110 – Ibn al-Bāqillānī, Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn al-Ṭayyib al-Baṣrī*
The Imām, the erudite scholar, peerless among the theologians, foremost of the legal theorists, the judge Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn al-Ṭayyib ibn Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar ibn Qāsim—originally from Basra, later of Baghdad—known as Ibn al-Bāqillānī, was a prolific author whose acumen and intelligence became proverbial.

He heard ḥadith from Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn Jaʿfar al-Qaṭīʿī, Abū Muḥammad ibn Māsī, and a number of others. Abū al-Fatḥ ibn Abī al-Fawāris compiled his narrations.

Reliable and exceptionally gifted, he wrote refutations of the Rāfiḍah, the Muʿtazilah, the Khārijites, the Jahmiyyah, and the Karāmiyyah. He championed the method of Abū al-Ḥasan al-Ashʿarī, though in subtle issues he might differ with him, for he was truly his peer, having learned dialectical theology from al-Ashʿarī’s disciples.

Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ mentions him in Tabaqāt al-Mālikiyyah (1), saying: “He is surnamed the Sword of the Sunnah and the Tongue of the Ummah, the theologian who speaks on behalf of the people of ḥadith,”