His Name and Lineage: ʿUthmān Ibn Saʿīd Ibn ʿUthmān Ibn Saʿīd Ibn ʿUmar, Abū ʿAmr al-Dānī, al-Umawī, their servant, al-Qurṭubī, who was known in his time as “Ibn al-Sayrafī”.
His Death: The middle of Shawwāl, 444H
His Teachers and those he heard from: He heard from Abū Muslim Muḥammad Ibn Aḥmad al-Kātib, the companion of al-Baghawī, and he was his greatest Shaykh, and Aḥmad Ibn Firas al-Makkī, ʿAbd Al-Raḥmān Ibn ʿUthmān al-Qushayrī, ʿAbd Al- ʿAzīz Ibn Jaʿfar Khawastī, Khalaf Ibn Ibrāhīm Ibn Khāqān al-Miṣrī—and he recited to them—and Hātim Ibn ʿAbdillāh al-Bazzār, Aḥmad Ibn Fatḥ Ibn al-Rasan, Muḥammad Ibn Khalīfah Ibn ʿAbd Al-Jabbār, Aḥmad Ibn ʿUmar Ibn Maḥfūẓ al-Jīzī, Salamah Ibn Saʿīd al-Imām, Salmūn Ibn Dāwūd al-Qarawī, Abū Muḥammad Ibn al-Nuhās al-Miṣrī, ʿAlī Ibn Muḥammad Ibn Bashīr al-Rubʿī, ʿAbd Al-Wahhāb Ibn Aḥmad Ibn Munīr, Muḥammad Ibn ʿAbd Allāh Ibn ʿĪsá al-Andalusī, Abū ʿAbdillāh Ibn Abī Zamanayn, Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī Ibn Muḥammad al-Qabisī, ʿAlī Ibn Abū al-Ḥasan Ṭāhir Ibn Khalbun, and a number of others.
His Students and those who took from him: Many have heard from and recited to him: his son, Abū al- ʿAbbās, Abū Dāwūd Sulayman Ibn Abū al-Qāsim Najah, Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī Ibn ʿAbd Al-Raḥmān Ibn al-Dash, Abū al-Ḥusayn Yaḥyá Ibn Abī Zayd Ibn al-Bayāz, Abū al-Dhuwad Mufraj al-Iqbalī, Abū Bakr Muḥammad Ibn al-Mufraj al-Bitliyusī, Abī Bakr Ibn al-Fasīh, Abū ʿAbdillāh Muḥammad Ibn al-Mazahim, Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn Ibn Muḥammad Ibn Mubāshir, Abū al-Qāsim Khalaf Ibn Ibrāhīm al-Tulaytalī, Abū ʿAbdillāh Muḥammad Ibn Faraj al-Maghāmī, Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm Ibn ʿAlī—who resided in Alexandria—and Abū al-Qāsim Ibn al- ʿArabī, Abū ʿAbdillāh Muḥammad Ibn ʿĪsá Ibn al-Faraj al-Tujaybī al-Maghāmī, Abū Tammam, Ghālib Ibn ʿUbayd Allāh al-Qaysī, Muḥammad Ibn Aḥmad Ibn Saʿūd al-Dānī, Khalaf Ibn Muḥammad al-Mariyyi Ibn al-Uraybī, and many others.
The praise of the scholars for him: Al-Ḥumaydī said: “He was a prolific Scholar of Ḥadīth and a preeminent reciter; he learned from al-Andalus and the East.” Abū al-Qāsim Ibn Bashkūl said: “Abū ʿAmr was one of the Imāms of the knowledge of the Qurʾān, its narrations, exegesis, interpretations, chain of narration, and grammatical breakdown. He compiled (his knowledge) in numerous beneficial books. He also had understanding in Ḥadīth, the chain of narrations, its people, narrators, and transmissions. He had good writing and was reliable, intellectual, and had good memory. He specialized in knowledge and was religious, pious, and a Sunnī.”
About him: Abū ʿAmr said: “My father informed me that I was born in the year 371H. I began seeking knowledge in the year 386H and I traveled to the east in the year 397H. I stayed in Qayrawān for four months writing, then I headed towards Egypt and I entered it in Shawwāl of that year having stayed for a year before performing Ḥajj. I had then entered al-Andalus in Dhul-Qaʿdah of 399H and then left for the frontier in 403H. I stayed in Zaragoza for seven years then I returned to Cordoba and then I stayed in Dānia for 17 years.”
His Beliefs and Methodology: Abū ʿAmr said in his poemʿUqūd al-Sunnah:
| تَدْرِي أَخِي أَيْنَ طَرِيْقُ الجَنَّهْ |
| My brother, do you know where the path to Paradise is? |
| طرِيْقُهَا القُرْآنُ ثُمَّ السُّنَّه |
| Its path is the Qurʾān and then the Sunnah |
| كِلاَهُمَا بِبَلَدِ الرَّسُولِ |
| Both of them are in the land of the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) |
| وَمَوْطِنِ الأَصْحَابِ خَيْرِ جيل |
| And the province of his Companions who were the best of generations |
| فَاتَّبِعَنْ جَمَاعَةَ المَدِيْنَهْ |
| Thus, surely follow the group from Madīnah |
| فَالعِلْمُ عَنْ نَبِيِّهم يَرْوُونَه |
| As they are the ones who narrate from their Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) |
| وَمِنْ عُقُودِ السُّنَّة الإِيْمَانُ |
| And from that which is binding from the Sunnah is belief |
| بِكُلِّ مَا جَاءَ بِهِ القُرْآنُ |
| In everything that has come in the Qurʾān |
| وَبَالحَدِيْثِ المُسْنَد المَروِيِّ |
| And the narrations conveyed with their respective chains |
| عَنِ الأَئِمَّةِ عَنِ النَّبِيِّ |
| From the Imāms (narrating) from the Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) |
| وَأَنَّ رَبَّنَا قَديمٌ لَمْ يَزَلْ |
| That Our Lord has no beginning and is Eternal |
| وَهُوَ دَائِمٌ إِلَى غَيْرِ أَجْل |
| He is Everlasting and has no end |
(Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalā ʾ of al-Dhahabī 18/77-83; Tārikh al-Islām of al-Dhahabī 9/659; al-Aʿlām of al-Zirkilī 4/206)
1 The ‘Ulama of Ahl as Sunnah mention that al Qadīm is not from the names of Allah and that it does necessitate linguistically that the one being describe with it has no beginning. Rather, it denotes that what has been described as being qadīm has preceded something, but not that it has no beginning. Thus, it is preferred to use al Awwal as this is from Allah’s names, has come in the Quran and necessitates linguistically that nothing has preceded Him and He has no beginning nor was He preceded by a state of nonexistence. See the explanation of Aqīdah at Tahāwiyah by Ibn Abil ‘Iz al Hanafī, v.1, pg. 75-77, Muassa Risaala print.
