Biography of Imam al-Tabari (Muhammad ibn Jarir)

ad-Doulabi; Ahmad ibn Yahya ibn Zouhayr at-Toustari; al-Walid ibn Aban; Ali ibn al-Abbas al-Maqan'i; the jurist of Baghdad Abou Ishaq Ibrahim ibn Jabir; Ishaq ibn Ibrahim ibn Jamil; Khalid ibn Muhammad ibn Koulakhch as-Saffar; Muhammad ibn Khalaf ibn al-Marzban; al-Hasan ibn al-Husayn as-Sawwaf; and al-Abbas ibn al-Fadl ar-Razi.

No. 175: Muhammad ibn Jarir ibn Yazid ibn Kathir at-Tabari.

The imam, the standard-bearer, the supreme striver, the scholar of the era, Abou Ja'far at-Tabari, author of the admirable works, of the people of Amol, in Tabaristan.

The birth and the teachers of Imam al-Tabari

His birth: the year two hundred twenty-four. He pursued knowledge after the year two hundred forty, travelled much, met the eminent specialists of the narrators, and was among the singular ones of the age in knowledge, intelligence, and abundance of works.

Eyes rarely see his like.

Ahmad ibn Hibbatallah informed us, from Abou Rawh al-Harawi: Zahir al-Moustamli informed us: Muhammad ibn Abd ar-Rahman informed us: Abou Amr ibn Hamdan informed us: Muhammad ibn Jarir the jurist and Muhammad ibn Ishaq ath-Thaqafi related to us, saying:

Ahmad ibn Mani' related to us: al-Husayn ibn Muhammad related to us: Israil related to us, from Simak, from Ikrima, from Ibn Abbas: that the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, said to Dhuba'a: "Plead your cause and stipulate that my dwelling is where you detain me." A good, rare hadith, from the highest I possess of Ibn Jarir.

He heard: Muhammad ibn Abd al-Malik ibn Abi ach-Chawarib; Isma'il ibn Moussa as-Souddi; Ishaq ibn Abi Israil; Muhammad ibn Abi Ma'char, who transmitted to him the expeditions from his father; Muhammad ibn Houmayd ar-Razi; Ahmad ibn Mani'; Abou Kourayb Muhammad ibn al-Ala'; Hammad ibn as-Sari; Abou Hammam as-Sakouni; Muhammad ibn Abd al-A'la as-San'ani; Bondar; Muhammad ibn al-Mouthanna; Soufyan ibn Waki'; al-Fadl ibn as-Sabbah; Abda ibn Abdallah as-Saffar; Salm ibn Dounada; Younous ibn Abd al-A'la; Ya'qoub ad-Dawraqi; Ahmad ibn al-Miqdam al-Ijli; Bichr ibn Mu'adh al-Aqadi; Sawwar ibn Abdallah al-Anbari; Amr ibn Ali al-Fallas; Moujahid ibn Moussa; Tamim ibn al-Mountasir; al-Hasan ibn Arafa; Mounna ibn Yahya; Ali ibn Sahl ar-Ramli; Haroun ibn Ishaq al-Hamdani; al-Abbas ibn al-Walid al-Oudhri; Sa'id ibn Amr as-Sakouni; Ahmad, the nephew of the nephew of Ibn Wahb; Muhammad ibn Ma'mar al-Qaysi; Ibrahim ibn Sa'id al-Jawhari; Nasr ibn Ali al-Jahdami; Muhammad ibn Abdallah ibn Bazi'; Salih ibn Mismar al-Marwazi; Sa'id ibn Yahya al-Oumawi; Nasr ibn Abd ar-Rahman al-Awdi; Abd al-Hamid ibn Bayan as-Soukkari; Ahmad ibn Abi Sourayj ar-Razi; al-Hasan ibn as-Sabbah al-Bazzar; Abou Ammar al-Husayn ibn Hourayth; and many other peoples.

He settled, at the end of his life, in Baghdad.

He was among the great imams of ijtihad.

The narrators of Imam al-Tabari

Those who narrated from him: Abou Chou'ayb Abdallah ibn al-Hasan al-Harrani, who was older than he; Abou al-Qasim at-Tabarani; Ahmad ibn Kamil the judge; Abou Bakr ach-Chafi'i; Abou Ahmad ibn Adi; Makhlad ibn Ja'far al-Baqarhi; the judge Abou Muhammad ibn Zabr; Ahmad ibn al-Qasim al-Khachchab; Abou Amr Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Hamdan; Abou Ja'far Ahmad ibn Ali the secretary; Abd al-Ghaffar ibn Ubaydallah al-Houdayni; Abou al-Moufad-dal Muhammad ibn Abdallah ach-Chaybani; al-Mou'alla ibn Sa'id; and a multitude.

