A Brief Biography of Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn al-ʿĀjurrī al-Baghdādī

The Imām, the Muḥaddith, the Example…. He was a scholar enacting what he taught, trustworthy and precise, possessing dīn, the follower of the Sunnah.

The Imām, the Scholar of Ḥadīth, the Example, the Shaykh of the Noble Haram, author of many beneficial works, truthful, the devout worshipper and the one who closely followed the Sunnah. He was born in Baghdād in the year 280H, later he moved to Makkah and died there in the year 360H after having lived there for some thirty years.

He heard from: Abū Muslim al-Kajjī, Muḥammad ibn Yahyá al-Marwazī, Abū Shu`ayb al-Harrānī, Aḥmad ibn Yahya al-Halwānī, al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī ibn Alwī al-Qattaan, Ja`far ibn Muḥammad al-Firyābī, Mūsá ibn Hārūn, Khalf ibn Amr al-Ukbarī, ʿAbdullāh ibn Naahiyah, Muḥammad ibn Ṣāliḥ al-Ukbarī, Ja`far ibn Aḥmad ibn Āsim ad-Dimishkī, ʿAbdullāh ibn al-ʿAbbās at-Tayālisī, Hāmid ibn Shu`ayb al-Balkhī, Aḥmad ibn Sahl al-Usnānī al-Muqri, Aḥmad ibn Mūsá ibn Zanjaway al-Qattān, ʿĪsá ibn Sulaymān, Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥasan ibn al-Hubāb al-Muqri, Abū al-Qāsim al-Baghawī, ibn Abī Dāwūd and others.

Those who narrated from him were: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿUmar ibn Nahaas, Abū al-Husayn ibn Bishraan, his brother Abū al-Qāsim ibn Bishraan, al-Muqri` Abū al-Ḥasan al-Hamaamee, Abū Nu`aym al-Ḥāfiẓ and many from amongst the pilgrims and others.

Al-Khatīb said about him, “he was a person possessing dīn, trustworthy and precise. He authored (some) works.”[Ibn Kathīr, ‘al-Bidāyah wa-al-Nihāyah’ (11/306); al-Dhahabī, ‘Siyar’ (16/134-136)]

Ibn al-Atheer described him as being a Ḥāfiẓ. [Ibn Atheer, ‘al-Kāmil fī at-Taareek’ (7/44)] as did al-Ḥāfiẓ al-Dhahabī. [‘Mukhtasar al-Uluw’ (pg. 246)]

Ibn Khalkān said, “the Shāfi`ī faqīḥ, the Muhaddith, author of the famous book ‘al-Arba`īn’, he was a righteous servant.” [Ibn Khalkān, ‘Wafayaatul A`yān’ (4/292), others such as ibn al-Jawzī mentioned him amongst the Ḥanbalīs.]

Ibn al-Jawzī said about him, “he was trustworthy and precise, possessing dīn, a scholar and author.” [‘Ṣifat Safwa’ (2/479)] “He gathered together knowledge and asceticism.” [‘Manāqib al-Imām Aḥmad’ (pg. 515)]

Al-Ṣuyutī said, “the Imām, the Muhaddith, the Example…. He was a scholar enacting what he taught, the follower of the Sunnah, possessing dīn, trustworthy and precise.” [‘Tabaqātul Huffādh’ (pg. 379)]

The work he wrote on Aqīdah was ‘ash-Sharī`ah’ published in one volume with the Tabaqaatul Huffaadh of Muḥammad Hāmid al-Fiqqī and in six volumes with the tahqeeq of Dr. ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿUmar ibn Sulaymān ad-Damījī. May Allāh have mercy upon him.