Shihab al-Din Ibn Ruslan

Shihab al-Din Ibn Ruslan al-Maqdisi al-Shafiʿi, a Sufi shaykh, imam, scholar, righteous man and model. He was born in Ramla in Palestine in 773 AH, then travelled to acquire knowledge. He heard hadith from many people and excelled in jurisprudence, until the chief judge al-Baʿuni licensed him to issue legal opinions. He took up issuing opinions and teaching, and everyone who read with him benefited. He used to give his students nicknames such as Abu Tahir and Abu al-Mawahib, and the name was never without effect. For some time he devoted himself to legal opinions and teaching, then gave that up and took the straight path of the Sufis. He strove and worked hard until he became a beacon by which seekers were guided and a sign that devout worshippers followed. Love of him was planted in people's hearts, and that planting bore fruit for him.

His useful works include commentaries on the Sunan of Abu Dawud and on al-Bukhari, a gloss on al-Shifa, a commentary on Ibn al-Hajib's abridgement, "Jamʿ al-Jawami'," the "Minhaj" of al-Baydawi, and a commentary on his own verse poem "al-Zubad," in a large and a small version. He also corrected al-Hawi, abridged the Rawda and the Minhaj, and wrote "Adab al-Qadi" by al-Ghazzi, "al-Adhkar," "Hayat al-Hayawan," a verse work on the readings, an analysis of the "Alfiyya," a commentary on "al-Lamha," and a book on the biographies of the Shafiʿis. He composed sixty kinds of Qur'anic sciences in verse. Al-Manawi said in his "Tabaqat al-Awliya'" that he had countless marvels, and that he fasted often, prayed through the night and seldom lay down to sleep.

He died in Jerusalem on Monday, eight days before the end of Ramadan 844 AH, at the age of seventy-one. The world was shaken by his death, and no one like him was left in those lands ¹.