Abū ‘Abdillah Muhammad Ibn Idrīs Ash-Shāfi’ī Al-Hāshimī Al-Qurashī Al-Matlabī – rahimahullāh – is of the most adept men to have worked this earth.
He was the Imām who was born 150 years after the Hijrah in the same year Abū Hanīfah passed away. He memorized the Qur’ān at 7, and the Muwattā of Mālik at 13 even before meeting Mālik the Star. Then spent 10 years with Mālik studying and emulating the manners and lifestyle of the Madanī Imām.
Ash-Shāfi’ī excelled in his pursuit for Ilm and studied from the prominent Imāms of same in all the lands of Islām, traveling with the meager means he had from his assisting mother who had been singly responsible for his upbringing since he was a toddler.
His brilliance was so encompassing that the ‘Ulamā said, had Ash-Shāfi’ī been alive beyond the age of 60, he would have eclipsed every other Madh’hab aside his with the power of presentation, understanding and evidence. He passed away at the shinning age of 54 after leaving behind him a Movement of Ulamā and Students focused on Fiqh, thoroughness in research, purity of heart and discipline in ‘Ibādah.
His excellence was so immense that our Muhaddith Imām Ahmad Shākir – rahimahullāh – said:
“If it were permissible for the entire world to emulate any Ālim, then the most deserving of people for his would have been Ash-Shāfi’ī, for I believe, without been extreme or negligent, that this is personality the like of whom haven’t been paralleled among the ‘Ulamā of Islam, in the understanding (Fiqh) of the Book and the Sunnah, in penetrating insight in both, and in subtleness when it comes to synthesizing of evidence.”
Once, the son of Imām Ahmad once asked his father:
“O father! I see that you pray so much for Ash-Shāfi’ī. What sort of person was he?”
He said:
“Ash-Shāfi’ī was like a Sun to the world, and a bounty to People. So look therefore if there are to these two an alternative or a substitute.”
This was mentioned by Al-Khatīb Al-Baghdādī – rahimahullāh – in Ta’rīkh Madīnati As-Salām.
But the Matlabī Imām was not one who suffices with Learning and Teaching without rising to the defense of his Ummah.
The Muhaddith Imām Ibn Hajar Al-‘Asqalānī – rahimahullāh – mentioned in his work _’Tawālī At-Ta’nīs Bi Ma’ālī Ibn Idrīs’_ from Ar-Rabī’ the student of Ash-Shāfi’ī – rahimahullāh – who said:
“We went together with Ash-Shāfi’ī to Alexandria in Ribāt. He would observe the five obligatory Salāt in the Grand Masjid and then withdraw to the beach, face the Sea, sit and keep reciting the Qur’ān. This he kept doing that I counted 60 completions of the Qur’ān in his Days and Nights in Ramadān.”
That was the Matlabī Imām in the ranks of Ribāt in Ramadān. Rahimahullāh.
Where are our ‘Ulamā today?
Where are the likes of the youths that will thread the steps of his like today?
Bārakallāhu fīkum
Jazākumullāhu Khayran.
