history of Ibn-e-Hajr Asqalani

[naughty20]

can anyone please give a complete account of Ibn-e-Hajr Asqalani i.e his services,knowledge etc.


thanks

[Yusuf]

A new book of his published by awakening media: Preparing for the day of judgment. Excellent book comprised of hadith of rasulullah and aphormisms from sahaba and the early ascetics.

[naughty20]

thx bro but i want to know abt his life history etc and wat services he did , abt his knowlwdge etc.

if anyone know can post here?

[Abdur_Rahman]

:salam:

Ibn Hajar (http://www.central-mosque.com/biographies/asqalani.htm)

More info (http://www.dar-us-salam.com/a-hafizhajar.htm)

You may find more on other Google searches :insh: about the famous imam of ahlul sunnah (rahimallah)

May allah make your query easy for you ameen

[Saleel]

:salam:

Hmm. The Dar-us-Salam biography above doesn't once mention that Shaykhul Islam Imam al-Asqalani was a Shafi'i scholar, apart from within his name.

Typical, I guess.

Khair, here's an introduction to the translation of Fath al-Bari. (http://www.sunnah.org/history/Scholars/fath_al_bari.htm)

:salam:

[Abdur_Rahman]

:salam:

Hmm. The Dar-us-Salam biography above doesn't once mention that Shaykhul Islam Imam al-Asqalani was a Shafi'i scholar, apart from within his name.

Typical, I guess.

Khair, here's an introduction to the translation of Fath al-Bari. (http://www.sunnah.org/history/Scholars/fath_al_bari.htm)

:salam:
:salam:

Does that take away from what he (rahimallah) has done for this deen? If you feel bent out of shape because the "Shafi'i Alim" wasn't inserted in his bio, I mean really that is very tedious, typical I guess. send in a critique for them to rectifiy this slanderous behavior :rolleyes:

Khair?!

Bro. Saleel is it really worth it? :confused:

[Abul Hasan]

can anyone please give a complete account of Ibn-e-Hajr Asqalani i.e his services,knowledge etc.


thanks

Salamu alaikum

To get a detailed picture of the life and achievements of al-Hafiz ibn Hajar one needs to read the 2 volume work al-Jawahir wal Durar by his student: Hafiz Abdar Rahman al-Sakhawi. To know his life as a Musnid in Hadith one needs to see his Mu'jam al-Mufahras in one large volume.

Here is a brief bio compiled by Abdal Hakim Murad of Cambridge University (source: http://www.uwt.org/Download/Asqalani%20.txt):

Shaykh al-Islam ibn Hajar al-`Asqalani

Abu'l-Fadl Ahmad ibn Hajar's family originated in the
district of Qabis in Tunisia. Some members of the
family had settled in Palestine, which they left again
when faced with the Crusader threat, but he himself
was born in Egypt in 773, the son of the Shafi'i
scholar and poet Nur al-Din 'Ali and the learned and
aristocratic Tujjar. Both died in his infancy, and he
was later to praise his elder sister, Sitt al-Rakb,
for acting as his 'second mother'. The two children
became wards of the brother of his father's first
wife, Zaki al-Din al-Kharrubi, who entered the young
Ibn Hajar in a Qur'anic school (kuttab) when he
reached five years of age. Here he excelled, learning
Surat Maryam in a single day, and progressing to the
memorisation of texts such as the Mukhtasar of Ibn
al-Hajib on usul. By the time he accompanied
al-Kharrubi to Mecca at the age of 12, he was
competent enough to lead the Tarawih prayers in the
Holy City, where he spent much time studying and
recalling God amid the pleasing simplicity of
Kharrubi's house, the Bayt al-'Ayna', whose windows
looked directly upon the Black Stone. Two years later
his protector died, and his education in Egypt was
entrusted to the hadith scholar Shams al-Din ibn
al-Qattan, who entered him in the courses given by the
great Cairene scholars al-Bulqini (d.806) and Ibn
al-Mulaqqin (d.804) in Shafi'i fiqh, and of Zayn
al-Din al-'Iraqi (d.806) in hadith, after which he was
able to travel to Damascus and Jerusalem, where he
studied under Shams al-Din al-Qalqashandi (d.809),
Badr al-Din al-Balisi (d.803), and Fatima bint
al-Manja al-Tanukhiyya (d.803). After a further visit
to Mecca and Madina, and to the Yemen, he returned to
Egypt.

