al-Qastallani Shihab al-Din

The hadith master Shihab al-Din Abu al-Abbas Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr ibn Abd al-Malik al-Qastallani al-Misri al-Shafii. He was born in Egypt on the twelfth of Dhu al-Qada in the year 851 and grew up there. He memorised the Qur'an and recited it in the seven readings, and he memorised the Shatibiyya, the Jazariyya, the Wardiyya and other works. His teachers included Shaykh Khalid al-Azhari the grammarian, al-Fakhr al-Maqsati and al-Jalal al-Bakri. He read Sahih al-Bukhari with al-Sakhawi in five sessions and was also his student. He made the pilgrimage several times and stayed in Mecca in the years 884 and 894, and he took knowledge there from a number of scholars ¹.

He held the shaykhdom of the shrine of Sidi Shaykh Ahmad al-Harrar in the Lesser Qarafa cemetery. He wrote a book on his virtues called "The Pleasant Stroll of the Righteous on the Virtues of Shaykh Abu al-Abbas al-Harrar". He preached at the Ghuri mosque and elsewhere, and large crowds gathered at his sessions. No one matched him as a preacher. He copied out a great deal in his own hand, both for himself and for others, taught students, and worked as a notary witness for a time before he withdrew and devoted himself to writing ².

His works include "The Pearls of the Jazariyya", a book on the stops of the readings of Hamza and Hisham, a commentary on the Shatibiyya with additions from Ibn al-Jazari and some rare notes, a commentary on the Burda called "The Shining Lights", "Precious Breaths on Companionship and the Patched Cloak", "The Blooming Garden on the Virtues of Shaykh Abd al-Qadir", "The Listener's and Reciter's Gift on the Completion of Sahih al-Bukhari", and treatises on the use of the quadrant ². His reputation rose, and he wrote widely accepted works that travelled far in his lifetime. The most celebrated of them is his commentary on Sahih al-Bukhari, which he compiled in ten large volumes and which is probably the most complete and useful of his commentaries. It is called "Irshad al-Sari". His book "The Divine Gifts through the Muhammadan Bounties" is another work of great weight, great influence and wide benefit, and it has no equal in its field ².

It is said that the hadith master al-Suyuti resented him and claimed that he took material from al-Suyuti's books without naming them. Al-Suyuti made this claim before Shaykh al-Islam Zakariyya, who asked him to prove it. He listed several places where al-Qastallani had quoted al-Bayhaqi. Al-Qastallani replied that Bayhaqi had many works, and asked which of them the passage came from, so that it could be known that he had quoted Bayhaqi. He had seen that quotation in Bayhaqi's works and copied it whole, and he should have said that al-Suyuti had quoted Bayhaqi. Jar Allah ibn Fahd reports that Shaykh Ahmad wished to remove the resentment in al-Jalal al-Suyuti's heart. He walked from Cairo to al-Rawda and knocked on al-Suyuti's door, barefoot and bareheaded. Al-Suyuti asked who he was. He replied: "I am al-Qastallani. I have come to you barefoot and bareheaded so that you may be content with me." Al-Suyuti said: "I am content with you." But he did not open the door or meet him ².

He died on the night of Friday, the seventh of Muharram in the year 923 in Cairo, and was buried in the madrasa next to his house. The author of al-Kawakib says that his death came from an ailment that struck him after he was affected by a sudden event: when his mind was disturbed, he caused the head of Ibn Ata Allah al-Makki to be cut off, which made him fall from his mount and lose consciousness. He was carried home and died a few days later ².