Najm al-Din al-Ghayti, Egypt's shaykh al-Islam

Najm al-Din Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Ghayti al-Iskandari, then al-Misri, a Shafi'i, the scholar, hadith master, transmitter of chains, and Shaykh al-Islam. He was born in the first decade of the tenth century AH. He read Sahih Muslim in full with the judge Zakariyya al-Ansari, took from him the Sufi patched cloak, heard Sunan Ibn Majah and the Muwatta' from Abd al-Haqq al-Sanbati, and read with al-Kamal al-Tawil. ².

He issued legal opinions and taught during the lifetime of his shaykhs, and leadership in the sciences of hadith, tafsir and Sufism came to him. He remained one who enjoined good and forbade wrong, confronting rulers and the great without fear of any blame in God's cause. He held the shaykhate of the Salahiyya beside the tomb of Imam al-Shafi'i and the shaykhate of the Khanqah al-Siryaqusiyya without having asked for either. ¹.

Judge Muhibb al-Din al-Hanafi described him, saying: "the memoriser of his age, the hadith master of his land, the unique of his time ... when he speaks of hadith in his fluent manner, every Muslim acknowledges that he is al-Bukhari." Among his works is the widely read book al-Mi'raj, which the scholars of al-Azhar read every year in Rajab. He died in 985 AH. ¹.