and propriety, scrupulousness, humility, truthfulness, sincerity, and accuracy in transmission.

Among his well-known works are: The Merits of Good Deeds, one volume; The Book of Rulings, unfinished, in three volumes; Selected Ḥadiths, of which he completed half in six volumes; The Correspondences, in roughly sixty fascicles; The Merits of the Ḥadith Scholars, three fascicles; The Virtues of Syria, two; Description of Paradise, three; Description of Hell, two; The Biography of the Maqdisīs, a large tome; The Merits of the Qur’an, one fascicle; Mention of the Cistern, one; The Prohibition of Reviling the Companions, one; The Life of His Two Teachers—the ḥāfiẓ ʿAbd al-Ghanī and Shaykh al-Muwaffaq—four fascicles; Fighting the Turks, one; and The Merit of Knowledge, one.

He remained devoted to study, narration, and writing until his death, and his compositions are beneficial and well-polished.

He founded a school beside the Muzaffarī Grand Mosque, constructing it with his own hands. He was content with little, strove in good works and in spreading the sunnah, and was devoted to worship and keeping apart from people. He was generous and supportive, constant in night prayer, ever enjoining what is right, of dignified appearance, with a handsome grey beard, loved by both friend and foe, and wholly occupied with his own soul—may Allah have mercy on him.

ʿUmar ibn al-Ḥājib wrote in his own hand: “I asked Zakiyy al-Dīn al-Barzālī about our shaykh al-Ḍiyāʾ, and he replied, ‘A reliable ḥāfiẓ, a mountain of piety and goodness.’”

I also read, in the handwriting of Ismāʿīl the instructor, that he heard Shaykh ʿIzz al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-ʿIzz say: “Since al-Dāraquṭnī, no one like our shaykh al-Ḍiyāʾ has appeared,” or words to that effect.

The ḥāfiẓ Sharaf al-Dīn Yūsuf ibn Badr said: “May Allah have mercy on our shaykh Ibn ʿAbd al-Wāḥid; he possessed immense stature in memorization and in knowledge of narrators; he was the one to whom people pointed….”