Abou Sa'id ibn Younous said: "Muhammad ibn Jarir, of the people of Amol, wrote in Egypt, returned to Baghdad, and composed fine works that attest to the breadth of his knowledge."

Al-Khatib said: "Muhammad ibn Jarir ibn Yazid ibn Kathir ibn Ghalib was one of the imams of the scholars: his word prevails, and one returns to his opinion for his knowledge and his merit. He had gathered sciences in which no one of the people of his era shared with him, so that he was a hafiz of the Book of Allah, a knower of the readings, perceptive of the meanings, a jurist of the rulings of the Quran, a knower of the Sunans and their ways, their authentic and their defective, their abrogating and their abrogated, knowing the sayings of the Companions and the Followers, the days of men and their accounts. He possesses the famous book of the 'Accounts of the nations and their chronicle', and the book of the 'Commentary', of which none composed the like; and a book he named 'The revision of the traditions', of whose meaning I have seen nothing else, but he did not complete it. He possesses, on the principles of fiqh and its ramifications, many books drawn from the accounts of the jurists; and he was singular in questions that were memorized from him."

I say: he was trustworthy, truthful, a memorizer, the head of exegesis, an imam of fiqh, of consensus and of disagreement, an authority on chronicle and the days of men, a knower of the readings and of the language, and more.

He read the Quran in Beirut before al-Abbas ibn al-Walid.

Abou Muhammad Abdallah ibn Ahmad ibn Ja'far al-Farghani mentioned that his birth was in Amol.

It is said that the sovereign (al-Mouktafi) wished to institute a ruling upon which the opinions of the scholars would gather. Ibn Jarir was brought to him, and he dictated to them a book for that. A gift was offered to him, and he refused to accept it. It was said to him: a need must be satisfied.

He said: "I ask the commander of the faithful to forbid begging on the day of Friday." And he did that.

Likewise, the vizir asked him to write for him a book of fiqh. He composed for him the book "Al-Khafif", who sent him a thousand dinars; he returned them.

Al-Khatib said: Abou al-Faraj Muhammad ibn Ubaydallah ach-Chirazi al-Khardjouchi related to me: I heard Ahmad ibn Mansour ach-Chirazi: I heard Muhammad ibn Ahmad the money-changer as-Sijistani: I heard Abou al-Abbas al-Bakri say:

"Travel united between Ibn Jarir, Ibn Khuzayma, Muhammad ibn Nasr al-Marwazi, and Muhammad ibn Haroun ar-Rouyani, in Egypt. They were ruined, and nothing remained with them to sustain them. Hunger afflicted them. One night they gathered in a lodging to which they resorted, and their opinion agreed to draw lots and throw the gourd: upon whomever the gourd came out, he would ask his companions for food. The gourd came out against Ibn Khuzayma. He said to his companions: give me time to pray the prayer of good fortune."

He said: "He plunged into the prayer, and suddenly there were candles, and a eunuch of a governor of Egypt knocking at the door. They opened, and he said: which of you is Muhammad ibn Nasr? It was said: here he is. He brought out a purse containing fifty dinars and gave it to him. Then he said: and which of you is Muhammad ibn Jarir? And he gave him fifty dinars; likewise for the Rouyani and Ibn Khuzayma. Then he said: yesterday the emir was speaking, and he saw in a dream that the praised ones (al-Mahamid) were starving, their flanks hollowed. He dispatched to you these purses and swore by you: when they run out, send me one of you."

Abou Muhammad al-Farghani said in the "Supplement of his chronicle" upon the "Chronicle of at-Tabari": "Abou Ali Haroun ibn Abd al-Aziz related to me that Abou Ja'far, when he entered Baghdad, had with him merchandise from which he sustained himself. It was stolen, and his condition led him to sell his garments and the two folds of his shirt. Some of his friends said to him: would you strive to tutor one of the sons of the vizir Abou al-Hasan Ubaydallah ibn Yahya ibn Khaqan? He said: yes. The man went and settled his affair. He returned, restored him before the vizir after lending him what he wore. The vizir drew him near, raised his session, allotted him ten dinars a month, and stipulated the times of his seeking for knowledge, the prayers, and rest. He asked his predecessors for the month's provision, and he did. He was brought into the tutoring cell, and the child, who was Abou Yahya, came out to him. When he had made him write, the servant took the tablet, and they entered rejoicing. Every maidservant then had to offer him a tray in which were dirhams and dinars: he returned them all and said: I have been contracted for a thing: I take nothing other than it."

