Al-Bayhaqi

Aḥmad ibn Ḥusayn (Arabic: أحمد ابن حسين), better known as Imam al-Bayhaqi (Arabic: إمام البيهقي) was a Sunni Shafi muhaddith. He followed the Ash'ari creed in Islamic theology. He was the author of Sahih al-Bayhaqi, also known as Sunan al-Kubra, and Shu'ab al-Iman.

Ahmad ibn Husayn al-Bayhaqi
Al-Bayhaqi in Islamic calligraphy
TitleImam al-Bayhaqi
Personal
BornRamadan 384 AH / October 994
Bayhaq, now Sabzevar, Razavi Khorasan Province, Iran
Died10 Jumadi al-Awwal, 458 AH/ 9 April 1066 (aged 72)
Nishapur, now Khorasan, Iran
ReligionIslam
EraIslamic golden age
DenominationSunni
JurisprudenceShafi'i
CreedAsh'ari[1][2][3]
Main interest(s)Hadith, Shafi'i fiqh
Notable work(s)Sunan al-Kubra, Al-Asma' wa al-Sifat
Muslim leader
Influenced by

Belonging from Sabzevar, Al-Bayhaqi was a prominent senior pupil of the scholar Al-Hakim. He lived in Nishapur and became a scholar of the Shafi'i school. He collected, organized and analyzed Shafi'i statements and beliefs, and later on, compiled his massive hadith collection, the Sahih al-Bayhaqi, which is among the largest Sunni hadith collections, and possibly, the largest ever.

Life

Early life

Al-Bayhaqi's full name is Aḥmad ibn Ḥusayn Ibn 'Alī ibn Mūsa al-Khosrojerdi al-Bayhaqī (أحمد بن الحسين بن علي بن موسى الخراساني البيهقي المشهور بالبيهقي). He was born c. 994 CE/384 AH in the small town of Khosrowjerd near Sabzevar, then known as Bayhaq, in Khurasan.[7] He used to live in Nishapur.[8]

Teachings and death

Al-Bayhaqi was a scholar of fiqh of the Shafi'i school of thought, as well as of that of hadith.[2][3][1] He studied fiqh under Abū al-Fatḥ Nāṣir ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad al-Naysaburi as well as Abul Hasan Hankari. He also studied hadith under Hakim al-Nishaburi, Abu Mansur Al-Baghdadi and others, and was al-Nishaburi's foremost pupil. During his last years in Yemen, Al-Bayhaqi taught at the al-Hadi Mosque in Saada. He then settled in Sanaa, and preached there. Al-Bayhaqi succeeded in convincing a number of students of the superiority of Bahshami doctrines over Mutarrifi theology.[9] He died in 1066 CE.

Views

One focus of Al-Bayhaqi's was prophetic traditions which implied an anthropomorphic understanding of God. For Al-Bayhaqi, these characteristics, such as the "eye", do not represent real parts but rather attributes of God. Al-Bayhaqi also had a variety of views stating his understanding of cosmology.

Al-Bayhaqi believed that God first created water, and subsequently used this water as a basis for his creation of everything else.[10] Bayhaqi's fourtheenth branch of faith is the Love of Prophet (s).[11]

Legacy

Al-Bayhaqi contributed to a significant reform in the traditionalist evaluation of hadith, emphasizing the use of reflective reasoning in evaluating which hadith material should be considered incompatible with Islamic theology. According to the historian Dhahabi, Al-Bayhaqi was capable of founding his own madhhab. Al-Juwayni considered Al-Bayhaqi to be the only person, of whom, al-Shafi'i was indebted.[12] The American scholar Jonathan Brown describes Al-Bayhaqi as the 'perfect champion' of the Shafi madhhab and writes that 'Every follower of the Shafi'i school owes to Shafi'i himself a favor, except Bayhaqi. Shafi'i owes a favor to him'.[13] Often, Al-Bayhaqi would then understand such hadith as less reliable or allegorical.[14]

The use of Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim as authentic books was also started by Al-Bayhaqi. Bayhaqi's work is generally considered reliable and respected.[12]

Works

Bayhaqi was a prominent author in his time, having authored more than one thousand volumes according to Al-Dhahabi.[15] Among the most well-known books authored by him are:

