Biography of Imam al-Bayhaqi (Ahmad ibn al-Husayn)

[...] where verses are recited and the days of the Jahiliyya are recalled.

Ibn al-Abbbar said in his "Forty"; and the author says in the "Tamhid":

Companion of my heart for thirty pilgrimages,
The polisher of my mind, dispeller of my worry,
For you I have laid out the word of your Prophet,
With the meanings it holds of fiqh and knowledge,
In it are traditions to be followed,
Toward goodness and piety, forbidding injustice.

No. 86: al-Bayhaqi, Ahmad ibn al-Husayn ibn Ali ibn Moussa.

He is the hafiz, the deeply learned, the reliable, the jurist, the sheikh of Islam, Abou Bakr Ahmad ibn al-Husayn ibn Ali ibn Moussa al-Khusrawjirdi, the Khurasanian.

Bayhaq is a group of villages in the district of Nishapur, two days away from it.

The birth and the teachers of Imam al-Bayhaqi

He was born in the year three hundred eighty-four, in Chaabane.

He heard, at fifteen years of age, from Abou al-Hasan Muhammad ibn al-Husayn al-Alawi, companion of Abou Hamid ibn ach-Charqi, who was his most senior teacher; the audition of Abou Nu'aym al-Isfara'ini, companion of Abou Awana, escaped him, but he narrated from him by authorization (ijaza) in matters of sales.

He heard from: al-Hakim Abou Abdallah the hafiz, under whom he worked most diligently and by whom he was formed; Abou Tahir ibn Mahmich the jurist; Abdallah ibn Youssouf al-Isbahani; Abou Ali ar-Roudhbari; Abou Abd ar-Rahman as-Sulami; Abou Bakr ibn Fourak the theologian; Hamza ibn Abd al-Aziz al-Mouhallabi; the judge Abou Bakr al-Hiri; Yahya ibn Ibrahim al-Muzakki; Abou Said as-Sayrafi; Ali ibn Muhammad ibn as-Saqqa; Zafar ibn Muhammad al-Alawi; Ali ibn Ahmad ibn Abdan; Abou Sa'd Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Malini the Sufi; al-Hasan ibn Ali al-Mouammili; Abou Umar Muhammad ibn al-Husayn al-Bastami; Muhammad ibn Ya'qoub the jurist, in Tabaran; and a crowd besides them.

And from Abou Bakr Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Mansour, in Nuqan.

And Abou Nasr Muhammad ibn Ali ach-Chirazi; Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Raja' the man of letters; Ahmad ibn Muhammad ach-Chadhyakhi; Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Muzahim as-Saffar; Abou Nasr Ahmad ibn Ali ibn Ahmad al-Fami; Ibrahim ibn Muhammad at-Tousi the jurist; Ibrahim ibn Muhammad ibn Mu'awiya the perfumer; Ishaq ibn Muhammad ibn Youssouf as-Sousi; al-Hasan ibn Muhammad ibn Habib the exegete; Sa'id ibn Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Abdan; Abou at-Tayyib as-Su'louki; Abdallah ibn Muhammad al-Mihrajani; Abd ar-Rahman ibn Abi Hamid the reciter; Abd ar-Rahman ibn Muhammad ibn Balawihi; Ubayd ibn Muhammad ibn Mahdi; Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Ali al-Isfara'ini; Ali ibn Muhammad as-Sub'i; Ali ibn Hasan at-Tahmani; Mansour ibn al-Husayn the reciter; Mas'oud ibn Muhammad al-Jurjani, these twenty being disciples of Asamm.

He heard in Baghdad from: Hilal ibn Muhammad ibn Ja'far al-Haffar; Ali ibn Ya'qoub al-Iyadi; Abou al-Husayn ibn Bichran, and their peers.

In Mecca: from al-Hasan ibn Ahmad ibn Firas, and others.

In Koufa: from Janah ibn Nadhir the judge, and a group.

The works of Imam al-Bayhaqi

Allah blessed him in his knowledge, and he composed useful works. He did not have the "Sunan" of an-Nasa'i, nor the "Sunan" of Ibn Majah, nor the "Jami" of Abou Isa; rather, according to al-Hakim, he had about a camel-load of them; and he had the "Sunan" of Abou Dawoud through an elevated chain. He studied fiqh in depth under Nasir al-Umari and others.

He broke away in his village and turned to collecting and authoring. He wrote the "Sunan al-Kabir" in ten volumes, of which no one has the like; he authored the "Book of the Sunan and the Traditions" in four volumes; the "Book of the Names and the Attributes" in two volumes; the "Book of the Creed", one volume; the "Book of the Resurrection", one volume; the "Book of encouragement and warning", one volume; the "Book of invocations", one volume; the "Book of asceticism", one volume; the "Book of divergences", three volumes; the "Book of the texts of ash-Shafi'i", two volumes; the "Book of the proofs of prophethood", four volumes; the "Lesser Sunan", one massive volume; the "Book of the branches of faith", two volumes; the "Book of introduction to the Sunan", one volume; the "Book of good manners", one volume; the "Book of the merits of the times", one volume; the "Greater Forty", one volume; the "Lesser Forty"; the "Book of the Vision", a part; the "Book of the Night Journey"; the "Book of the merits of ash-Shafi'i", one volume; the "Book of the merits of Ahmad", one volume; the "Book of the merits of the Companions", one volume; and other things whose mention is not present with me.

