He had been brought up under the care of Ibn Khuzaymah and was counted among his pupils. Ibn Khuzaymah preferred him to his own sons and would read to him in private works he read to no one else. Whenever Ibn Khuzaymah was absent from the sultan’s gatherings, he sent Ḥusaynak in his place. At Ibn Khuzaymah’s death Ḥusaynak was twenty-three years old, and he then lived on for many decades. He became one of the people most devoted to worship and to the recitation of the Quran (1); he never omitted the night prayer, whether resident or travelling, in summer or winter. He was lavish in almsgiving, beneficence, and maintaining family ties. He used to imitate Ibn Khuzaymah’s ablution and his prayer, and none of the affluent was ever seen to pray more beautifully than he—may Allah have mercy on him. The funeral prayer over him was led by the ḥadith master Abū Aḥmad al-Naysābūrī.

Abū al-Qāsim al-Dārakī (2), ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad—also known as Abū al-Qāsim al-Dārakī (3)—was one of the leading Shāfiʿī imams of his age. He settled first in Nīshāpūr, then moved to Baghdad, where he remained until his death.

Shaykh Abū Ḥāmid al-Isfarāʾīnī said, “I never saw anyone more learned in jurisprudence than he.”

Al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī relates that when he was asked for a legal ruling, he would ponder at length before replying, and at times his verdict would differ from the positions of al-Shāfiʿī and Abū Ḥanīfah. When this was pointed out to him he would say, “Woe to you! So-and-so narrated from so-and-so from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) [such-and-such] (4). Acting upon that is preferable to following the school of al-Shāfiʿī or Abū Ḥanīfah; opposing them is easier than opposing a hadith.” (May Allah be pleased with him) (5).

Ibn Khallikān said: “Within the school he produced fine alternative views that attest to the firmness of his knowledge. He was, however, suspected of Muʿtazilite leanings. He studied jurisprudence with Shaykh Abū Isḥāq al-Marwazī and hadith with his maternal grandfather al-Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad al-Dārakī—one of the teachers of Shaykh Abū Ḥāmid al-Isfarāʾīnī—and the majority of the scholars of Baghdad and other regions took knowledge from him (6).”

He died in Shawwāl—though some say in Dhū al-Qaʿdah—of this very year, having passed the age of seventy (7). May Allah, Exalted is He, have mercy upon him.