Imam al-Muʾayyad bi-llāh Abū al-Ḥusayn Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥusayn (D. 411AH)
Imam al-Muʾayyad Billāh
Abū al-Ḥusayn Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Hārūnī — Peace Be Upon Him
Imam al-Muʾayyad Billāh, Abū al-Ḥusayn Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn Hārūn ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad ibn Hārūn ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Qāsim ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Zayd ibn al-Ḥasan al-Sibṭ ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (may God be pleased with them). He called to God in the year 380 AH.
Imam al-Manṣūr Billāh ʿAbdullāh ibn Ḥamzah (peace be upon him) said:1
“He did not see in his age the like of him in knowledge and excellence, asceticism and worship, forbearance and generosity, courage and piety. There remained no branch of the sciences of the world and the religion but that he had taken in it the fullest portion and secured in it the most abundant share.”
— Imam al-Manṣūr Billāh ʿAbdullāh ibn Ḥamzah, in Al-Shāfī (1/319–320)
The leading Muʿtazilī imam of Basra, of the companions of Abū Hāshim. Al-Ḥākim said of him: he unfolded theology and disseminated it, and composed magnificent books that travelers carried to the East and the West, embodying the subtle and the manifest of theology. He used to apply the label “Khawārij” to himself and his likes before the pledge — when asked who the Khawārij were, he said: “We are, on account of our holding back from Abū al-Ḥusayn [al-Muʾayyad Billāh].”2
The unique one of his age, peerless in his kind. He spent magnificent sums upon the offspring of the Prophet’s family and filled the world with schools and scholars. He composed eulogies on the People of the House and works on divine unity and justice. The viziers walked beneath his banner alone; the theologians relied upon him; the litterateurs counted him their imam. Imam al-Muʾayyad composed Al-Bulgha according to the doctrine of al-Hādī specifically for him. Of him al-Ṣāḥib said: “There is not, beneath the two stars, the like of the two Sayyids” — meaning al-Muʾayyad Billāh and al-Nāṭiq bi-l-Ḥaqq. The engraving of his seal-ring was: “The intercessor of Ismāʿīl in the Hereafter is Muḥammad and the pure progeny.”3
- Ithbāt Nubuwwat al-Nabī — on the inimitability of the Qurʾān and other prophetic miracles; printed
- Kitāb al-Nubūʾāt wa-l-Ādāb — on the science of theology
- Kitāb al-Bulgha
- Kitāb al-Ifāda
- Kitāb al-Hawsamiyyāt
- Kitāb al-Ziyādāt
- Kitāb al-Tafrīʿāt — on jurisprudence
- Kitāb al-Tabṣira
- Al-Amālī al-Ṣughrā — The Lesser Dictations
- Al-Tajrīd with its Commentary — four volumes; a commentary on the legal opinions of Imam al-Qāsim and al-Hādī, adducing proofs from Book, Sunnah, analogy, and consensus; among the most exalted reference-works of the People of the House in this discipline
- Siyāsat al-Murīdīn — The Governance of the Aspirants
Imam al-Muʾayyad Billāh (peace be upon him) died on the Day of ʿArafa in the year 411 AH and was buried on the Day of Sacrifice (al-Aḍḥā). Imam Mānkadīm prayed over him. His shrine is at Lanjā. He was seventy-seven years of age. The poet said — joining his shrine with that of Imam al-Hādī ilā al-Ḥaqq in Ṣaʿda:
Turn aside to a grave at Ṣaʿda — and weep for one entombed at Lanjā;
And know that whoever takes the two of them as his guide —
will attain what he hoped for.
- Abū al-Qāsim al-Ḥusayn
Scholarly References & Annotations
Al-Shāfī 1/319–320. This is the wording of Al-Shāfī; what appeared in earlier editions is a rendering by sense. The Author (peace be upon him) notes this.
This Chief Judge is ʿImād al-Dīn Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAbd al-Jabbār ibn Aḥmad al-Hamadhānī, counted among the Muʿtazila of Basra, of the companions of Abū Hāshim. He may be confused with the Chief Judge Ibn Abī ʿAllān because each is titled “Chief Judge,” because of the sameness of their era, and because of the special association of both with al-Muʾayyad Billāh and their studying under him. From Maṭlaʿ al-Budūr (3/11), Maktabat Ahl al-Bayt edition.
Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAbbād ibn al-ʿAbbās, Abū al-Qāsim al-Ṭāliqānī (d. 385 AH). Imam al-Manṣūr Billāh described him in Al-Shāfī as “the unique one of his age and peerless in his kind.” He spent magnificent sums on the offspring of the Prophet’s family and filled the world with schools and scholars. His well-known ode embodying the foundations of the religion was commented upon by the erudite judge Shams al-Dīn Jaʿfar ibn Aḥmad, and a takhmīs was composed on it by Badr al-Islām Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Muʾayyidī. Its opening is: “She said, ‘O Abū al-Qāsim, you have made light of love-poetry’ — so I said, ‘That is not of my concern nor of my hope.'” From Maṭlaʿ al-Budūr (1/545) and the words of Imam Majd al-Dīn al-Muʾayyidī in ʿUyūn al-Mukhtār, p. 201.