  • Sahih al-Bayhaqi, also known as Sunan al-Kubra
  • Shuab ul Iman (The Branches of Faith, see abridged translation in The Seventy Seven Branches of Faith, Quilliam Press 1990)
  • al-I'tiqad wa'l-Hidayah ila Sabil ar-Rashad (translated by Nasr Abdussalam, The Creed of Imam Bayhaqi, 2017)
  • Ma`arifa al-Sunan wa al-Athar (sometimes referred to as Al-Sunan al-Wusta[16])
  • Bayan Khata Man Akhta`a `Ala al-Shafi`i (The Exposition of the Error of Those who have Attributed Error to al-Shafi`i)
  • Al-Mabsut, a book on Shafi`i Law
  • Al-Asma' wa al-Sifat (The Divine Names and Attributes)
  • Al-I`tiqad `ala Madhhab al-Salaf Ahl al-Sunna wa al-Jama`a
  • Dala'il al-Nubuwwah (The Signs of Prophethood)
  • Al-Da`awat al-Kabir (The Major Book of Supplications)
  • Al-Zuhd al-Kabir (The Major Book of Asceticism)
  • Hayat ul Anbiya fi Quboor (The life of the prophets in graves)

See also

References
  1. Ovamir Anjum, Politics, Law, and Community in Islamic Thought: The Taymiyyan Moment (Cambridge Studies in Islamic Civilization) 2012, p 142. ISBN 1107014069
  2. Gibb, H. A. R.; Kramers, J. H.; Lévi-Provençal, E.; Schacht, J.; Lewis, B. & Pellat, Ch., eds. (1960). The Encyclopaedia of Islam, New Edition, Volume I: A–B. Leiden: E. J. Brill. p. 1130. OCLC 495469456.
  3. Holtzman, Livnat. "Does God Really Laugh?" – Appropriate and Inappropriate Descriptions of God in Islamic Traditionalist Theology. p. 185.
  4. Constructive Critics, Ḥadīth Literature, and the Articulation of Sunnī Islam, By Scott C. Lucas, pg. 98
  5. Noor, Umar Muhammad. "Abu Bakr Al-Bayhaqi and his Approach to Sifat Traditions." INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ACADEMIC RESEARCH IN BUSINESS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES 9.6 (2019). p.330 "He received Asharism from several authorities including Abu Bakr Ibn Furak who studied kalam under Abu al-Ḥasan al-Bahili, a direct disciple of the founder of Asharism Abu al-Ḥasan al-Ashari(d. 324/936)."
  6. "THE BIOGRAPHIES OF THE ELITE LIVES OF THE SCHOLARS, IMAMS & HADITH MASTERS: Biographies of the Imams & Scholars". 2015-05-02.
  7. Imam Bayhaqi
  8. Fleming, Benjamin; Mann, Richard (2014-03-26). Material Culture and Asian Religions: Text, Image, Object. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-135-01373-8.
  9. Schmidtke 2016, p. 477.
  10. Saeed Fodeh, "Appendix" in (tr. Nasir Abdussalam) The Creed of Imam Bayhaqi, Turath Publishing, 2017, pp. 283-5
  11. Katz, Marion Holmes (2007-05-07). The Birth of The Prophet Muhammad: Devotional Piety in Sunni Islam. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-135-98394-9.
  12. Brown 2007, p. 219.
  13. A.C. Brown, Jonathan (2014). Misquoting Muhammad: The Challenge and Choices of Interpreting the Prophet's Legacy. Oneworld Publications. p. 105. ISBN 978-1780744209.
  14. Umar Muhammad Noor. "Abu Bakr Al-Bayhaqi and his Approach to Sifat Traditions," International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 2019, pp328-9.
  15. "The Classification of Hadith, by Dr. Suhaib Hassan". Archived from the original on 2010-12-05. Retrieved 2009-07-22.
  16. "Ahlu al-Sunna wa al-Jama'a: Wer ist Shaykh al-Islām, al-Hāfiz Abu Bakr al-Bayhaqī?". 11 February 2013.

Bibliography
  • Schmidtke, Sabine (2016). The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Theology. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199696703.
  • Brown, Jonathan (2007). The Canonization of Al-Bukhari and Muslim: The Formation and Function of the Sunni Hadith Canon. BRILL. ISBN 9789004158399.
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