Al-Samʿānī also said, “A leading Imām—religiously committed, God-fearing—who spent most of his time disseminating knowledge and issuing legal opinions.”
Abū Mūsā al-Madīnī added, “Al-Rustumī taught the school of law for many years, and he was uncompromising in upholding the sunnah.”
ʿAbd al-Qādir reported, “I heard some of our colleagues from Isfahān relate that every Friday he would withdraw somewhere to weep; he wept so much that he lost his sight. We used to read to him while he wore threadbare clothes and sat on bedding of no value—his house was the same—yet all the different factions were united in their love for him.”
Abū Mūsā said, “He died on Wednesday evening, the 2nd of Ṣafar, 561 AH.”
284 – Ibn Rifāʿah, Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh ibn Rifāʿah al-Saʿdī
The shaykh, jurist, scholar of farāʾiḍ (laws of inheritance), leading Imām, and foremost transmitter of his time: Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh ibn Rifāʿah ibn Ghadīr ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī ʿUmar ibn Abī al-Dhiyāl ibn Thābit ibn Nuʿaym al-Saʿdī, an Egyptian Shāfiʿī.
His birth (1): in Dhū al-Qaʿdah, 467 AH.
He kept close company with the judge Abū al-Ḥasan al-Khilaʿī (2), learned extensively from him, and studied jurisprudence under him. From al-Khilaʿī he heard The Hishāmī Biography (al-Sīrah al-Hishāmiyyah), Twenty Benefits, the Sunan of Abū Dāwūd, and other works.