The hafiz Abd al-Ghafir ibn Isma'il said in his "Chronicle": "Al-Bayhaqi followed the way of the scholars, content with little, adorning himself with asceticism and piety."

He also said: "He is Abou Bakr the jurist, the hafiz of the principles, the scrupulous, the devout, the unique of his time in memorization, the singular among his peers in mastery and precision. He was one of the great disciples of al-Hakim, and he surpassed al-Hakim in kinds of sciences. He wrote hadith, memorized it from his youth, studied fiqh and excelled, took the discipline of the principles, travelled to Iraq, the mountains, and the Hijaz, then composed; his works approach a thousand fascicles, in matters where no one had preceded him. He combined the science of hadith and fiqh, the exposition of the defects of hadith, and the way of reconciling hadiths. The imams asked him to move from Bayhaq to Nishapur, for the audition of the books; he came in the year four hundred forty-one, and they opened for him a session of audition of the book 'Ma'rifa', attended by the imams."

The sheikh of the judges Abou Ali Isma'il ibn al-Bayhaqi said: "My father related to us: when I began the composition of this book, meaning the 'Book of the knowledge of the Sunan and the Traditions', and had finished revising some parts of it, I heard the jurist Muhammad ibn Ahmad, who was among the best of my companions, the most assiduous in recitation and the most truthful in speech, say: I saw ash-Shafi'i, may Allah have mercy on him, in sleep, holding in his hand parts of this book and saying: today I have written from the book of the jurist Ahmad seven parts. Or he said: I have read seven of them."

"And he saw him taking pride in that."

He said: "On the morning of that same day, another jurist of my brothers saw ash-Shafi'i sitting in the mosque on a bench, saying: today I have profited from the book of the jurist such and such a hadith."

"My father informed us: I heard the jurist Abou Muhammad al-Hasan ibn Ahmad as-Samarqandi the hafiz say: I heard the jurist Muhammad ibn Abd al-Aziz al-Marwazi say: I saw in a dream as if a chest was rising in the sky, crowned with light. I said: what is this? He said: these are the works of Ahmad al-Bayhaqi."

Then the sheikh of the judges said: "I heard these three accounts from the three mentioned men."

I say: this dream is true; the works of al-Bayhaqi are therefore of immense worth, overflowing with benefits. Rare is the one whose compositions rival those of the imam Abou Bakr. It thus befits the scholar to care for these works, especially his "Great Sunan". A year or more before his death, he came to Nishapur; the students crowded around him, heard his books from him; they were carried to Iraq, Syria, and the surrounding regions; the hafiz Abou al-Qasim ad-Dimashqi took care of them, heard them from the companions of al-Bayhaqi, and transported them to Damascus, he and Abou al-Hasan al-Muradi.

We received from the imam of the two sanctuaries Abou al-Ma'ali al-Juwayni this saying: "There is no Shafiite jurist who does not owe a debt to ash-Shafi'i, except Abou Bakr al-Bayhaqi: the debt is ash-Shafi'i's toward him, for his works in support of his madhhab."

I say: Abou al-Ma'ali spoke truly; so it is. Had al-Bayhaqi wished to establish for himself a madhhab in which to exercise ijtihad, he would have been capable of that, by the breadth of his knowledge and his mastery of disagreement. That is why one sees him hint at supporting questions on which the hadith proved authentic.

The death of Imam al-Bayhaqi

When they had heard from him, in his final visit, what they loved, he fell ill, and death presented itself. He passed away on the tenth of the month of Joumada al-Oula, in the year four hundred fifty-eight. He was washed and shrouded; a coffin was made for him; he was transported and buried in Bayhaq, which is a district whose main town is Khusrawjird, his birthplace, two days from Nishapur. He lived seventy-four years.

Among those who narrated from him: the sheikh of Islam Abou Isma'il al-Ansari, by authorization; his son Isma'il ibn Ahmad; his grandson Abou al-Hasan Ubaydallah ibn Muhammad ibn Ahmad; Abou Zakariyya Yahya ibn Manda the hafiz; Abou Abdallah Muhammad ibn al-Fadl al-Farawi; Zahir ibn Tahir ach-Chachchami; Abou al-Ma'ali Muhammad ibn Isma'il al-Farisi; Abd al-Jabbar ibn Abd al-Wahhab ad-Dahan; Abd al-Jabbar ibn Muhammad al-Khawari; his brother Abd al-Hamid ibn Muhammad al-Khawari; Abou Bakr Abd ar-Rahman ibn Abdallah ibn Abd ar-Rahman al-Bahiri an-Nisabouri, who died in the year four hundred forty-five, and a group besides them.

Died with him: Abou at-Tayyib Abd ar-Razzaq ibn Umar ibn Chama al-Isbahani, companion of Ibn al-Muqri'; the imam of the Arabic language Abou al-Hasan Ali ibn Isma'il ibn Sayda; and the sheikh of the Hanbalites, the judge Abou Ya'la Muhammad ibn al-Husayn ibn al-Farra' al-Baghdadi.