He passed away at the Ṣārimiyya Madrasa (1) on Sunday, the twenty-second (2) of Dhu al-Qaʿdah. He was buried in the Bāb al-Ṣaghīr cemetery near the tomb of al-Qandalāwī, and an exceedingly large crowd—some ten thousand people—attended his funeral. May Allah have mercy on him.
Shaykh al-Ṣadr ibn al-Wakīl (3): He was the scholar Abū ʿAbd Allah Muḥammad, son of the shaykh, the imām, the Mufti of the Muslims, Zayn al-Dīn ʿUmar ibn Makkī ibn ʿAbd al-Ṣamad, known both as Ibn al-Murahḥal and Ibn al-Wakīl. He was the leading Shāfiʿī of his age and the most celebrated of them for virtue, incessant study, wide reading, indefatigable pursuit of knowledge, and mastery of numerous disciplines. He excelled in the madhhab and in the “two fundamentals” (uṣūl al-fiqh and uṣūl al-dīn). In grammar, however, he was not particularly strong, [and many solecisms would issue from him] (4), even though he had studied in that field al-Mufaṣṣal of al-Zamakhsharī. He had committed a vast amount to memory.
He was born in Shawwāl 665 AH and heard hadith from a number of shaykhs, among them the Musnad of Aḥmad with ʿAlī ibn ʿAllān and the Six Books. A large portion of Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim was read to him at the Dār al-Ḥadīth by al-Amīn al-Irbilī, al-ʿĀmirī, and al-Mizzī. He would speak on hadith drawing material from many fields—medicine, philosophy, kalām (scholastic theology) — [which is no true knowledge] (6) — and the sciences of the ancients, and he did so copiously. He also composed fine verse and left behind a collected dīwān [containing some delightful pieces] (7).
He had companions who envied yet loved him, and others who envied and despised him; they would speak ill of him and accuse him of serious offenses. [He was extravagant with his own soul, having cast aside the cloak of modesty in committing filth and indecencies] (8). He declared enmity toward Shaykh Ibn Taymiyyah and debated him in many gatherings and assemblies. He acknowledged Shaykh Taqī al-Dīn’s brilliant learning and praised him, yet he defended (9) his own school, faction, and personal inclination with excessive zeal, championing his party.
For his part, Shaykh al-Islām Ibn Taymiyyah praised him, his knowledge, and his virtues, and affirmed his Islam whenever people referred to his ugly deeds. He would say: “He was confused within himself [following what Satan wanted of him] (10), inclined toward fame (11).”