Narrated on his authority were: al-Bahāʾ ʿAbd al-Raḥmān; al-Jamāl Abū Mūsā, the son of the ḥāfiẓ; Ibn Nuqṭah; Ibn Khalīl; al-Ḍiyāʾ; Abū Shāmah; Ibn al-Najjār; Ibn ʿAbd al-Dāʾim; al-Jamāl Ibn al-Ṣayrafī; al-ʿIzz Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAbd Allah; al-Fakhr ʿAlī; al-Taqī Ibn al-Wāsiṭī; al-Shams Ibn al-Kamāl; al-Tāj ʿAbd al-Khāliq; al-ʿImād Ibn Badrān; al-ʿIzz Ismāʿīl Ibn al-Farrāʾ; al-ʿIzz Aḥmad Ibn al-ʿImād; Abū al-Fahm Ibn al-Namīs; Yūsuf al-Ghusūlī; Zaynab bint al-Wāsiṭī—and a host of others, the last of them to pass away being al-Taqī Aḥmad Ibn Muʾmin, who transmits a number of hadiths from him in person (1).

He was the leading scholar of the Levant in his time.

Ibn al-Najjār said: “He was the imām of the Ḥanbalīs in the Great Mosque of Damascus; trustworthy, an authoritative proof, distinguished, possessed of abundant merit, scrupulous, God-fearing, devout, firmly upon the path of the early generations. Light and dignity rested upon him; a man would benefit merely by beholding him even before hearing him speak.”

ʿUmar ibn al-Ḥājib said: “He is the imām of the imāms and the muftī of the ummah. Allah favoured him with abundant excellence, a copious intellect, and complete knowledge. The lands buzzed (2) with his mention, and the ages were miserly with anyone like him. He grasped the essentials of both transmitted and rational realities … until he said:

‘He has numerous writings, and I do not think time will allow the like of him again. He was humble, sound in creed, patient, forbearing, and dignified. His gathering was thronged by jurists and hadith scholars. He devoted himself greatly to worship, was constant in night prayer; we never saw his equal, nor has anyone like him been seen.’”

Shaykh al-Ḍiyāʾ compiled his biography in two volumes, in which he wrote: “He was of full stature, fair-skinned, radiant of face, large-eyed—as though light issued from his countenance because of its beauty—with a broad forehead,”} } } }