—so forgive me, for no one forgives sins but You.’

91 – Ibn al-Majd, Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn ʿĪsā ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Maqdisī*
An Imām, scholar, ḥāfiẓ, master of precision, exemplar, and righteous man, bearing the honorific Ṣayf al-Dīn. He is Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad, son of the muḥaddith and jurist Majd al-Dīn ʿĪsā, son of the distinguished Imām Muwaffaq al-Dīn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Qudāmah al-Maqdisī, from the Ṣāliḥiyya quarter, a Ḥanbalī.

Born: 605 AH.

He received ḥadith from Abū al-Yumn al-Kindī, Ibn al-Harastānī, Ibn Mulāʿib, his grandfather, and a number of others.

He completed his training under his maternal uncle, the ḥāfiẓ Ḍiyāʾ al-Dīn, and set out on his travels at the age of eighteen. During those journeys he heard ḥadith from al-Fatḥ ibn ʿAbd al-Salām (2), ʿAlī ibn Būzandār, Abū ʿAlī Ibn al-Jawāliqī, and their peers. He then traveled to Baghdad as well in the year 626, where he engaged in extensive transcription, collected material, authored works, and excelled in the science of ḥadith.

He was reliable, firmly grounded, intelligent, upon the way of the early generations, devout, scrupulous, possessed of many virtues, abundant in worship and devotion, of complete dignity, steadfast in speaking the truth and forbidding wrongdoing. Had he lived longer, he would have become pre-eminent in knowledge and practice—may Allah Most High have mercy on him.

He copied texts for his own benefit and for remuneration, and he benefited the students.