33 – al-Harālī, Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad ibn Ḥasan al-Tujībī

He was the versatile polymath Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad ibn Ḥasan al-Tujībī, originally from al-Andalus. Ḥarālla is a village belonging to the district of Murcia. He was born in Marrakesh, learned grammar from Ibn Kharūf, met leading scholars, travelled widely, and became devoted to the rational sciences. Eventually he settled in Ḥamāh, where he produced an extraordinary Qurʾanic commentary, filling it with interpretive possibilities that the Arabic language could hardly sustain. He ventured into the “science of letters and numbers,” and claimed to have calculated from it the time of the Dajjāl’s emergence and the moment when the sun will rise from the West. While in Ḥamāh he preached, the people flocked to him, and he authored works on logic and on the explanation of the Divine Names.

Our teacher Majd al-Dīn al-Tūnusī used to extol his commentary in the strongest terms, though I have seen other scholars censure him—God knows best the secrets of His servants. His patience was proverbial.

He died in 637 AH⦗1⦘.

Among those who venerate him is our teacher Sharaf al-Dīn ibn al-Bārizī, the judge of Ḥamāh. Whoever wishes may examine his writings, for they contain weighty matters.