He died in the month of Dhu al-Qaʿdah, in the year 403 AH. His son Ḥasan led the funeral prayer, and the procession was thronged. All his life he had been a sword raised against the Muʿtazilites, the Rāfiḍites, and the Anthropomorphists (mushabbihah); most of his doctrinal foundations rested squarely on the Sunnah. The head of the Ḥanbalī scholars, Abū al-Faḍl al-Tamīmī, ordered a herald to walk before the bier announcing:
“This is the champion of the Sunnah and of the faith, the defender of the Sacred Law—this is the man who composed seventy thousand folios!”
Thereafter al-Tamīmī used to visit his grave every Friday. (1)
It is reported that Abū Bakr once debated Abū Saʿīd al-Hārūnī. Abū Bakr spoke at length and with great eloquence, then turned to those present and said, “If he can repeat what I have just said, I shall be content to let that stand as my answer.” Al-Hārūnī retorted, “Rather, if he can repeat what he himself has just said, I will yield to him at once.” (2)
111 – Abū Ḥāmid al-Isfarāyinī, Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad, the master scholar, the eminent authority, Shaykh al-Islām, Abū Ḥāmid Aḥmad ibn Abī Ṭāhir—
= Kadhb al-Muftari, pp. 223–224; Ibn Khallikan, Wafayat al-Ayan, 4/27; al-Safadi, al-Wafi bi-l-Wafayat, 3/177.
(1) Al-Sabki, Tabyin Kadhb al-Muftari, p. 221. For a list of the judge’s works see Qadi ʿIyad, Tartib al-Madarik, 4/601–602. Manuscript locations are recorded in Sezgin, Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums, 2/385–387. Of his writings, Iʿjaz al-Qurʾan was printed in Cairo, 1315–1317 AH, on the margins of al-Suyuti’s Itqan, and re-issued by Sayyid Saqr, Cairo, 1954 CE. Al-Tamhid fi l-radd ʿala al-mulhida wa-l-rafida wa-l-khawarij wa-l-muʿtazila was edited by Muhammad Abu Rayda and Mahmud al-Khudayri from the incomplete Paris manuscript (Cairo, 1947) and by MacCarthy (Beirut, 1957). Al-Bayan ʿan l-farq bayna al-muʿjizat wa-l-karamat wa-l-hiyal wa-l-kahana wa-l-sihr wa-n-nayrangiyyat was published by MacCarthy, Beirut, 1958.
(2) Ibn Khallikan, Wafayat al-Ayan, 4/269; al-Safadi, al-Wafi bi-l-Wafayat, 3/177.
(*) Additional biographical notices: Tabaqat al-ʿAbadi, p. 107; Tabaqat al-Shirazi, p. 103; Tarikh Baghdad, 4/368–370; al-Ansab, 1/237–238; al-Muntazam, 7/277–278; Muʿjam al-Buldan, 1/178; Tabaqat Ibn al-Salah, fol. 37b; Tahdhib al-Asmaʾ wa-l-Lughat, 2/208–210; Wafayat al-Ayan, 1/72–74; al-Mukhtasar fi Akhbar al-Bashar, 2/152; al-ʿIbar, 3/92; Duwal al-Islam, 1/243; al-Wafi bi-l-Wafayat, 7/357–358; Mirʾat al-Jinan, 3/15; Tabaqat al-Subki, 4/61–74; Tabaqat al-Isnawi, 1/57; al-Bidaya wa-l-Nihaya, 12/2–3; al-Nujum al-Zahira, 4/239; Tabaqat Ibn Hidaya.