit of knowledge to Damascus, the Hijaz, Yemen, India, Morocco, the lands south of Morocco, as well as to centers of learning in Egypt such as Mahalla, Dumyat, and Fayyum. He was some time head teacher of hadith at the Shaykhuniyya school in Cairo . When al-Suyuti reached forty years of age, he abandoned the company of men for the solitude of the Garden of al-Miqyas by the side of the Nile and it was here that he authored most of his nearly six hundred books and treatises. It is difficult to name a field in which al-Suyuti did not make outstanding contributions, among them his ten-volume hadith work Jam` al-Jawami` ("The Collection of Collections"); his Qur'anic exegesis Tafsir al-Jalalayn ("Commentary of the Two Jalals"), his classic commentary on the sciences of hadith Tadrib al-Rawi fi Sharh Taqrib al-Nawawi ("The Training of the Hadith Transmitter: An Exegesis of Nawawi's `The Facilitation'"); and many others.

A giant among contemporaries, he remained alone, producing a sustained output of scholarly writings until his passing away at the age of sixty-two. He was buried in Hawsh Qawsun in Egypt.

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His Early Life and pursuit of knowledge
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Born to a Turkish mother and non-Arab father and raised as an orphan in Cairo, he memorized the Qur'an at eight, then several complete works of Sacred Law, fundamentals of jurisprudence, and Arabic grammar; after which he devoted himself to studying the Sacred Sciences under about a hundred and fifty shaykhs. Among them the foremost Shafi`i and Hanafis shaykhs at the time, such as the hadith master and Shaykh al-Islam Siraj al-Din Bulqini, with whom he studied Shafi`i jurisprudence until his death; the hadith scholar Shaykh al-Islam Sharaf al-Din al-Munawi, with whom he read Qur'anic exegesis and who commented al-Suyuti's al-Jami` al-Saghir in a book entitled Fayd al-Qadir; Taqi al-Din al-Shamani in hadith and the sciences of Arabic; the specialist in the principles of the law Jalal al-Din al-Mahalli, together with whom he compiled the most widespread condensed commentary of Qur'an in our time, Tafsir al-Jalalayn; Burhan al-Din al-Biqa`i; Shams al-Din al-Sakhawi; he also studied with the Hanafi shaykhs Taqi al-Din al-Shamni, Shihab al-Din al-Sharmisahi, Muhyi al-Din al-Kafayji, and the hadith master Sayf al-Din Qasim ibn Qatlubagha.

He travelled in the pursuit of knowledge to Damascus, the Hijaz, Yemen, India, Morocco, the lands south of Morocco, as well as to centers of learning in Egypt such as Mahalla, Dumyat, and Fayyum. He was some time head teacher of hadith at the Shaykhuniyya school in Cairo at the recommendation of Imam Kamal al-Din ibn al-Humam, then the Baybarsiyya, out of which he was divested through the complaints of disgruntled shaykhs which he had replaced as teachers. He then retired into scholarly seclusion, never to go back to teaching.

Ibn Iyas in Tarikh Misr states that when al-Suyuti reached forty years of age, he abandoned the company of men for the solitude of the Garden of al-Miqyas by the side of the Nile, avoiding his former colleagues as though he had never known them, and it was here that he authored most of his nearly six hundred books and treatises. Wealthy Muslims and princes would visit him with offers of money and gifts, but he put all of them off, and when the sultan requested his presence a number of times, he refused. He once said to the sultan's envoy: "Do not ever come back to us with a gift, for in truth Allah has put an end to all such needs for us." .
Outstanding contributions of Imam Al-Suyuti
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Blessed with success in his years of solitude, it is difficult to name a field in which al-Suyuti did not make outstanding contributions, among them his ten-volume hadith work Jam` al-Jawami` ("The Collection of Collections"); his Qur'anic exegesis Tafsir al-Jalalayn ("Commentary of the Two Jalals"), of which he finished the second half of an uncompleted manuscript by Jalal al-Din Mahalli in just forty days; his classic commentary on the sciences of hadith Tadrib al-Rawi fi Sharh Taqrib al-Nawawi ("The Training of the Hadith Transmitter: An Exegesis of Nawawi's `The Facilitation'"); and many others.

