Ibn Hajar al-Haytami

Shihab al-Din Ahmad ibn Hajar al-Haytami al-Sa'di al-Ansari al-Shafi'i. He was born in Rajab 909 AH in the quarter of Abu al-Haytham in the province of al-Gharisa in Egypt. His father died while he was young, and he was looked after by the two imams Shams al-Din ibn Abi al-Jama'il and Shams al-Din al-Shanawi. Al-Shanawi took him to the shrine of Sidi Ahmad al-Badawi, and then in 924 AH to al-Azhar mosque. There he studied with the scholars of Egypt, among them the judge Zakariyya, Abd al-Haqq al-Sanbati, al-Samhudi, al-Ramli, al-Tablawi and al-Laqani, and they gave him licence to issue legal opinions and to teach while he was under twenty years old. ².

He came to Mecca in 933 AH, performed the hajj and stayed there. Then in 940 AH he settled in Mecca, teaching, issuing opinions and writing. Among his works are commentaries on al-Mishkat, a commentary on al-Minhaj, two commentaries on al-Irshad, a commentary on al-Hamziyya of al-Busiri, a commentary on al-Nawawi's Forty Hadiths, al-Sawa'iq al-Muhriqa, Kaff al-Ri'a' 'an Muharramat al-Lahw wal-Sama', al-Zawajir 'an Iqtiraf al-Kaba'ir, Nasihat al-Muluk, a commentary on al-'Ubab called al-Idah, Tahdhir al-Thiqat 'an Akl al-Kuftah wal-Qat, and Manaqib Abi Hanifa. ¹.

He was the seal of the great scholars, the imam of the two holy sanctuaries (Shaykh al-Islam). He died in Mecca in Rajab 973 AH and was buried in al-Mu'alla, in the tomb of the Tabarians. ³.