as al-ʿAṭṭārdī; the correct form is the one we have established. He transmitted the two books The Explanation of the Sunnah and Landmarks of Revelation. He died in 571 AH (1).
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The preacher and hadith scholar Abu al-Futuh Muhammad ibn Abi Jaʿfar Muhammad ibn Ali ibn Muhammad al-Taʾi al-Hamadhani, author of The Forty Hadith on Guiding Travelers to the Stations of Certainty. He died in 555 AH (2).
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Abu al-Makarim Fadl Allah ibn the hadith scholar and learned man Abu Saʿid Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Nawqani al-Shafiʿi. He was the last to transmit from him by authorization. He died in 600 AH (3).
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Al-Hasan ibn Masʿud al-Baghawi, Abu Ali, the brother of Imam al-Husayn al-Baghawi, studied jurisprudence under his brother (4).
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Abd al-Rahman ibn Abd Allah ibn Abd al-Rahman ibn al-Husayn ibn Muhammad al-Laythi, an imam of scrupulous piety and a leading authority on the Shafiʿi school.
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Muthawir ibn Fazkuwah, Abu Muqatil al-Daylami al-Yazdi, known as Imad al-Din. He was one of his foremost students and died in 546 AH (5).
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Among them was Muhammad ibn al-Husayn al-Zaghuli, who died in 559 AH.
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And Abd al-Rahman ibn Ali ibn Abi al-Abbas al-Nuʿaymi, who died in 542 AH, along with others.
His Creed
Imam al-Baghawi was among the imams of the righteous Salaf, who adhered to the Quran and the Sunnah in matters of creed, particularly with regard to Allah’s names and attributes. Among the evidence for this is his comment on the hadith related by Muslim in the Book of Divine Decree, in the chapter, “Allah turns hearts as He wills” (4/2654), in the first volume of his great work The Explanation of the Sunnah, p. 168:
“The shaykh and imam said: The finger mentioned in the hadith is one of Allah’s attributes. The same applies to everything of this kind concerning Allah’s attributes that is mentioned in the Quran or Sunnah, such as the Self, the Face, the Eye, the Hand, the Foot, coming, arrival, descent to the lowest heaven, istiwāʾ (rising over the Throne), laughter, and joy.”
He then says on p. 170: “These and whatever resembles them are attributes of Allah, established by transmitted texts. It is obligatory to believe in them and accept them according to their apparent meaning, without figurative reinterpretation and avoiding likening God to creation, while believing that the Creator—glorified is He—”