IBN HAZM

IBN HAZM

(A Translation of Ibn Hazm’s Biography in the Shazarātuzzahab Book)

By. Edi Kurniawan

 

His full name was ‘Alī bin Ahmad bin Sa’īd bin Hazm al-Zāhirī, and he was also called as Abū Muhammad. He was a Muslim scholar from Andalusia and one of the founders of Islamic school of Law (Mazhab). He wrote many books, some of them were, such as al-Muhallā and Jamhurah Anṣab al-‘Arab. 

A Master Peace Book In the Science of Fiqh by Ibn Hazmas 
As An Encyclopedia In His Islamic School of Law

He was born in Cordova, a part of Andalusia in Ramaḍān 384 H and growth up in graceful and became a famous Muslim. He and his father worked in the minister of education in Andalusia empires, but he left it and he concentrated himself to study and to write many books until he became a researcher, Jurist, memorizer of the holy al-Qur’ān (hāfiz), and a Muslim legal and jurist. 

He was very clever and intelligent in the Arabic, ethics, logic, poetry, as well as he was also an honest, Muslim scholar, honorable, glory, fortune, and having many books.  
 

He red and studied the Abī ‘Umar Ahmad bin al-Husain’s books and also Yahyā bin Mas’ūd’s, Abī Khiyār Ma’ūd bin Sulaiman al-Zāhirī’s, Yūnus bin ‘Abdullah bin Yūsuf bin Nāmī’s books and etc.

Narrated by Suraij bin Muhammad bin Suraij al-Maqburī from Abū ‘Abdillah al-Humaidī, the author of Jazwah al-Muqtabis, he took and studied many riwāyah and he was a latest who narrated from Ibn Hazm.

His knowledge and thought were spread in the East country by his sons, Abū Rāfi’, Abū Usāmah Ya’qūb, Abū Sulaimān al-Mus’ab and also were spread by some of his students and friends, like al-Imām Abū Muhammad bin al-Maghribī (he ever became a minister) who kept studying of the Ibn Hazm’s books as long as his life.

Imām al-Ghazālī said that: I had found a good book which has been written by someone who has the expert and the best in memorizing, namely Ibn Hazm.

Ibn Ṣā’id also said in his book by title Tārīkh that Ibn Hazm had ever assembled all of Andalusia’s societies to teach the Islamic studies for them and also to escalate their knowledge in speech, balāghah, poetry, history and story sciences.    

Ibn Khullikān also said that Ibn Hazm had been a memorizer of the holy Qur’ān, expert in the hadith science and in deducing the Islamic Law from the Qur’ān and Sunnah as well as had a lot of skill, a religious person, an ascetic, a humble person and writing a lot of books. 

I (the author of this book) said that Ibn Hazm had been well-known with his two books, namely al-Muhallā and Jamhurah Ansāb al-‘Arab. Al-Muhallā is a book about fiqh which consisted of eleven volumes and it was published in the Egypt by ‘Allāmah al-Shaikh Ahmad Muhammad Shākir and Shaikh ‘Abd al-Rahmān al-Jazīrī and as a verification (tahqīq) and al-Shaikh Muhammad Munīr al-Damshīqi as a finishing. And Jamhurah Ansāb al-‘Arab. al-Muhallā is a greater book about. It was published by Dār al-Ma’ārif, Egypt, 1382 and al-Ustāz al-Muhaqqiq ‘Abd al-Salām Muhammad Harūn as a verification (tahqīq) in the completed edition.

Reference:

Shiḥābuddīn Abī al-Fallāh, Shazarātuzzahab Fi Akhbāri Man Zahab, (Beirut-Libanon, Dār Ibn Kathir, 1986) Volume: I, P. 37-38