In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
A summary of the book:
Ramadan: Events and Lessons.
The Birth of Ibn al-Jazari.
The time was after the Tarawih prayer on the night of Saturday,
the twenty-fifth of Ramadan,
in the year 751 AH.
Among the great blessings that people enjoyed before our current era
was the ease of travel between regions,
and the freedom to move between countries and cities,
despite the difficulty of transportation methods
and the hardship of reaching one's destination through them.
There were no barriers or borders,
nor prevailing laws preventing entry into a country or residency therein.
For this reason, scholars and others traversed the corners of the world,
wandering between its east and its west,
learning and teaching,
benefiting others and being benefited themselves,
and settling wherever they pleased.
There is no doubt that a person’s movement through diverse environments
and different societies
grants them a diversity of knowledge,
an expansion of culture,
a maturation of personality,
and various additions to their experience.
To their own intellect, they add the intellects of others,
and to their own experience, they join the experiences of others.
This is why having a multitude of teachers was considered a praiseworthy trait among the scholars of hadith,
and this was achieved through travel and migration.
They have mentioned figures in this regard that distinguished certain narrators.
Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, in his book
*Al-Jami' li-Akhlaq al-Rawi wa Adab al-Sami'*,
listed a number of hadith scholars who had numerous teachers.
Then al-'Iraqi came and said:
"Among those described as having a great number of teachers are:
Sufyan al-Thawri and Abu Dawud al-Tayalisi,
Yunus ibn Muhammad al-Mu'addib,
Muhammad ibn Yunus al-Kudaymi,
Abu 'Abdullah ibn Mandah,
and al-Qasim ibn Dawud al-Baghdadi."
We narrated from him that he said:
"I wrote from six thousand teachers."
Then al-Sakhawi came
and added to these a number of others
whose teachers exceeded one thousand.
We have already passed by, in this book,
the accounts of some who wandered through various lands,
such as Ahmad ibn Hanbal.
Indeed, some of them recorded the accounts of their travels
in a separate work,
which was a fine addition
to the scholarly library
that that era preserved for us.
How many a scholar, writer, or historian
authored a book about their journey,
in which they recorded the wonders of the lands
and many accounts of those they met.
Among the scholars who had the fortune
of wandering through the lands
was the eminent reciter,
Ibn al-Jazari.
The name of Ibn al-Jazari,
his lineage, and his birth, may Allah have mercy on him:
He is the Hafiz,
the Imam and reciter,
Shams al-Din,
Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Muhammad
ibn 'Ali ibn Yusuf Shams al-Din,
Abu al-Khayr al-'Umari,
al-Dimashqi,
then al-Shirazi,
al-Shafi'i,
known as Ibn al-Jazari,
an attribution to Jazirat Ibn 'Umar
near Mosul.
His father was a merchant,
and he remained for forty years
without being blessed with a child.
Then he performed Hajj,
and drank from the water of Zamzam
with the intention that Allah would grant him a learned son.
Thus, the subject of this biography was born to him
after the Tarawih prayer on the night of Saturday,
the twenty-fifth of Ramadan,
in the year 751 AH,
inside the Qassa'in district, near the two walls,
in Damascus.
His scholarly upbringing:
Ibn al-Jazari, may Allah have mercy on him, was raised with a scholarly upbringing,
and Allah inspired him with complete devotion to the Qur'an and its sciences
from an early age,
especially the science of Qira'at (recitations).
He approached it with his high ambition and sharp mind,
drinking from the springs of knowledge,
sitting at the feet of the shaykhs,
and filling his memory with beneficial memorizations.
He began in Damascus by memorizing the Qur'an,
completing it in the year 764 AH,
and leading the people in prayer with it the following year.
He memorized *al-Tanbih* and other works,
and studied the Qira'at individually under 'Abd al-Wahhab ibn al-Sallar,
and collectively under Abu al-Ma'ali ibn al-Labban.
He performed Hajj in the year 768 AH,
and recited them to Abu 'Abdullah Muhammad ibn Salih,
the preacher and Imam of Taibah (Madinah).
He entered Cairo the following year,
and studied them under Abu 'Abdullah ibn al-Sa'igh,
and met al-Baghdadi among others in these places and elsewhere.
His concern for these studies intensified,
and he heard from the remaining students of al-Fakhr ibn al-Bukhari,
and a group of the students of al-Dimyati and al-Abraquhi,
among others in Damascus, Cairo,
Alexandria, and elsewhere.
Among his teachers were Ibn Umaylah,
Ibn al-Shirji,
Ibn Abi 'Umar,
Ibrahim ibn Ahmad ibn Fallah,
al-'Imad ibn Kathir,
Abu al-Thana' Mahmud al-Maniji,
and al-Kamal ibn Habib,
as well as the aforementioned al-Baghdadi.
From the people of Alexandria:
al-Baha' 'Abdullah al-Damamini,
and Ibn Musa.
From the people of Ba'labakk:
Ahmad ibn 'Abd al-Karim.
He exerted himself in seeking hadith personally,
and wrote the *Tabaqat* (biographical dictionaries).
He studied Fiqh under al-Isnawi and al-Bulqini,
and al-Baha' al-Subki.
He studied Usul (principles), Ma'ani (semantics), and Bayan (rhetoric)
under al-Diya' al-Qarmi,
and hadith under al-'Imad ibn Kathir and al-'Iraqi.
His passion for Qira'at intensified
until he mastered the ten, then the thirteen recitations.
He took up the position of teaching recitation at the Umayyad Mosque.
His positions and travels, may Allah have mercy on him:
Ibn al-Jazari was fond of moving between lands
for the purpose of learning, teaching, and trade.
