Ahmad Bayhaqi

Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī ibn Mūsā al-Khusrawjirdī al-Bayhaqī ( ar, أبو بكر أحمد بن حسين بن علي بن موسى الخسروجردي البيهقي, 994–1066), also known as Imām al-Bayhaqī, was born c. 994 CE/384 AH in the small town of Khosrowjerd near Sabzevar, then known as Bayhaq, in Khurasan. During his lifetime, he became a famous Sunni hadith expert, following the Shafi'i school in fiqh and the Ash'ari school of Islamic Theology.Ovamir Anjum, Politics, Law, and Community in Islamic Thought: The Taymiyyan Moment (Cambridge Studies in Islamic Civilization) 2012, p 142.

Biography

Al-Bayhaqi was a scholar of ''fiqh'' of the Shafi'i school of thought, as well as of that of hadith. He studied ''fiqh'' under Abū al-Fatḥ Nāṣir ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad al-Naysaburi as well as Abul Hasan Hankari. He also studied hadith under Hakim al-Nishaburi, Abu Mansur Al-Baghdadi and others, and was al-Nishaburi's foremost pupil. He died in 1066 CE.

Al-Bayhaqi contributed to a significant reform in the traditionalist evaluation of hadith, emphasizing the use of reflective reasoning in evaluating which hadith material should be considered incompatible with Islamic theology. Often, Al-Bayhaqi would then understand such hadith as less reliable or allegorical. One focus of Al-Bayhaqi's was prophetic traditions which implied an anthropomorphic understanding of God. For Al-Bayhaqi, these characteristics, such as the "eye", do not represent real parts but rather attributes of God. Al-Bayhaqi also had a variety of views stating his understanding of cosmology. Al-Bayhaqi believed that God first created water, and subsequently used this water as a basis for his creation of everything else.

Works

Bayhaqi was a prominent author in his time, having authored more than one thousand volumes according to Al-Dhahabi. Among the most well-known books authored by him are:
* ''Sunan al-Kubra lil Behaqi'', commonly known as ''Sunan al-Bayhaqi''
* ''Shuab ul Iman'' (The Branches of Faith, see abridged translation in ''The Seventy Seven Branches of Faith'', Quilliam Press 1990)
* al-I'tiqad wa'l-Hidayah ila Sabil ar-Rashad (translated by Nasr Abdussalam, ''The Creed of Imam Bayhaqi'', 2017)
* ''Ma`arifa al-Sunan wa al-Athar'' (sometimes referred to as ''Al-Sunan al-Wusta'')
* ''Bayan Khata Man Akhta`a `Ala al-Shafi`i'' (The Exposition of the Error of Those who have Attributed Error to al-Shafi`i)
* ''Al-Mabsut, a book on Shafi`i Law''
* ''Al-Asma' wa al-Sifat'' (The Divine Names and Attributes)
* ''Al-I`tiqad `ala Madhhab al-Salaf Ahl al-Sunna wa al-Jama`a''
* ''Dala'il al-Nubuwwah'' (The Signs of Prophethood)
* ''Al-Da`awat al-Kabir'' (The Major Book of Supplications)
* ''Al-Zuhd al-Kabir'' (The Major Book of Asceticism)
* ''Hayat ul Anbiya fi Quboor'' (The life of the prophets in graves)

See also

* List of Ash'aris and Maturidis

References

*

990s births
1066 deaths
Persian Sunni Muslim scholars of Islam
Shafi'is
Asharis
Hadith compilers
Hadith scholars
Muhaddiths from Nishapur
11th-century jurists
Biographical evaluation scholars
Sunni imams
11th-century Muslim theologians

{{Islam-bio-stub