al-Shaykh al-Imad

الشيخ العماد

c. 1148 CE · 543 AH – c. 1218 CE · 17 Dhu al-Qa'da 614 AH

Damascus

Al-Shaykh al-Imad Abu Ishaq Ibrahim ibn Abd al-Wahid al-Maqdisi al-Hanbali, brother of the hafiz Abd al-Ghani. Born at Jama'il in 543, he emigrated with his relatives in 551. At Baghdad he heard from Shuhda and Salih ibn al-Rahla, and at Mosul from its preacher; he memorised al-Khiraqi and Gharib al-Azizi, gave lessons, took part in disputations, read the readings under Abu al-Hasan al-Bataihi, and devoted himself to teaching the Qur'an and fiqh. Pious, humble, generous and bountiful, he fasted often and prayed through the night, a man of spiritual states and marvels, known for long prayer. Al-Shaykh al-Muwaffaq said: 'I never parted from him except when he travelled, and I never knew him to disobey God in any act.' Al-Diya' said he was learned in the Qur'an, grammar and inheritance, and wrote Kitab al-Furuq fi al-masa'il al-fiqhiyya. He taught on the mountain while Shaykh Muwaffaq al-Din was in the town, and when Shaykh Muwaffaq al-Din went up to the mountain he came down and taught in the town. He taught at the Mosque of Damascus from dawn until night prayer, leaving only for what he could not avoid. He often enjoined good and forbade wrong; once he went out to a group of wrongdoers and smashed what they had, and they beat and abused him until he fainted. When the governor wanted to punish those who had abused him, he said: 'If they repent and keep up the prayer, do not harm them; they are absolved by me.' They repented. He died suddenly on the night of Thursday 17 Dhu al-Qa'da 614. His bier was carried to the Mosque of Damascus; the mosque could not hold the people, and Shaykh Muwaffaq al-Din led the prayer over him at the Hanbali circle after great effort. It was, as Sibt Ibn al-Jawzi described it, a day the like of which had not been seen in Islam ¹.