vented their spite against him, yet that only increased his stature and prestige. Fair-minded observers realized that the remarks of his peers were driven by personal bias. Seldom does anyone attain the rank of scholarly leadership and rebut his opponents without being treated with hostility—we seek Allah’s protection from such whims—and these few pages are far too narrow to record all the virtues of this noble master.
As for his ancestor al-Sāʾib al-Muṭṭalibī, he was among the notables who fought at Badr on the side of the unbelievers; he was taken prisoner that day and was said to resemble the Prophet ﷺ. His mother was al-Shifāʾ daughter of Arqam ibn Nadlah. Nadlah was a brother of ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, the Prophet’s grandfather; it is reported that, after ransoming himself, he embraced Islam. (1)
Al-Sāʾib’s son Shāfiʿ had personally seen the Prophet and is therefore counted among the junior Companions. (2) Shāfiʿ’s son ʿUthmān was a Successor, and I know of no substantial body of hadith transmitted from him.
The maternal uncles of Imām al-Shāfiʿī were from the Azd tribe.
Ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥakam related: “When al-Shāfiʿī’s mother conceived him, she saw as though…”
Then the venerable scholar Abu Mansur Abd al-Qahir ibn Tahir al-Baghdadi composed two books: one is a large, comprehensive volume devoted to the manaqib (virtues) of the Imam, while the other is a carefully verified abridgment written to refute the Hanafi al-Jurjani, who had spoken against the Imam.
Next, the eminent hafiz Abu Bakr al-Bayhaqi produced his famous and meticulously compiled work on the manaqib, together with other writings of the same kind, such as Bayan Khata man Akhtaʾa al-Shafiʿi and similar titles.
After him, the great hafiz Abu Bakr al-Khatib assembled a collected work on the manaqib and a concise treatise that adduces legal evidence from al-Shafiʿi.
Imam Fakhr al-Din al-Razi subsequently authored his well-known book, arranged by chapters and subdivisions.
The hafiz Abu ʿUbayd Allah Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Abi Zayd al-Isfahani, known as Ibn al-Muqriʾ, likewise wrote two works: one entitled Shifa al-Sudur fi Mahasin Sadr al-Sudur, and another large volume—an abridgment of the first—called al-Kitab alladhi Aʿaddahu Shafiʿi fi Manaqib al-Imam al-Shafiʿi.
The hafiz Abu al-Hasan ibn Abi al-Qasim al-Bayhaqi, nicknamed Fandaq, also produced a substantial book on the manaqib.
(1) Tarikh Baghdad, 2:58; Asd al-Ghaba, 2:317; al-Bayhaqi, Manaqib al-Shafiʿi, 1:79–80; Tawali al-Taʾsis, p. 45; al-Isaba, 2:11.
(2) See Asd al-Ghaba, 2:501; al-Isaba, 2:135.