When he reached 25 he married the lively and
brilliant Anas Khatun, then 18 years of age. She was a
hadith expert in her own right, holding ijazas from
Zayn al-Din al-'Iraqi, and she gave celebrated public
lectures in the presence of her husband to crowds of
ulema among whom was Imam al-Sakhawi. After the
marriage, Ibn Hajar moved into her house, where he
lived until his death. Many noted how she surrounded
herself with the old, the poor and the physically
handicapped, whom it was her privilege and pleasure to
support. So widely did her reputation for sanctity
extend that during her fifteen years of widowhood,
which she devoted to good works, she received a
proposal from Imam 'Alam al-Din al-Bulqini, who
considered that a marriage to a woman of such charity
and baraka would be a source of great pride.

Once esconced in Egypt, Ibn Hajar taught in
the Sufi lodge (khaniqah) of Baybars for some twenty
years, and then in the hadith college known as Dar
al-Hadith al-Kamiliyya. During these years, he served
on occasion as the Shafi'i chief justice of Egypt.

It was in Cairo that the Imam wrote some of
the most thorough and beneficial books ever added to
the library of Islamic civilisation. Among these are
al-Durar al-Kamina (a biographical dictionary of
leading figures of the eighth century), a commentary
on the Forty Hadith of Imam al-Nawawi (a scholar for
whom he had particular respect); Tahdhib al-Tahdhib
(an abbreviation of Tahdhib al-Kamal, the encyclopedia
of hadith narrators by al-Mizzi), al-Isaba fi tamyiz
al-Sahaba (the most widely-used dictionary of
Companions), and Bulugh al-Maram min adillat al-ahkam
(on Shafi'i fiqh).

In 817, Ibn Hajar commenced the enormous
task of assembling his Fath al-Bari. It began as a
series of formal dictations to his hadith students,
after which he wrote it out in his own hand and
circulated it section by section to his pupils, who
would discuss it with him once a week. As the work
progressed and its author's fame grew, the Islamic
world took a close interest in the new work. In 833,
Timur's son Shahrukh sent a letter to the Mamluk
sultan al-Ashraf Barsbay requesting several gifts,
including a copy of the Fath, and Ibn Hajar was able
to send him the first three volumes. In 839 the
request was repeated, and further volumes were sent,
until, in the reign of al-Zahir Jaqmaq, the whole text
was finished and a complete copy was dispatched.
Similarly, the Moroccan sultan Abu Faris 'Abd al-'Aziz
al-Hafsi requested a copy before its completion. When
it was finished, in Rajab 842, a great celebration was
held in an open place near Cairo, in the presence of
the ulema, judges, and leading personages of Egypt.
Ibn Hajar sat on a platform and read out the final
pages of his work, and then poets recited eulogies and
gold was distributed. It was, says the historian Ibn
Iyas, 'the greatest celebration of the age in Egypt.'

Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Hajar departed this life
in 852. His funeral was attended by 'fifty thousand
people', including the sultan and the caliph; 'even
the Christians grieved.' He was remembered as a gentle
man, short, slender, and white-bearded, a lover of
chess and calligraphy, much inclined to charity; 'good
to those who wronged him, and forgiving to those he
was able to punish.' A lifetime's proximity to the
hadith had imbued him with a deep love of the
Messenger (may Allah bless him and grant him peace),
as is shown nowhere more clearly than in the poetry
assembled in his Diwan, an original manuscript of
which has been preserved at the Egyptian National
Library. A few lines will suffice to show this well:

By the gate of your generosity stands a sinner, who is
mad with love,

O best of mankind in radiance of face and countenance!

Through you he seeks a means [tawassala], hoping for
Allah's forgiveness of slips;

from fear of Him, his eyelid is wet with pouring
tears.

Although his genealogy attributes him to a stone
[hajar],

how often tears have flowed, sweet, pure and fresh!

Praise of you does not do you justice, but perhaps,

In eternity, its verses will be transformed into
mansions.

My praise of you shall continue for as long as I live,

For I see nothing that could ever deflect me from your
praise.---------------------------------

Wassalam