Taqi al-Din Ibn Qadi 'Ajlun

Taqi al-Din Abu al-Sidq Abu Bakr ibn Abd Allah ibn Abd al-Rahman ibn Muhammad, known as Ibn Qadi Ajlun, of Zuwa and later of Damascus, a Shafii. He was born in Damascus in Sha'ban of the year 841. He studied with his father and his brother, the shaykh of Islam Najm al-Din, and the shaykh of Islam Zayn al-Din Khattab. He heard hadith from Abu al-Hasan ibn Bardas and the hadith master Ibn Nasir al-Din, and he received a licence by correspondence from Ibn Hajar. He also studied with Salih al-Bulqini and al-Jalal al-Mahalli ².

He taught at the Umayyad mosque, at al-Shamiyya al-Barraniyya and at al-Umariyya, and in Cairo. He wrote a manual of rites and the book "Ilam al-Nabih" on what goes beyond al-Minhaj. The leadership of Islam and the leadership of the Shafiis in the lands of al-Sham, and indeed in other Muslim lands, came to rest with him ².

When al-Biqai wrote his book refuting al-Ghazali and pressed his criticism of Ibn al-Arabi very hard, Ibn Qadi Ajlun was among the strongest opponents and boycotted him. In the days of al-Ghuri he was tested over his fatwa in the case of Ibn Muhyi al-Din al-Aslami. He was summoned to Cairo and fined heavily, so that he sold most of his books. In the end his fatwa was acted upon, and the demolished tomb was rebuilt as it had been. He died on Monday morning, the eleventh of Ramadan, and was buried in the cemetery of Bab al-Saghir ¹.