the Bakri, the Tabaristani, the specialist in uṣūl, the Qur’anic exegete, and a leading figure among the bright minds, sages, and authors.

Born: in 544 AH.

He studied under his father, the imam Ḍiyāʾ al-Dīn, the preacher of Rayy. His writings circulated through the lands, east and west, and he possessed a blazing intellect. I have recorded his full biography, with due detail, in History of Islam.

Yet in some of those works there surfaced calamities, grave errors, occult elements, and deviations from the Sunnah—may Allah pardon him—for he ultimately died upon a praiseworthy way, and Allah alone knows what is in the hearts.

He passed away in Herat, on the day of Eid al-Fiṭr, 606 AH, at a little over sixty years of age. Toward the end of his life he admitted, saying (1):

“I examined the dialectical approaches of speculative theology and the methods of philosophy, and I found that they heal no invalid and quench no thirst. The path I found closest is the path of the Qur’an. In matters of affirmation I read: ‘The Most Merciful rose over the Throne’ (2), ‘To Him ascend the good words…’ (3); and in matters of negation I read: ‘Nothing is like unto Him’ (4). Whoever has gone through what I have gone through will know what I have come to know.”