Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ - Shams al‑Din al‑Dhahabi - (21/380)

Siyar Aʿlām al-NubalāʾShams al‑Din al‑Dhahabi

and the people were overcome with grief for him, and they kept vigil at his grave throughout the entire month of Ramadan, completing full Qur’an recitations by the light of candles and lanterns. That very night the ḥadith scholar Aḥmad ibn Salmān al-Sukkar (1) saw him in a dream: he was upon a pulpit of ruby, seated in a seat of honor, with the angels standing before him (2).

When Saturday dawned we held the condolence gathering. I addressed those present, a vast multitude attended, and elegies were recited there (3).

One of the remarkable incidents was that, after the mourning had ended that Saturday and we were still at his grave, my uncle Muḥyī al-Dīn came up from the riverbank with a bier behind him. We said, “Let us see who has died,” and it proved to be Khātūn, Muḥyī al-Dīn’s mother. I had seen her on the very night my grandfather passed away and she was in perfect health. People counted this among his extraordinary merits, for he had been deeply attached to her.

His grandfather instructed that the following be inscribed upon his tomb:

O You whose pardon is vast for him
whose sins have greatly multiplied,
A sinner comes to You in hope
that You will overlook the crimes his hands have wrought;
I am a guest, and the guest’s due
is kindness shown to him.

ʿAbd al-Ḥāfiẓ ibn Badrān (4) informed us; Imām Muwaffaq al-Dīn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad informed us; Abū al-Faraj ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAlī narrated to us; Yaḥyā ibn Thābit informed us; my father informed us; Abū Bakr al-Burqānī narrated to us; Aḥmad ibn Ibrāhīm informed us; Ibn ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Wazzān told us; al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī al-Azdī narrated to us; ʿAlī ibn—

…Sibt Ibn al-Jawzi is prone to overstatement in several places throughout his writings. (1) He died in the year 601 AH. (2) The full wording of the report is: “and the Most High is present and hears his speech.” (3) Sibt does not say, “and elegies were composed for him”; rather, he reproduces a lament composed for him by al-Nasir al-Alawi al-Musawi, a native of the shrine of Musa ibn Jaʿfar, the poem known as al-Kazimiyya. (4) Imad al-Din Abu Muhammad ʿAbd al-Hafiz ibn Badran ibn Shibl ibn Tarkhan al-Nabulusi, a Hanbali ascetic and one of al-Dhahabi’s teachers (d. 698 AH); al-Dhahabi mentions him in Muʿjam shuyukhihi, vol. 1, fol. 70, and under the obituaries for 698 AH in Tarikh al-Islam (Aya Sofya MS 3014).

وَبَاتُوا عِنْد قَبْره طول شَهْر رَمَضَان يَخْتِمُوْنَ الختمَات، بِالشّمع وَالقَنَادِيْل، وَرَآهُ فِي تِلْكَ الليَلة المُحَدِّث أَحْمَد بن سَلْمَانَ السُّكَّرُ (١) فِي النَّوْمِ، وَهُوَ عَلَى مِنْبَر مَنْ يَاقُوْت، وَهُوَ جَالِس فِي مَقْعَد صدق وَالمَلاَئِكَة بَيْنَ يَدَيْهِ (٢) . وَأَصْبَحنَا يَوْم السَّبْت عَملنَا العزَاء، وَتَكلّمت فِيْهِ، وَحضر خلق عَظِيْم، وَعملت فِيْهِ المرَاثِي (٣) ، وَمِنَ العَجَائِب أَنَا كُنَّا بَعْد انْقَضَاء العزَاء يَوْم السَّبْت عِنْد قَبْره، وَإِذَا بِخَالِي مُحْيِي الدِّيْنِ قَدْ صعد مِنَ الشّطّ، وَخلفه تَابوت، فَقُلْنَا: نَرَى مَنْ مَاتَ، وَإِذَا بِهَا خَاتُوْن أُمّ مُحْيِي الدِّيْنِ، وَعهدِي بِهَا لَيْلَة وَفَاة جَدِّي فِي عَافِيَة، فَعد النَّاس هَذَا مِنْ كرامَاته، لأَنَّه كَانَ مغرَىً بِهَا. وَأَوْصَى جدّه أَنْ يُكتب عَلَى قَبْرَه: يَا كَثِيْرَ العَفْوِ عَمَّنْ ... كَثُرَ الذَّنْبُ لَدَيْهِ جَاءكَ المُذْنِبُ يَرْجُو الـ ... ـصَّفْحَ عَنْ جُرْمِ يَدَيْهِ أَنَا ضَيْفٌ، وَجزَاءُ الـ ... ـضَّيْفِ إِحْسَانٌ إِلَيْهِ أَخْبَرَنَا عَبْدُ الحَافِظِ (٤) بنُ بَدْرَانَ، أَخْبَرَنَا الإِمَامُ مُوَفَّق الدِّيْنِ عَبْد اللهِ بن أَحْمَدَ، حَدَّثَنَا أَبُو الفَرَجِ عَبْدُ الرَّحْمَانِ بن عَلِيٍّ، أَخْبَرَنَا يَحْيَى بنُ ثَابِتٍ، أَخْبَرَنَا أَبِي، حَدَّثَنَا أَبُو بَكْرٍ البُرْقَانِيّ، أَخْبَرَنَا أَحْمَدُ بنُ إِبْرَاهِيْمَ، أَخْبَرَنَا ابْنُ عَبْدِ الكَرِيْمِ الوَزَّان، حَدَّثَنَا الحَسَنُ بنُ عَلِيٍّ الأَزْدِيّ، حَدَّثَنَا عَلِيُّ بنُ

= السبط بالمجازفة في غير موضع من كتبه. (١) توفي سنة ٦٠١. (٢) تمام الخبر: والحق سبحانه حاضر يسمع كلامه. (٣) لم يقل السبط (وعملت فيه المراثي) لكنه أورد قصيدة في رثائه للناصر العلوي الموسوي من أهل مشهد موسى بن جعفر ﵉، وهي المعروفة بالكاظمية. (٤) عماد الدين أبو محمد عبد الحافظ بن بدران بن شبل بن طرخان النابلسي الحنبلي الزاهد شيخ الذهبي المتوفى سنة ٩٨ ذكره الذهبي في (معجم شيوخه) : ١ / الورقة: ٧٠، وفي وفيات سنة ٦٩٨ من (تاريخ الإسلام) (أيا صوفيا ٣٠١٤) .