He held a unique standing in Baghdad, being the sole authority to issue fatwas on the masʾalat al-dawr (the problem of circular causality) put forward by Ibn Surayj (1).
He was the first to compose a commentary on the book al-Tanbīh (2), and he also authored a work on uṣūl al-fiqh (legal theory).
He heard hadiths from Ibn Ṭalḥah al-Niʿālī, Naṣr ibn al-Baṭar, Thābit ibn Bundār, al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Busrī, Jaʿfar al-Sarrāj, Abū Bakr al-Ṭuraythīthī, Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Salām al-Anṣārī, and a number of others.
Those who narrated from him include al-Samʿānī, ʿAbd al-Khāliq ibn Asad, Aḥmad ibn Ṭāriq al-Karkī, al-Fath ibn ʿAbd al-Salām, Abū al-Ḥasan al-Qaṭīʿī, and many others.
He was held in high regard for his mastery of the mansūb script (3); it was said that people would sometimes request his handwriting on fatwas simply for the elegance of his calligraphy.
Al-Samʿānī said, “He was one of the Shāfiʿī imams of Baghdad, accurate in the opinions he issued,”
(1) The reference is to the eminent imam Abu al-Abbas Ahmad ibn Umar ibn Surayj al-Baghdadi (d. 306 AH/918 CE); his biography is found in vol. 14, no. 114. The present issue, known among the Shafiis as “the Surayji question,” concerns a circular divorce formula in which a man says to his wife: “Whenever my divorce of you takes effect, you are already divorced three times before that.” The circularity is evident: if he divorces her now, the statement deems three divorces to have occurred previously; yet if three divorces have already taken place, no further divorce can occur, so affirming the clause negates it, rendering the formula void. Numerous treatises—both defenses and rebuttals—have been written on this problem; among the authors is Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (see Kashf al-Zunun, p. 1662, and al-Subki, Tabaqat, 9:245-246, under Ibn Daqiq al-Id). A thorough refutation is provided by Ibn Hajar al-Haytami in Tuhfat al-Muhtaj fi Sharh al-Minhaj, 8:114-116.
(2) He entitled his work Tawjih al-Tanbih. Haji Khalifa notes that the commentary does not set out the case itself, but merely offers a brief rationale; see Kashf al-Zunun, 1:489.
(3) The phrase refers to khatt al-mansub, the proportioned calligraphic script. Its foundational rules were laid down and mastered by Ibn Muqla (see vol. 15, no. 86), and its refinement and final arrangement were completed by Ali ibn Hilal Ibn al-Bawwab (see vol. 17, no. 192).