i will, in sha'Allah, post lots of references, but to keep the discussion focused here is the summary:
- abu umar al-maqdisi went back and forth to baghdad to learn under shaykh abdu'l qadir
i have checked many biographies, histories, but none of them mention that abu umar al-maqdisi studied under shaykh abdu'l qadir. much less that he spent many years (as implied in the talk "middle of his studies") or that he went back and forth.
- he was a student of shaykh abdu'l qadir al-jilani and one of his 'designated' khulafa
i couldn't find his name in tadifi's list, nor in siyar of dhahabi or dhayl tabaqat of ibn rajab or maqSad al-arshad of ibn mufliH, or rawDatayn of abu shamah. if i have missed something, please help me.
- shaykh muwaffaquddin ibn qudamah, who is abu umar's brother came to baghdad in the middle of abu umar's studies in baghdad under sayyidi abdu'l qadir.
oh yeah? which year was this exactly? because according to abu jafar's history, shaykh muwaffaq came back and forth to baghdad and one last time, rehearsed the books with the ghawth. which means this was over a period of years - and he says four years.
so approximately, which year did muwaffaq join his brother abu umar in baghdad?
- now, for one last time, (because he says 'ultimately') he and his classmates rehearse their lessons with the shaykh over a period of 40-45 days before the passing of the shaykh.
hmm. this gives the impression that muwaffaquddin ibn qudamah studied with al-ghawth for approximately four years - give and a take a few months when he went back and forth to damascus.
yes in baghdad, he heads there and stays there for four years. he comes back and forth three times. now while he is in baghdad, he is present and he is preparing his first major text, which is al-mughni. and al-mughni is ten volumes. it is a commentary, a very large commentary on the mukhtasar al-khiraqi, abu umar al-khiraqi, so he is preparing this text over a four year period. and this..while he is in baghdad that he meets imam abdul qadir al-jilani rahimahullah, who dies in the year 561 hijri at 91 years of age. so he meets the imam there and begins to study with him. now, abu umar al-maqdisi, his brother, had long been there gone back and forth there, but muwaffaquddin ibn qudama, he comes in, in the middle portion of his brother's studies while there, and is sort of brought in to the presence of this great imam and begins to take knowledge from him, he ultimately before the imam's death, he and his brothers as well as a few classmates, rehearse all of the imams knowledge over a 40 to 45 day period before he dies.
nice story, eh? except that it is all muddled up. here be the facts:
- muwaffaquddin ibn qudamah and his cousin, abdu'l Ghani ibn abd al-waHid, reached baghdad in 561 AH.
- both cousins were young men of
twenty years of age. (both were born in year 541 AH).
- according to various accounts, they spent a very short time of 40-50 days with the ghawth, who passed away soon after.
- during this short period of < 50 days, shaykh muwaffaq read
mukhtaSar al-khiraqi, [of which,
mughni is a commentary] with shaykh abdu'l Qadir.
- in these 50 days, the shaykh made them wear the khirqah - or made them murid/khalifah in the Tariqah of Qadiriyyah.
- after the passing of the shaykh, imam muwaffaquddin stayed in baghdad for four years; then he returned to damascus;
- thereafter, in the year 567 AH, he returned to baghdad and stayed there for one more year; [and returned to damascus];
- then went on Hajj in the year 574 AH and went back to baghdad in the company of Hajis from baghdad and stayed there for an year and then he came back to damascus, where he began writing his
mughni. [see dhayl tabaqat of ibn rajab, 3/282-283]. it is quite possible that he was writing it prior to this, but certainly NOT during his first visit to baghdad, when he was merely 20 and still a student.
notice that the above is narrated by Hafiz Diya'a al-maqdisi who is the nephew of muwaffaquddin ibn qudamah, via his mother (i.e. imam muwaffaq's sister).
and his other nephew, shamsuddin abdur RaHman, the son of abu umar said: "my paternal uncle muwaffaquddin would say: 'i and hafiz abdul ghani wore the khirqah at the hands of shaykh al-islam abdul Qadir at the same time; we studied with him fiqh and we heard from him (hadith), and we benefited from his company; we [could stay with him] and attained only 50 nights from his blessed life.
in ibar of dhahabi, v3, p36 he notes:
shaykh muwaffaq said: 'we stayed with him in his madrasah for 39 days, he passed away thereafter. we prayed his funeral prayer."
- shaykh muwaffaq started preparing al-mughni during his stay in baghdad.
could be. but it is not recorded that he started writing in baghdad. it can be extrapolated that he probably 'prepared' by studying under the various shaykhs. so it is a speculative statement.
- one of those classmates of muwaffaquddin ibn qudamah and abu umar ibn qudamah is ibn al-jawzi.
this is actually said by the presenter. i understand he is some sort of author too as he mentioned his book. but abu jafar agrees with him and extends that statement.
- ibn al-jawzi took hadith from shaykh abdul qadir al-jilani
once again, this is a glaring error. i reiterate, that we too mix up things and get names and dates wrong at times, or even facts turned around about not-so-famous people. but for someone to make a specific claim about such a well-known personality and author as ibn al-jawzi, and THEN confidently dismiss all those who come via shaykh abd al-Razzaq al-jilani as 'liars' and impostors is rather ironic.
i examined more than a dozen biographies of ibn al-jawzi, and i couldn't see the name of shaykh abdu'l qadir among his teachers. and ibn al-jawzi himself in his al-muntazam [18/174] mentioned the passing of shaykh abdu'l qadir without noting that he was his teacher:
----
thereafter, i checked his mashaykhah - the listing of his mashayikh where he listed 86 of shaykhs (see attachment) and i couldn't see the name of ghawth e aazam. i checked 3 times to make sure, but i couldn't see the name. nor has any of the biographies of shaykh abdul Qadir said that ibn al-jawzi narrates from him.
so the story of ibn al-jawzi being a student is apocryphal.
----
actually, the fact that ibn qudamah spent less than fifty days is mentioned in various biographies.