"The vizir learned of that, brought him in to him and questioned him. He said: these are slaves, and they possess nothing. The greatness of that imposed itself upon his soul."

"At times some of his friends offered him something and he accepted it, then rewarded him multiples of it, for the greatness of his nobility."

Al-Farghani said: "Al-Muraghi wrote to me, mentioning that the sovereign said to the vizir: I wish to institute a ruling." And he mentioned the account, adding: "He returned the thousand to the vizir and did not accept it. It was said to him: give it as alms. He did not do so, and said: you are more worthy of your wealth, and better know on whom you give alms."

Al-Khatib said: "I heard Ali ibn Ubaydallah the grammarian relate: that Muhammad ibn Jarir remained forty years, writing every day of them forty folios."

Al-Khatib said: "It has reached me from Abou Hamid Ahmad ibn Abi Tahir al-Isfarayini the jurist that he said: were a man to travel to China to acquire the commentary of Muhammad ibn Jarir, it would not be excessive."

Al-Hakim said: "I heard Housaynak ibn Ali say: the first time Ibn Khuzayma questioned me, he said to me: have you written from Muhammad ibn Jarir at-Tabari? I said: no. He said: and why? I said: because he did not appear, and the Hanbalites prevented entering upon him. He said: evil what you did: would that you had not written from all those from whom you wrote, and you heard from Abou Ja'far."

Al-Hakim said: "And I heard Abou Bakr ibn Balawihi say: Abou Bakr ibn Khuzayma said to me: it has reached me that you wrote the Commentary from Muhammad ibn Jarir? I said: yes, I wrote it from him by dictation. He said: all of it? I said: yes. He said: in which year? I said: from the year three and eighty to the year two hundred ninety. He said: Abou Bakr borrowed it from me, then returned it after years. Then he said: I have looked from its beginning to its end, and I know not on the face of the earth anyone more knowing than Muhammad ibn Jarir. The Hanbalites wronged him."

The works of Imam al-Tabari

Abou Muhammad al-Farghani said: "Among the books of Muhammad ibn Jarir was completed the book of the 'Commentary', on which a scholar might claim to compose ten books, each book of them containing a singular, complete science."

"And there was completed of his books the book of the 'Chronicle' down to his era; and there was completed also the book of the 'Chronicle of the men' of the Companions and the Followers, down to his masters whom he met; and there was completed for him the book 'The delicate word in the rulings of the laws of Islam', which is the madhhab he chose, which he perfected, for which he argued, and it is eighty-three books; and there was completed for him the book of the 'Readings, the Revelation, and the Number'; and there was completed for him the book of the 'Divergence of the scholars of the lands'; and there was completed for him the book 'Al-Khafif on the rulings of the laws of Islam', which is a delicate abridgement; and there was completed for him the book 'At-Tabsir', which is a letter to the people of Tabaristan, in which he explains what he adopted of the principles of religion. He began with composing the book of the 'Revision of the traditions', which is among the wonders of his books: beginning with what the Truthful related of what its chain appeared to him sound, speaking of every hadith of its defects and its ways, then its fiqh, the divergence of the scholars and their proofs, and what is in it of meanings and rarities, and the refutation of the deviators. There was completed of it the Musnad of the Ten, the people of the house, and the clients, and part of the 'Musnad of Ibn Abbas'; then he died before completing it."

I say: this, had it been completed, would come in a hundred volumes.

He said: "He began with his book 'Al-Bassit', and from it came out the book of 'Purification', which came to about one thousand five hundred folios: for he mentioned in every chapter of it the divergence of the Companions and the Followers, and the proof of every saying. And from it also came out the greater book of 'Prayer', and from it came out the manners of the governors."

"And the book of the 'Sessions and the registers'; and the book of the 'Rank of the scholars', which is among his precious books: he began it with the manners of souls and the sayings of the Sufis, and did not complete it; and the book of the 'Rites of pilgrimage'; and the book of the 'Commentary of the Sunna', which is delicate, in which he made clear his madhhab and his creed; and his 'Musnad' extracted, in which he comes upon all that a Companion narrated, of sound and defective, and he did not complete it. And when it reached him that Abou Bakr ibn Abi Dawoud had spoken concerning the hadith of Ghadir Khoumm, he made the book of the 'Merits', beginning with the merit of Abou Bakr, then Umar, and spoke of the correction of the hadith of Ghadir Khoumm, arguing for its correction, and the book was not completed."

