Abu Umar al-Maqdisi

أبو عمر المقدسي

c. 1134 CE · 528 AH – c. October 1210 CE · 18 Rabi' I 607 AH

Shaykh Abu Umar al-Maqdisi Muhammad b. Ahmad b. Qudama, the Hanbali exemplar, brother of al-Muwaffaq; b. at Jamma'il 528, emigrated with his father and brother to Damascus when the Franks seized the Holy Land — they lodged at Abu Salih's mosque then the Mount, whence 'the Salihiyya, the Salihiyya: named for Abu Salih's mosque, not because we are salih'. He wrote out Qur'ans for his family, his brother's al-Mughni and Ibn Qutta's al-Ibana and the Khiraqi for the people without fee, preached at the Mount mosque till death, prayed seventy-two supererogatory rak'as a day, carried firewood by day and dirhams and flour by night to widows' and orphans' houses unknown to them, and prayed for rain till it came. He died the eve of Monday 18 Rabi' I 607 at eighty, his last words 'God has chosen the religion for you — die not save as Muslims'; a cloud shaded the crowd to his grave humming like bees, and but for the soldiery ringing him with swords not a shred of his shroud would have reached the grave — in a dream the Prophet ﷺ said 'whoever visits Abu Umar on Friday night is as if he visited the Ka'ba'; buried at Qasyun's foot beside his father ¹.