the markets; and there was ill-feeling between al-Isfarāʾīnī and the preacher Abū al-Hasan al-Ghaznawī, so a proclamation was issued in Baghdad that no one was to mention any school of law.
I say: When Ibn ʿAsākir heard of al-Isfarāʾīnī’s death, he dictated a session on the subject, which we received with a continuous chain. A Muslim, therefore, should seek refuge from trials and not provoke turmoil by mentioning uncommon doctrines, whether in fundamentals or in subsidiary matters. I have never seen such agitation produce any good; rather, it only breeds evil, enmity, and loathing among the righteous worshippers of both camps. So hold fast to the Sunnah, keep silent, do not meddle in what does not concern you, and whatever remains unclear to you, refer it to Allah and His Messenger, pause, and say: “Allah and His Messenger know best.”
- Shurayḥ ibn Muḥammad ibn Shurayḥ ibn Aḥmad al-Ruʿaynī — son of Muḥammad ibn Shurayḥ ibn Yūsuf ibn Shurayḥ — the shaykh, the incomparable imām, the long-lived preacher, shaykh of the Qur’an reciters and hadith transmitters; Abū al-Ḥasan al-Ruʿaynī al-Ishbīlī, the Mālikī, preacher of Seville.
He was born in Rabīʿ al-Awwal, 451 AH.
He recited to his learned father, Abū ʿAbd Allāh, his book al-Kāfī in the seven canonical modes and took from him considerable knowledge. Abū Muḥammad Ibn Ḥazm al-Ẓāhirī granted him an authorization (ijāza) for his narrations.
He heard the Sahih of al-Bukhari from Abū ʿAbd Allāh ibn Manẓūr, a student of Abū Dharr al-Harawī; he also learned from ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad al-Bājī, Abū Muḥammad ibn Khazraj, and others.