his house, consulting him often and deriving copious benefit from him. Ibn Kathīr was markedly influenced by him in matters of creed, for al-Mizzī was among the staunchest supporters of Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah. Ibn Kathīr has left us a vivid description of al-Mizzī’s final illness and his awe-inspiring funeral, saying:
“The passing of our shaykh Abū al-Ḥajjāj al-Mizzī: he was ill only a few days, yet this did not keep him from attending the congregational prayers, sitting in the lessons, and dictating ḥadīth. On Friday, the eleventh of Ṣafar, he dictated ḥadīth to me until shortly before the prayer, then entered his house to make ablution and proceed to the mosque. A violent abdominal pain overtook him—he thought it colic, but it was in fact the plague—so he could not attend the prayer. When we had finished I was told he was bedridden; I went in and found him trembling violently from the intensity of the pain. I asked how he was; he kept repeating, ‘Praise be to Allah,’ and told me of the severity of his sickness. He performed the Ẓuhr prayer himself, went to the place of purification, and took ablution at the pool despite the agony. That state remained with him until the next day, Saturday. At the Ẓuhr call I was not present, but his daughter Zaynab—my wife—told us that when the adhān was given his mind wandered a little. She said, ‘Father, the Ẓuhr adhān has been made!’ He remembered Allah and said, ‘I want to pray.’ He performed tayammum and prayed, then lay down and began reciting the Throne Verse until his tongue could no longer voice it, and his soul was taken between the two prayers—may Allah have mercy on him—on Saturday, the twelfth of Ṣafar.
On Sunday morning, the thirteenth of Ṣafar, he was washed and shrouded, and the funeral prayer was held for him in the Umayyad Mosque. The prayer was repeated outside Bāb al-Naṣr, after which he was buried in the Ṣūfī cemetery beside his righteous wife, the memoriser of the Book of Allah, ʿĀʾishah daughter of Ibrāhīm ibn Ṣiddīq, to the west of the grave of Shaykh Taqī al-Dīn Ibn Taymiyyah—may Allah have mercy on them all.” (1)
- Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ʿUthmān ibn Qaymāz, Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Dhahabī, the Turkmen, al-Fāriqī, the Damascene, d. 748 AH: Ibn Kathīr studied with this shaykh in Qur’anic exegesis, ḥadīth, and history, and transmitted from him. Concerning him he wrote:
“On the night of Monday, the third of Dhu’l-Ḥijjah, the eminent ḥadīth master, Historian of Islam, and shaykh of the traditionists, Shams al-Dīn Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿUthmān al-Dhahabī, passed away in the Turbah of Umm al-Ṣāliḥ. The funeral prayer was performed for him on Monday at the Ẓuhr prayer in the Great Mosque of Damascus, and he was buried in the Bāb al-Ṣaghīr cemetery. With him the line of ḥadīth masters and memorisers reached its culmination—may Allah have mercy on him.” (2)
- Maḥmūd ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, Shams al-Dīn, Abū al-Thanāʾ al-Aṣbahānī, d. 749 AH: Ibn Kathīr acquired from him the science of fiqh, for he excelled in the rational disciplines, was sound in creed, and loved the pious. (3)