He was among those whom the blame of no blamer diverts from Allah, despite the great harm that reached him from the ignorant, the envious, and the deviant. As for the people of religion and knowledge, they did not disapprove of his knowledge, nor his detachment from the world, nor his refusal of it, nor his contentment, may Allah have mercy on him, with what used to come to him of a share of a property his father had left him in Tabaristan, small.

And Haroun ibn Abd al-Aziz related to me: Abou Ja'far said: "I consulted Allah and asked Him for aid for what I intended of composing the Commentary, three years before making it: He aided me."

The judge Abou Abdallah al-Qouda'i: Ali ibn Nasr ibn as-Sabbah related to us: Abou Umar Ubaydallah ibn Ahmad as-Simsar and Abou al-Qasim ibn Aqil the paper-seller related:

That Abou Ja'far at-Tabari said to his companions: "Would you strive for the chronicle of the world, from Adam to our time?"

"They said: what is its measure? He mentioned about thirty thousand folios. They said: this is of the lives that expire before its completion! He said: we are Allah's! The ambitions have died."

"He abridged that in about three thousand folios. And when he wished to dictate the Commentary, he said to them something like that, then dictated it to about the measure of the 'Chronicle'."

The judge Ahmad ibn Kamil said: "Four I loved that they remain: Abou Ja'far ibn Jarir, al-Barbari, Abou Abdallah ibn Abi Kaythama, and al-Ma'mari. And I saw none of them more comprehending nor more memorizing."

Al-Farghani said: "Haroun ibn Abd al-Aziz related to me: Abou Ja'far at-Tabari said to me: I exposed the madhhab of ash-Shafi'i and modelled myself upon it in Baghdad for ten years; and Ibn Bachchar al-Ahwal, the master of Ibn Sourayj, received it from me."

Haroun said: "When his knowledge widened, his ijtihad and his research led him to what he chose in his books."

Al-Farghani said: "Al-Muraghi wrote to me, saying: when al-Khaqani took the vizierate, he sent to Abou Ja'far at-Tabari much wealth. He refused to accept it. He offered him the judiciary: he refused. He offered him the grievances: he declined. His companions reproached him and said: you have in this a reward, and you revive a Sunna that has died out."

"And they hoped for his accepting the grievances, and pressed him to ride with them for accepting that. He rebuked them and said: I thought that were I to desire that, you would forbid me it."

He said: "We left abashed."

Abou al-Fath ibn Abi al-Fawaris: Muhammad ibn Ali ibn Sahl, son of the imam, companion of Muhammad ibn Jarir, informed us:

"I heard Muhammad ibn Jarir speaking to Ibn Salih the most knowing. Came the mention of Ali, may Allah be pleased with him. Then Muhammad ibn Jarir said: who says that Abou Bakr and Umar are not two imams of guidance, what is he? He said: an innovator. Ibn Jarir said, disavowing him: an innovator! an innovator! That one is to be killed."

Makhlad al-Baqarhi said: "Muhammad ibn Jarir recited to us, of himself:

When I am failing, my companion does not know,
And I am self-sufficient: then my friend is self-sufficient.
My modesty keeps for me the water of my face,
And my gentleness, in my demanding, is my companion.
Had I permitted the water of my face,
I would be, to the heights, of easy road.

And he has:

Two characters whose effect I do not please:
The arrogance of wealth, and the abjection of poverty.
When you are rich, be not arrogant,
And when you are poor, your sandals through the ages.

Abou Muhammad al-Farghani said: Abou Bakr ad-Daynawari related to me, saying:

The death of Imam al-Tabari

"When the time of the midday prayer came, on the Monday in which he died, at its end, Ibn Jarir asked for water to renew his ablution. It was said to him: you delay the noon to join it with the 'asr."

"He refused and prayed the noon alone, and the 'asr in its time, completing the prayer and perfecting it."

"And at the time of his death gathered a group of them: Abou Bakr ibn Kamil. It was said to him, before his spirit went out: O Abou Ja'far! You are the proof between us and Allah in what we believe. Is there anything you recommend us of the affair of our religion, and a guidance by which we hope for safety in our return?"

"He said: that by which I bind my religion to Allah, and I recommend to you, is what I established in my books: act by it and upon it."

