al-Layth ibn Sa'd

Al-Layth ibn Sa'd al-Fahmi al-Misri, jurist and hadith scholar of Egypt in the second century AH. The sources say that he studied under al-Zuhri and wrote much of his learning. ¹

Al-Shirazi relays that he died in mid-Sha'ban 175 AH. A variant reading in the edition's margin gives "ninety-five", so the date needs an additional source. ¹

Al-Baladhuri relates that Abd al-Malik ibn Salih, governor of the frontiers, wrote to him and to the jurists of his age, asking about the people of Cyprus after they had done something new. His fatwa was that they were accused of cheating the Muslims and advising the Romans. Their covenant should be annulled for them, and they should be given a year in which to deliberate. Whoever wished to join the lands of the Muslims under protection was accepted; whoever wished to go to the lands of the Romans might go; and whoever stayed in the war remained in his state. He cited a verse on annulling a covenant when treachery is feared. ² See the consultation of the jurists on Cyprus.

Ibn al-Nadim says that he was one of the companions of Malik and followed his school, and then chose for himself. He used to correspond with Malik and ask him questions. He wrote a History and a book of Questions on Jurisprudence. ³

Tareq al-Suwaidan presents al-Layth ibn Sa'd as a model of 'knowledge and character' who never entered a quarrel with anyone, giving his birth as 94 AH in a village of Upper Egypt and his death at eighty-one in the largest funeral Egypt had seen ^{4 5}. Of the secrets of his greatness he extracts: travel in pursuit of knowledge — he heard from al-Zuhri at Mecca in 113 AH aged twenty — and his observation that travelling scholars show a finer grasp of life than those who never journey ^{6 7}. Of the scholars' testimony: Abu Nu'aym's report that he was Egypt's trusted authority, traditionist and chief, a province glorying in his presence, until Egypt's governors and judges sought his counsel; Ahmad ibn Hanbal's 'the most accurate reporter from Sa'id ibn al-Musayyab is al-Layth ibn Sa'd'; and al-Shafi'i's 'al-Layth was of deeper fiqh than Malik, but his students did not carry him' — whence he draws that a creator endures not through his books but through those who carry his knowledge ^{8 9 10 11}. He was among the wealthiest of men with an income of twenty thousand dinars a year, yet no zakat ever fell due on him because he spent it all on the scholars — a hundred dinars yearly to Malik and more, and five hundred when Malik wrote asking for saffron for his daughter's wedding, to which he sent camel-loads of saffron — devoting his wealth to freeing scholars from the care of livelihood so they could serve the ummah ^{12 13 14 15}. He divided his day into four sittings: with the ruler for his affairs — and when a governor or judge erred he wrote to Baghdad and the dismissal came —; a sitting for the hadith folk, saying 'remove from me the shopkeepers, for their hearts hang upon their markets'; a sitting for questioners and the people's needs; and a sitting for his family ^{16 17 18 19}. He said of himself 'I reached eighty and never contended with an innovator', and Abu Nu'aym comments that innovations lay dormant in the age of al-Layth, Malik and al-Awza'i, so there was no need to debate them ^{20 21}. The story of Harun al-Rashid's oath: he swore 'I have two gardens' and the jurists prescribed expiation; al-Layth had him swear three times 'do you fear God? are you pious?' then said 'you are released from your oath — and for whoever fears the standing before his Lord are two gardens' ^{22 23}. And his excuse to al-Mansur, declining the governorship of Egypt — 'I am a man of the mawali, too weak for that' — to which al-Mansur answered 'you are not weakened; your resolve to work for me is weakened' ^{24 25}.