Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr — Siyar Aʿlām an-Nubalāʾ
85 – Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, Abū ʿUmar Yūsuf bnu ʿAbdi Allāh an-Namarī
The Imām, the erudite scholar, the ḥāfiẓ of the Maghrib, Shaykh al-Islām: Abū ʿUmar Yūsuf bnu ʿAbdi Allāh bnu Muḥammad bnu ʿAbd al-Barr bnu ʿĀṣim an-Namarī, the Andalusian, the Cordoban, the Mālikī, author of outstanding works.
His birth was in the year 368 AH, in the month of Rabīʿ al-Ākhir.
He sought knowledge after the year 390 AH, met the senior scholars, lived to an advanced age, possessed a high isnād, students gathered around him in great numbers, he compiled and authored works, authenticated and declared weak (reports and narrators), his writings spread far and wide, and the scholars of his time submitted to his knowledge.
He missed hearing directly from his father, the imām Abū Muḥammad, for his father had died earlier in the year 380 AH; he had been a jurist, a devoted to worship and night prayer, and lived fifty years. He had studied fiqh under al-Tujībī, and heard from Aḥmad bnu Muṭrif and Abū ʿUmar bnu Ḥazm the historian.
Al-Ḥumaydī said: Abū ʿUmar was a jurist, a ḥāfiẓ, prolific, knowledgeable in the Qurʾānic readings, in legal disagreement, in the sciences of ḥadīth and narrators, received ḥadīth at an early age, and inclined in jurisprudence toward the views of ash-Shāfiʿī.
Abū ʿAlī al-Ghassānī said: There was no one in our land in ḥadīth like Qāsim bnu Muḥammad and Aḥmad bnu Khālid al-Jabbāb.
Then Abū ʿAlī said: Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr was not beneath them, nor behind them. He was from an-Namir bnu Qāsiṭ; he sought knowledge and advanced in it, adhered closely to Abū ʿUmar Aḥmad bnu ʿAbd al-Malik the jurist, and to Abū al-Walīd bnu al-Faraḍī, persisted in the pursuit of ḥadīth and became deeply devoted to it, and excelled with an excellence by which he surpassed those before him among the men of al-Andalus.
Along with his leading mastery in the knowledge of transmitted reports and his insight into jurisprudence and meanings, he possessed a broad mastery of genealogy and historical reports. He departed from his homeland and resided for a time in the west, then moved to the eastern regions of al-Andalus, settling in Dāniyah, Valencia, and Shāṭiba, where he died.
More than one has mentioned that Abū ʿUmar held the judgeship of Lisbon for a while.
I say: He was an imām, devout, trustworthy, precise, a master scholar, profoundly learned, devoted to the Sunnah and adherence to it. At first he was, as has been said, an Atharī of Ẓāhirī inclination, then he became Mālikī, with a clear inclination in certain issues toward the jurisprudence of ash-Shāfiʿī. He was not denied this, for he had reached the rank of the mujtahid imāms. Whoever examines his writings will realize the vastness of his knowledge, the strength of his understanding, and the fluency of his intellect. Every person's statement may be accepted or rejected, except that of the Messenger of Allāh, ṣallallāhu ʿalayhi wa-sallam; yet if an imām errs in his ijtihād, it is not fitting for us to forget his virtues or obscure his knowledge. Rather, we seek forgiveness for him and excuse him.
Abū al-Qāsim bnu Bashkuwāl said: Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr was the imām of his age and the unique figure of his era; his kunya was Abū ʿUmar.
Abū ʿAlī bnu Sukkarah said: I heard Abū al-Walīd al-Bājī say: There was none in al-Andalus like Abū ʿUmar bnu ʿAbd al-Barr in ḥadīth, and he was the most memorizing of the people of the Maghrib.
Abū ʿAlī al-Ghassānī said: Abū ʿUmar authored beneficial works on the Muwaṭṭaʾ, among them the book al-Tamhīd li-mā fī al-Muwaṭṭaʾ min al-Maʿānī wa-l-Asānīd, which he arranged according to the names of Mālik's shaykhs, in alphabetical order. It is an unprecedented book, consisting of seventy volumes.
I say: They are very large volumes.
Ibn Ḥazm said: I do not know anything in discourse on the fiqh of ḥadīth like it, how then could anything be better than it?
He then produced the book al-Istithkār li-Math-hab ʿUlamāʾ al-Amṣār fīmā Taḍammanahu al-Muwaṭṭaʾ min Maʿānī ar-Raʾyi wa-l-Āthār, in which he explained the Muwaṭṭaʾ in its proper manner; and he compiled a great and beneficial book, al-Istīʿāb fī Asmāʾ al-Ṣaḥābah. He also authored Jāmiʿ Bayān al-ʿIlm wa-Faḍlih wa-mā Yanbaghī fī Riwayatihi wa-Ḥamlih, along his other works.
He was granted success in authorship, aided therein, and Allāh benefited people through his writings. Along with his leading mastery in transmitted knowledge and insight into jurisprudence and the meanings of ḥadīth, he possessed a wide mastery of genealogy and historical report.
A group mentioned that Abū ʿUmar held the judgeship of Lisbon and Santarém during the period of al-Muẓaffar bnu al-Afṭas.
Among Abū ʿUmar’s works are: al-Kāfī fī Math-hab Mālik in fifteen volumes; al-Iktifāʾ fī Qirāʾat Nāfiʿ wa-Abī ʿAmr; at-Taqaṣṣī fī Ikhtiṣār al-Muwaṭṭaʾ; al-Inbāh ʿan Qabāʾil ar-Ruwāt; al-Intiqāʾ li-Mathāhib ath-Thalāthati al-ʿUlamāʾ Mālik wa-Abī Ḥanīfah wa ash-Shāfiʿī; al-Bayān fī Tilāwat al-Qurʾān; al-Ajwibah al-Mūʿibah; al-Kunā; al-Maghāzī; al-Qaṣd wa l-Umam fī Nasab al-ʿArab wa l-ʿAjam; ash-Shawāhid fī Ithbāt Khabar al-Wāḥid; al-Inṣāf fī Asmāʾ Allāh; al-Farāʾiḍ; and Ashʿār Abī al-ʿAtāhiyah.
He lived ninety-five years.
Abū Dāwūd al-Muqriʾ said: Abū ʿUmar died on the night of Friday, at the end of Rabīʿ al-Ākhir, in the year 463 AH, having completed ninety-five years and five days, may Allāh have mercy on him.
It is said that Abū ʿUmar was open and cordial with Abū Muḥammad bnu Ḥazm, and that Ibn Ḥazm learned the discipline of ḥadīth from him.
Our shaykh Abū ʿAbd Allāh bnu Abī al-Fatḥ said: Abū ʿUmar was the most knowledgeable person in al-Andalus regarding the Sunan, the transmitted reports, and the disagreements of the scholars of the regions. He said: In the early part of his life he followed the Ẓāhirī school for a long period, then returned to affirming analogical reasoning without imitating any particular individual, though he frequently inclined toward the school of ash-Shāfiʿī. Thus he said; but what is well-known is that he was a Mālikī.
I say: In the foundations of religion he was upon the path of the Salaf; he did not enter into kalām, but rather followed the traces of his shaykhs, may Allāh have mercy on them.
Siyar Aʿlām an-Nubalāʾ (18/153–163)
Translated by: Abdurraḥmān al-Qaddāry