Al-Subkī

Abu Al-Hasan Taqī al-Dīn Ali ibn Abd al-Kafi ibn Ali al-Khazraji al-Ansari al-Subkī ( ar, أبو الحسن تقي الدين علي بن عبد الكافي بن علي الخزرجي الأنصاري السبكي), was a leading polymath and renowned Shafi'i jurisconsult,Yossef Rapoport, Marriage, Money and Divorce in Medieval Islamic Society, p 101. muhaddith, Qur'anic exegete and chief judge of Damascus.

Birth and Education

Taqī al-Dīn al-Subkī was born in the village of Subk in Egypt. He received his Islamic education in Cairo by such scholars as Ibn Rif'a in Sacred Law, al-Iraqi in Qur'anic exegesis and al-Dimyati in hadith. He also traveled to acquire knowledge of hadith from the scholars of Syria, Alexandria and the Hijaz. Eventually he taught at the Mansuriyya school located in the Ibn Tulun's mosque.

Chief Judge of Syria and Death

Having left Egypt in his youth, al-Subkī settled down in Syria where he rose through the ranks to the position of chief judge of Syria, the preacher of the Umayyad mosque at Damascus and a professor in several colleges. He presided as chief judge for seventeen years, at the end of which he became ill, was replaced by his son Taj al-Din al-Subkī and returned to Cairo where he died in 756 / 1355

Students

Al-Subki had plenty of students with some becoming prominent scholars of their time and his most famous students were:
* Taj al-Din al-Subki (leading polymath of his time)
* Zain al-Din al-'Iraqi (leading muhaddith of his time)
* Siraj al-Din al-Bulqini (leading Shafi'i faqih of his time)
* Siraj al-Din al-Mulaqqin (one of the leading Hadith scholar and Shafi'i jurist of his time)

Views

Subkī belonged to the Sunni Ash'ari school of theology and in line with his school strongly opposed anthropomorphism. He also vehemently defended the Ashari view that Paradise and Hell Fire are eternal and to that end wrote a comprehensive treatise entitled ''"Al-I'tibar"'' in which he stated that:
''"The doctrine of the Muslims is that the Garden and the Fire will not pass away. Abu Muhammad ibn Hazm has transmitted that this is held by consensus and that whoever opposes it is an unbeliever by consensus"''. Subkī reiterates this elsewhere in the treatise although he is careful to clarify that he does not label any particular person an unbeliever.

Reception

Ibn Hajar al-Haytami said about him: “the mujtahid Imam whose imamate, greatness, and having reached the level of ijtihad are agreed upon,” and by Al-Dhahabi as “the most learned, eloquent, and wisest in judgement of all the sheikhs of the age.”

Al-Suyuti said about him:

“He devoted himself to writing and giving legal opinion, authoring more than 150 works, his writings displaying his profound knowledge of hadith and other fields and his magisterial command of the Islamic sciences. He educated the foremost scholars of his time, was a painstaking, accurate, and penetrating researcher, and a brilliant debater in the disciplines. No previous scholar attained to his achievements in Sacred Law, of masterful inferences, subtleties in detail, and carefully worked-out methodological principles.”

Al-Safadi (Famous student of Al-Dhahabi) said about him:

“People say that no one like him had appeared since Ghazali, though in my opinion they thereby do him an injustice, for to my mind he does not resemble anyone less than Sufyan al-Thawri.” With his vast erudition, he was at the same time a godfearing ascetic in his personal life who was devoted to worship and mysticism, though vigilant and uncompromising in matters of religion and ready to assail any innovation (bid’a) or departure from the tenets of faith of Ahl al-Sunna.

Al-Suyuti also said about him:Reliance of the Traveller: The Classic Manual of Islamic Sacred Law Umdat Al-Salik, x345, pg. 1102

“The Imam, the jurist (Faqih), the traditionist (Muhaddith), the Hafidh, the exegete (Mufassir), the legal theorist (Usuli), the theologian (Mutkallim), the grammarian (Nahwi), the linguist (Lughawi), the writer (Adib), the Mujtahid Taqi al-Din Abul Hasan ‘Ali bin ‘Abd al-Kafi bin ‘Ali bin Tammam bin Yusuf bin Musa bin Tammam bin Hamid bin Yahya bin ‘Umar bin ‘Uthman bin ‘Ali bin Miswar bin Sawwar bin Salim, the Shaykh al-Islam and Imam of isera.”

Works

* ''Shifa' as-Siqam fi Ziarat khayr al'Anam'' () - 'Cure for the Sick in Visiting the Best of Mankind
archive.org (in Arabic)

* ''Al-Sayf al-Saqil fi al-Radd ala Ibn Zafil'' () - Refutation of Ibn al-Qayyim
* ''Al-Durra al-Mudiyya fi al-Radd 'ala Ibn Taymiyya'' () - Refutation to Ibn Taymiyya
* ''al-'Itibār bī baqā' al-janat wa'l-nār fi ar-rad 'ala ibn Taymiyah wa ibn al-Qiyam al-Qayilin bī fana' an-Nār.'' () - Contemplation of the eternity of Paradise and Hell, A response to Ibn Taymiyah and Ibn al-Qayyim on the temporality of Hell.
* ''Naqid al-‘Ijtimā’ wa’l-‘Iftirāq fī Masā’il al'Aymān wa’t-Talāq'' () - 'Critique of Communion and Separation in Matters of Faith and Divorce.'
* ''Al-'Ashbāh wa’n-Naẓā’r'' () - 'Analogues and Pairs
(in Arabic, 3 vols)
* Ibraz al-Hukam min hadīth rafa' al-Qalam'' () - 'Illustration of ruling in hadith "Raising the Pen"'.

See also

* List of Ash'aris and Maturidis
* List of Muslim theologians
* List of Sufis

References

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1284 births
1355 deaths
13th-century Arabs
14th-century Arabs
Asharis
Shafi'is
Shaykh al-Islāms
Sunni fiqh scholars
Sunni Muslim scholars of Islam
Sunni imams
Sunni Sufis
Egyptian Sufis
Egyptian imams
Egyptian Sunni Muslim scholars of Islam
Hadith scholars
Quranic exegesis scholars
Critics of Ibn Taymiyya
Critics of Ibn al-Qayyim
Logicians
14th-century Muslim theologians
Theologians from the Mamluk Sultanate
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