A giant among contemporaries, he remained alone, producing a sustained output of scholarly writings until his death at the age of sixty-two. He was buried in Hawsh Qawsun in Cairo. In the introduction to his book entitled al-Riyad al-Aniqa on the names of the Prophet he said: "It is my hope that Allah accept this book and that through this book I shall gain the Prophet's intercession. Perhaps it shall be that Allah make it the seal of all my works, and grant me what I have asked Him with longing regarding the Honorable One."
The editors of the Dalil Makhtutat al-Suyuti ("Guide to al-Suyuti's Manuscripts") have listed 723 works to al-Suyuti's name.►{Muhammad ibn Ibrahim al-Shaybani and Ahmad al-Khazindar, eds. Dalil Makhtutat al-Suyuti, 2nd ed. (Kuwait: Manshurat Markaz al-Makhtutat, 1995)}

Al-Suyuti's student and biographer Shams al-Din al-Dawudi al-Maliki - the author of Tabaqat al-Mufassirin al-Kubra - said: "I saw the shaykh with my own eyes writing and finishing three works in one day which he himself authored and proofread. At the same time he was dictating hadith and replying beautifully to whatever was brought to his attention."


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Some of his famous works
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-Al-Itqan fi `Ulum al-Qur'an ("Precision and Mastery in the Sciences of the Qur'an")
-Tahdhib al-khasa'is al-nabawiyya al-kubra ("The emendation of al-Suyuti's book entitled `the awesome characteristics of the Prophet(peace be upon him) '")
-Jam` al-jawami` al-ma`ruf bi al-jami` al-kabir ("The collection of collections, known as the Major Collection")
-Jami` al-ahadith al-jami` al-saghir wa zawa'idi ("The Minor Collection and its addenda")
-Tarikh al-khulafa ("History of the Caliphs")
-Al-durr al-manthur fi al-tafsir bi al-ma'thur ("The scattered pearls: A commentary of Qur'an based on transmitted reports")
-Sharh al-sudur bi sharh hal al-mawta wa al-qubur ("The expanding of breasts or commentary on the state of the dead in the grave")
-Manhaj al-sawi wa al-manhal al-rawi fi al-tibb al-nabawi ("The straight path and quenching spring: the Prophet's medicine")
-Al-kanz al-madfun wa al-falak al-mashhun ("The buried treasure in the laden ship: An encyclopedia of Islamic history")

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His DEFENCE oF tasawwuf
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His chain of transmission in tasawwuf goes back to Shaykh `Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani, and al-Suyuti belonged to the Shadhili tariqa, which he eulogized in his brief defense of tasawwuf entitled Tashyid al-Haqiqa al-`Aliyya. In the latter book he states: "I have looked at the matters which the Imams of Shari`a have criticized in Sufis, and I did not see a single true Sufi holding such positions. Rather, they are held by the people of innovation and the extremists who have claimed for themselves the title of Sufi while in reality they are not." In the Tashyid he also produces narrative chains of transmission proving that al-Hasan al-Basri did in fact narrate directly from `Ali ibn Abi Talib - Allah be well-pleased with him. This goes against commonly received opinion among the scholars of hadith.►{See, for example, al-Sakhawi's words in his Maqasid, in the entry khirqa}
although it was also the opinion of Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal.►{Ibn Abi Ya`la, Tabaqat al-Hanabila (1:192);Abd al-Razzaq in his Musannaf (7:412) }

When one of his shaykhs, Burhan al-Din Ibrahim ibn `Umar al-Biqa`i (d. 885), attacked Ibn `Arabi in a tract entitled Tanbih al-Ghabi ila Takfir Ibn `Arabi ("Warning to the Dolt That Ibn `Arabi is an Apostate"), al-Suyuti countered with a tract entitled Tanbih Al-Ghabi fi Takhti'a Ibn `Arabi ("Warning to the Dolt That Faults Ibn `Arabi"). Both epistles have been published.►{Al-Biqa`i, Masra` al-Tasawwuf, aw, Tanbih Al-Ghabi Ila Takfir Ibn `Arabi, ed. `Abd al-Rahman al-Wakil (Bilbis: Dar al-Taqwa; al-Suyuti, Tanbih Al-Ghabi Fi Takhti'a Ibn `Arabi, ed. `Abd al-Rahman Hasan Mahmud .}

In his reply al-Suyuti states that he considers Ibn `Arabi a Friend of Allah whose writings are forbidden to those who read them without first learning the technical terms used by the Sufis. He cites from Ibn Hajar's list in Anba' al-Ghumr, among the trusted scholars who kept a good opinion of Ibn `Arabi or counted him a wali.

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His Passing away
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Al-Suyuti withdrew from the people and remained in his house, busying himself with knowledge, research and writing until he caught a sickness that lasted for seven days, ending in his death. This happened in Jumada al-Ula, 911 AH at the age of sixty-two. He was buried in Hawsh Qawsun in Cairo.

JazakAllah