"And these words were their meaning. He multiplied the attestation of faith, mentioned Allah, the Mighty and the Noble, passed his hand over his face, closed his gaze with his hand, then stretched it out: his spirit had already departed the world."

His birth was in the year two hundred twenty-four. He departed from Amol when he began to grow and memorized the Quran, and his father permitted him to travel. All his life he supplied him with a thing after a thing, to the lands; he lived on it sparingly, and said, of what I heard: "The provision of my parents was slow to come to me, and I was compelled to cut the two folds of my shirt and sell them."

I say: he gathered the ways of the hadith of Ghadir Khoumm in four fascicules. I saw half of it, and the breadth of his transmissions dazzled me, and I concluded to the establishment of that.

It was said to Ibn Jarir: "Abou Bakr ibn Abi Dawoud dictates upon the merits of Ali."

He said: "A magnifying word of a gatekeeper."

It came to pass between Ibn Jarir and Ibn Abi Dawoud that each of them gave the other no justice. The Hanbalites were the party of Abou Bakr ibn Abi Dawoud: they multiplied and raised clamour against Ibn Jarir, and he suffered harm, and kept to his house. We seek refuge in Allah from passion.

Ibn Jarir was among the men of perfection, and a slight Shi'ite leaning was imputed to him; but we have seen only good. Some transmit from him that he made lawful the wiping of the feet in ablution, but we saw that not in his books.

Abou Ja'far has, in his compositions, an expression and eloquence. Among what he said in the book "The precious manners and the praiseworthy ethics": "Discourse on the exposition of the state that the slave must observe in what issues from his deed for Allah, of himself. He says: there is no state of the states of the believer in which his enemy, the one commissioned against him, is heedless of his call to his way, and his sitting in ambush upon the straight roads of his Lord, barring him from them, as he said to his Lord, exalted be His mention, when He made him of the ones given respite: 'I shall surely sit in ambush upon Your straight path; then I shall surely come to them from before them and from behind them' (Surah al-A'raf, verses 16, 17), coveting of him the confirming of his supposition upon him, when he said to his Lord: 'If You defer me to the Day of Resurrection, I shall surely assail their progeny, except a few' (Surah al-Isra, verse 62). It is therefore due upon every possessor of reason to strive his soul in making that supposition lie, and disappointing its hope and its striving in what it ostentatiously compelled him. And nothing of the deed of the slave is more striking to his detested than his obedience to his Lord, and his disobeying His command; and nothing is more beloved to Him than the slave's disobedience of his Lord, and his following of His command."

Such is the speech of Abou Ja'far, of this style, and it is abundant and beneficial.

Abou Ali at-Tanoukhi related in his "Nishwar", from Uthman ibn Muhammad as-Sulami, who said:

Ibn Mandjou the commander related to me: the servant of Ibn al-Mouzawwiq related to me:

"My master bought a slave girl and married her to me. I loved her and she hated me until I grew weary. I said to her: you are thrice repudiated: address me not with anything but that I say to you its like: how much can I bear of you?"

"She said at once: you are thrice repudiated. I was despaired. I was directed to Muhammad ibn Jarir, and he said to me: remain with her after you say to her: you are thrice repudiated if I repudiate you."

"This answer was judged beautiful."

It was mentioned also by the sheikh of the Hanbalites Ibn Aqil, and he said: "He has another answer: that he say, like her saying equally: you are thrice repudiated, with an open t: then he has not sworn."

Abou al-Faraj Ibn al-Jawzi said: "It was not necessary for him to say that to her at once: he may extend it until before death."

I say: and had he said: you are thrice repudiated, intending the interrogation, or meaning that she is repudiated of the bond, or meaning the repudiation, no repudiation falls in the inward of the affair.

He has another answer, upon a rule of considering the cause of the oath and the intention of the swearer: what he owed was not to say to her what she said. For it is known from the conjunction of the state the exempting of that by necessity: he intended only this: that when she says to him what hurts him, he hurt her with its like; and were he to answer her with the repudiation, she would have rejoiced, she, and he would have been the one hurt, as it is exempted from the generality of the word of the Most High: "And she was given all things" (Surah an-Naml, verse 23), by the conjunction of the state, that she was not given a beard without a curl.

And from the known is its exemption by the necessity that the swearer never intended, were he to swear: say nothing to me but that I say to you its like: that were she to disbelieve and insult the prophets, he would not answer her with the like of that, and it would be finer.

Then a group of the jurists say: he has not sworn unless he were, Allah forbid, intending the entering of that into his oath.