In some of the lands where he would settle,
people would recognize his worth,
and he would be entrusted with some of their official positions.
He began his work in the Levant before other places,
for he built a school for reciters,
which he called Dar al-Qur'an,
and taught the people there.
He was appointed to the judiciary of the Levant once,
and 'Imad al-Din ibn Kathir wrote his appointment letter.
Then an obstacle arose,
and it was not completed.
More than one person authorized him to issue fatwas, teach, and instruct in recitation at the 'Adiliyyah,
then the shaykhdom of Dar al-Hadith al-Ashrafiyyah,
then the shaykhdom of the tomb of Umm al-Salih
after his teacher Ibn al-Sallar.
He held a session there in the presence of the notables,
such as al-Shihab ibn Hajar,
who said:
"It was a magnificent lesson."
He served the Emir Qutlubak,
and traveled to Egypt for that reason more than once.
He was appointed by Barquq
as the preacher of the Jami' al-Tutah,
replacing al-Shihab al-Hisbani,
and there was a dispute,
then it was divided between them.
Then he was appointed to teach at the Salahiyyah al-Qudsiyyah
in the year 795 AH,
replacing al-Muhib ibn al-Burhan ibn Jama'ah,
and he remained there until the beginning of the year 797 AH.
Matters occurred between him and the aforementioned Qutlubak,
and he was accused
of spending funds on things other than their intended purpose.
Several sessions were held for him because of this,
so he fled from him,
and entered the lands of the Romans (Anatolia)
in the year 798 AH.
He connected with Sultan Bayezid Khan,
who honored and esteemed him,
so he spread the science of Qira'at and hadith there,
and the people benefited from him.
When Timur Lenk entered the lands of the Romans,
he took him with him to Samarkand,
where he stayed, spreading knowledge.
His arrival there was in the year 805 AH.
The author of *al-Shaqa'iq al-Nu'maniyyah*
regarding the scholars of the Ottoman State
narrated that the subject of this biography,
when he and Timur arrived in Samarkand,
Timur held a great banquet there,
placing the senior Emirs on his left,
and the scholars on his right.
He gave precedence to the subject of this biography over Sayyid Sharif al-Jurjani,
and when he was reproached for that,
he said: "How could I not give precedence to a man who is knowledgeable of the Book and the Sunnah?"
When Timur died in Sha'ban
in the year 807 AH,
he left Samarkand for Khorasan,
and entered Herat,
Then he entered the city of Yazd.
Then Isfahan.
Then Shiraz.
There, he disseminated the science of Qur'anic recitations and hadith.
People benefited greatly from him.
He served as a judge there and in other lands.
For a long period.
Then he departed from there toward Basra.
Intending to perform Hajj.
In the year 822.
However, he was robbed on the road.
To the extent that he was prevented from reaching the Hajj.
He stayed in Yanbu'.
Then in Medina.
His entry into it was in Rabi' al-Awwal.
Then he headed from there to Mecca.
He entered it at the beginning of Rajab.
He remained there as a neighbor to the Sacred House for the rest of that time.
Then he traveled by sea to the lands of Yemen as a merchant.
He transmitted hadith to the ruler there.
He dedicated himself to teaching recitations and narrating hadith.
A group of scholars from Yemen studied under him.
The ruler of Yemen had reached out to him and honored him.
Then he returned to Mecca.
He performed Hajj in the year 828.
Then he returned to Cairo.
He entered it at the beginning of the following year.
Then he traveled from there via the route to the Levant.
Then via the route to Basra.
To Shiraz.
It was there that he met his end.
His works, may Allah have mercy on him.
Ibn al-Jazari was remarkably active in authorship.
He authored many works.
In numerous disciplines.
Especially the science of Qur'anic recitations.
He compiled more than 20 works on the subject.
Both in prose and poetry.
Al-Shawkani said:
"He was peerless in the science of Qur'anic recitations throughout the entire world."
He spread it in many lands.
It was his greatest discipline and his most distinguished field.
It is as if Allah created him for that purpose.
He singled him out for this discipline.
For the legacy he left behind.
Became the primary reference for those who came after him in this noble science.
Among those works are:
First:
Al-Nashr fi al-Qira'at al-'Ashr (The Dissemination of the Ten Recitations).
Second:
Al-Tamhid fi al-Tajwid (The Introduction to Tajwid).
Third:
Ithaf al-Maharah fi Tatimmat al-'Asharah (The Gift to the Skilled Regarding the Completion of the Ten).
Fourth:
I'anat al-Maharah fi al-Ziyadah 'ala al-'Asharah (Assisting the Skilled in Exceeding the Ten).
Fifth:
The poem Tayyibat al-Nashr fi al-Qira'at al-'Ashr (The Excellent Dissemination of the Ten Recitations).
Consisting of one thousand verses.
Sixth:
The poem Al-Muqaddimah (The Introduction).
Regarding what the reciter must know.
Seventh:
Al-Tawdih fi Sharh al-Masabih (The Clarification in Explaining the Lamps).
Eighth:
Al-Bidayah fi 'Ulum al-Riwayah (The Beginning in the Sciences of Narration).
Ninth:
Al-Hidayah fi Funun al-Hadith (The Guidance in the Disciplines of Hadith).
Tenth:
Ghayat al-Nihayat (The Ultimate End).
Regarding the biographies of the men of the recitations.
And other books.
His death, may Allah have mercy on him.
After this life filled with reading and teaching.
Learning and instructing.
Death came to Ibn al-Jazari in Shiraz.
Before the noon prayer on Friday.
The fifth of Rabi' al-Awwal.
In the year 833 AH.
At his home in the Shoemakers' Market there.
He was buried in the school he had established there.
Ramadan: Events and Lessons.