among the Sufis—Shihab al-Din, Abū Ḥafs, also called Abū ʿAbd Allāh ʿUmar ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh, nicknamed “ʿAmuwayh,” son of Saʿd ibn Ḥusayn ibn al-Qāsim ibn al-Naḍr ibn al-Qāsim ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh, a direct descendant of the “Jurist of Medina” and his jurist-son, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Qāsim ibn Muḥammad ibn Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq—Qurashi by blood, Taymi, Bakri, Suhrawardi by origin, Sufi, and finally Baghdadi by residence.
He was born in Rajab of the year 539 AH. Still an unbearded youth, he left Suhraward for Baghdad, attached himself to his uncle Shaykh Abū al-Najīb, stayed constantly in his company, and learned from him jurisprudence, preaching, and the Sufi path. He also spent a short time with Shaykh ʿAbd al-Qādir, and in Basra with Shaykh Abū Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd.
Among those from whom he heard hadith were Hibat Allāh ibn Aḥmad al-Shiblī—the most senior of his teachers—Abū al-Fath ibn al-Baṭṭī, Khuzayfah ibn al-Hāṭirā, Abū al-Futūḥ al-Ṭāʾī, Abū Zurʿah al-Maqdisī, Maʿmar ibn al-Fākhir, Aḥmad ibn al-Muqarrab, Yaḥyā ibn Thābit, and others. From them he compiled a fascicle of narrations that we have heard.
Those who transmitted from him include Ibn Nuqtah, Ibn al-Dubaythī, Ibn al-Najjār, al-Ḍiyāʾ, al-Qūṣī, Ibn al-Nābulusī, Ẓahīr al-Dīn Maḥmūd al-Zanjānī, Abū al-Ghanāʾim ibn ʿAllān, Abū al-Faraj ibn al-Zayn, Abū Isḥāq ibn al-Wāsiṭī, Abū al-Maʿālī al-Abarqūhī, al-Rashīd ibn Abī al-Qāsim, and many others.