As for the doctrine of Dawoud ibn Ali, of Ibn Hazm, of the Shi'a, and others: nothing is upon him; and they saw the oath and the oaths of repudiation as among the oaths of vanity, and that the oath is not contracted but by Allah.

And an imam of our time went to that whoever swears upon linking or forbidding by the repudiation, or the freeing, or the pilgrimage, and the like, his expiation is the expiation of an oath, and no repudiation upon him.

Ibn Jarir said in the book "At-Tabsir on the landmarks of religion": "Discourse on what its knowledge was attained of the attributes, by report: and that is like His informing, the Most High, that He is Hearing, Seeing; and that He has two hands, by His word: 'But His two hands are outstretched' (Surah al-Ma'ida, verse 64); and that He has a face, by His word: 'And there remains the face of your Lord' (Surah ar-Rahman, verse 27); and that He laughs, by His word in the hadith: 'Allah smiles toward him'; and 'that He descends to the heaven of the world', for the report of His messenger of that. And he said, upon him the peace: 'There is no heart but it is between two fingers of the fingers of the Merciful.'"

Until he said: "For these meanings that were described, and their likes, of what Allah described of Himself and His messenger, whose true knowledge is not established by thought and transmission: we tax with unbelief by their ignorance no one, except after their reaching him."

Ahmad ibn Hibbatallah informed us: Zayn al-Oumana' al-Hasan ibn Muhammad informed us: Abou al-Qasim al-Asadi informed us: Abou al-Qasim ibn Abi al-Ala' informed us: Abd ar-Rahman ibn Abi Nasr at-Tamimi informed us: Abou Sa'id ad-Daynawari, the master of the son of Jarir, informed us: Abou Ja'far Muhammad ibn Jarir at-Tabari informed us of his creed, of which this: "It suffices a man to know that his Lord is He who established Himself upon the Throne: whoever exceeds that has failed and lost."

And this Commentary of this imam is filled, in the verses of the attributes, with the sayings of the early generations upon their affirmation, not upon their negation and interpretation, and that they never resemble the attributes of the creatures.

Abou al-Fadl Ahmad ibn Hibbatallah informed us: al-Mouslim ibn Ahmad al-Mazini informed us: Ali ibn al-Hasan the hafiz informed us, in Baalbek, in the year five hundred fifty-one: Ali ibn Ibrahim al-Housseyni informed us: Abou Bakr the hafiz informed us:

I read before Abou al-Hasan Hibbatallah ibn al-Hasan the man of letters, from the transmission of Ibn Durayd.

I say: one mourns Ibn Jarir:

You cannot follow the order of Allah with pursuit:
Then summon patience, or clothe yourself in grief.
Hasten to the shade of submission, and be content with what
The Protector decreed: the hated and the loved.
Misfortune is never an abundance that hands of events
Shake, scattering it and shredding it apart.
Nor do a thousand ties break by a parting
That abandons the cord of union, cut.
But the loss of one who became, in his death place,
The light of guidance, the splendour of knowledge stripped:
Death by him destroyed not a man,
Rather it destroyed a knowledge for religion erected.
Death led to the dust, when his marrow was reached,
A star, against who combats right: poured.
The time with him was clear, its springs,
And now it has become, with muddying, inscribed.
No! And his whitened days that made
For knowledge a light, and for piety sanctuaries.
The age shall never wear away from a semblance of him ever
What the pilgrimage, at the banners, caused to ride.
When opinion sharpens to clarify a difficulty,
He restores its hidden path, gifted.
He does not give to vanity and blindness his hearing,
Nor utters what envelopes him with remorse.
His exhortations cleanse the rust of hearts, as
The light of the bright morning purifies the dews.
His praiser is not safe from feebleness and falling short,
And he fears not upon amplitude a lying charge.
The plain of the land of Allah wished it were
Made a grave for him: his body would have made it fragrant.
Your life was for the world and its dwellers
A light: and from it the light has become veiled.
Did the earth know whom it hid, its regions
Would have grown humble to you, in glorification and welcome.
If they lament you, their roofs are crushed,
And knowledge has become an elegy and a mourned one.
And among the wonders that the age has brought,
And time shows us well the wonders.

His birth was in the year two hundred twenty-four. He departed from Amol when he grew and memorized the Quran, and his father permitted him to travel, and all his life he supplied him with a thing after a thing to the lands; he lived on it, and said of what I heard: "The provision of my parents was slow toward me, and I was compelled to cut the two folds of my shirt and sell them."