Abu Muhammad Qasim b. Firruh Shatibi (538 – 590 AH). One of the great masters qira’at, language and hadith. His didactic poem Hirz Amani wa Wajh Tahani is deemed required reading for all serious students of qira’at.
By Allm. Ibn Khallikan RA (d. 608 AH) – Wafiyat A’yan
Abu Muhammad Kasim b. Firru b. Abu Kasim Khalaf b. Ahmad Ruaini Shatibi Darir Muqri.
He is the author of the kasida on ilm qira’at called Hirz Amani wa Wajh Tahani. It consists of one thousand one hundred and seventy-three verses. Its composition is displayed with the utmost ingenuity. It is the main authority on which the qurra of this age rely, in their instructions to pupils. Very few persons undertake to study qira’at till they have learned this poem by heart and mastered its meaning. It is filled with extraordinary allusions, obscure and subtle indications. I do not believe that any work of a similar kind was ever produced before. He is declared to have said, “None will read this kasida of mine without Almighty Allah permitting him to derive profit from it for I composed it purely and simply with the view of serving Allah Almighty.”
He composed also another kasida of five hundred verses and rhyming in d, from which, if learned by heart, a complete acquaintance is obtained with the contents of Ibn Abd Barr’s Tamhid.
Ibn Firru was learned in qira’at, tafsir, and hadith. When pupils read to him out of the Sahih of Bukhari, or that of Muslim, or the Muwatta (of Malik), he would correct the text of their copies from memory, and indicate the necessary vowels and diacritical points, wherever their presence was required. In grammar and philology he stood unrivalled. In the interpretation of dreams he displayed great skill.
In all his conduct he was actuated by the purest motives. His deeds, like his words, proceeded from a heart devoted to Allah.
He read the Quran, according to the different qira’at, under Abu Abd Allah Muhammad b. Ali b. Muhammad b. Abu Asi Nafri and under Abu Hasan Ali b. Muhammad b. Hudayl Andalusi.
He learned hadith from Abu Abd Allah Muhammad b. Yusuf Ibn Sa’ada, Abu Abd Allah Muhammad b. Abdur Rahim Khazraji, Abu Hasan b. Hudayl, Hafiz Abu Hasan b. Nima and others.
A great number of persons studied under him with benefit. I met in Egypt with many of his former pupils. In his discourse he avoided prolixity. Never, on any occasion, did he pronounce a word without necessity. He never took he sit to teach the qira’at of the Quran without being in a state of purity – he assumed an air of dignified gravity and profound humility.
When suffering under severe illness, he neither complained nor uttered a groan. When asked how he was, he replied, “In health” without adding another word.
One of his disciples recited some verses to me and said, “Our shaikh frequently repeated them – they form an enigma the word of which is bier.” I asked him if they were the shaikh’s and he replied that he did not know. Sometime afterwards, I found it in the diwan of the khatib Yahya Ibn Salama Haskafi … These verses are:
Do you know an object to which one similar exists in the sky? When it moves forward, people utter loud exclamations. When we meet it, it bears a burden and is borne as one. Every chief who may ride on it is a prisoner. It incites to piety, and yet it is avoided. It admonishes mankind, and yet they shun it. [When it visits a house,] it was not called for through a wish for its presence, but it comes unwelcome to the person visited.
Shatibi was born towards the end of 538 AH (June, 1444 CE).
At a very early age, he officiated as khatib (preacher) in his native town. He came to Egypt in the year 572 (1176-7 CE) and said on arriving, “I know by heart enough of the sciences to load a camel so heavily that, if a single leaf more were added, it could not support the burden.” He lodged at the house of Qadi Fadil who appointed him professor of qira’at, grammar, and philology.
He died on Sunday, the 28th Jumada II 590 AH (June, A. D. 1194), less than an hour after zuhr salah. He was buried on Monday next to Qadi Fadil. I have frequently visited his tomb which is situated in the Lesser Qarafa Cemetery. The prayer was said over his grave by Abu Ishaq Iraqi (the khatib of the Great Mosque of Old Cairo).
Firru signifies iron in the Latin language of the non-Muslim inhabitants of Spain. Ruaini means descended from Zu Ruain, who was one of the princes of Yemen – a great number of persons have drawn their surnames from this ancestor.
Shatibi means belonging to Shatiba (Xativa) – a large city with a strong citadel in the east of Spain which has produced many men eminent for learning. It fell to the Franks on one of the last ten days of Ramadan, 645 AH (end of January, 1248 CE).
Some say that Shatibi’s name was Muhammad and his kunya was Abu Kasim, but I found his name written Abu Muhammad Kasim in different ijazas granted to him by his masters.