“By God, if they knew (= the kings of the sects in Andalusia) that in the worship of the crosses in line with their affairs, they would have hastened to it; we see them drawing on the Christians, so they could enable them from the Muslim sanctuaries .., and perhaps they gave them cities and castles voluntarily, so they emptied them of Islam and built them with bells, may God curse them all!!” These were the words of a man who lived his era, or in a more precise sense, lived the crises of his time. So, look forward to the loss that it will cause to his great Egypt, Andalusia.

He is Imam Ibn Hazm (d. 456 AH / 1065 CE), the most prominent founder of the Dhahiri school of thought in Andalusia, and the establishment of a school of thought or its empowerment is a major civilizational event, and each school of thought keeps pace with its context, armed with its sayings and tools appropriate to its time, and this is what fully applies to the Dhahiri school of thought in Andalusia. The truth is that whoever separates Abi Muhammad’s reformist and creative project from the political crises of Andalusia of his time represented in the fragmentation of his kingdoms, and the scholarly manifestations of the dominance of imitation; He will not reach the depth of this project and its far-reaching goals.

The founding context for this project was a set of political and religious positions. The first objected to the political dreams of Ibn Hazm that he had at the beginning of his life, and the second fueled his scientific reform aspirations after leaving the corridors of politics, so he accepted legal science as the gateway through which he would enter into every mind, turning his face away from every political ambition and worldly position.

Our goal in this article is to show you a part of the biography of this exceptional personality, discussing the reasons for her brilliance and the historical and scientific context of her reform project on which her life stood to revive the reference to the texts of Sharia. Perhaps in the biography of this imam is a guiding compass for living in our time, which is marked by political and scientific confusion that almost matches what he faced in his era!

Sunrise from the west
an hour before sunrise on the last day of Ramadan in the year 384 AH / 995 CE; Cordoba witnessed the birth of the “Shams of Sciences” Ali bin Ahmed bin Saeed bin Hazm (d. 456 AH / 1065 AD), who said: I am the sun in the atmosphere of sciences, illuminating ** but my fault is that the rise of the West!

His childhood was an extended feast; He grew up in the house of a ministry and favor, so his father, Ahmed bin Saeed, “the strong-willed minister in his time, the most correct in his balance” – as described by Ibn Bassam al-Shantarini (d. Famous for virtue and literature, and a minister of great prestige in the court of the mastermind of the Umayyad caliphate in Andalusia, Al-Mansur bin Abi Amer (d. 382 AH / 993 CE).

And we do not know anything about his mother Kabir, so Abu Muhammad did not tell us about her, and this is due in our estimation to what he permitted us – in the ‘collar of the dove’ – speaking of “extreme jealousy that was imprinted on her.” The same was the case with his wife and sisters, and we did not find any mention of them in his books. And this is one of the wonders of the paradoxes of Abu Muhammad, who grew up – as he says – in the laps of women, contenting themselves with their councils from the councils of men, until his youth fled and his facial hair grew, so he accompanied his children.

As for his lineage, Ibn Hazm tells us that he is of a Persian dynasty, but Ibn Hayyan was not satisfied with what Abu Muhammad talked about himself. He said – as the advanced Shantarini quoted from him – that “it was one of his oddities that he belonged to Persia and that his family followed him in that after a period of time …, as people knew him as inactive paternity, the birth of the auricle (= the origin) from Ajam Ibla (= a city that belonged to Seville). How can he move from Rabiyat Bella to the castle of Istakhar in Faris?!

But al-Dhahabi (d. 748 AH / 1347 CE) – in “Biography of the Flags of the Nobles” – and al-Maqri al-Talmisani (d. 1041 AH / CE) – in “Nafah al-Tayyib from the Wet Branch of Andalusia” – proved the Persian lineage to him, and they did not raise a head with what Ibn Hayyan said!

An early apprentice,
Abu Muhammad grew up in Cordoba, which at that time was the capital of the world in luxury and urbanization, just as it was then “the country of Andalusia with the most books, and its people are the most caring of bookcases, and this has become a tool for them to be appointed (= prestige) and leadership”; As al-Maqri says.

So Ibn Hazm proceeded to obtaining sciences and knowledge, pushing his craving for knowledge by reading, and let go of what people say about him that he did not seek knowledge until after the twenty-sixth, for this is a clear illusion indicated by al-Dhahabi’s saying – in the “History of Islam” – that he was a student of the modern imam Abi Omar Ibn al-Jusour Al-Umayyad (d. 401 AH / 1011 CE), and he attributes to Ibn Hazm what he said about him: “He is the first sheikh I heard about before the four hundred [year].” This is an explicit text from him that he was a student of the sheikhs even before he reached sixteen!

Moreover, his compilation of all the arts of science in which the people of Andalusia as a whole did not come with the validation of this strange narration from his late academic beginning, provided that the doors of knowledge are not confined to the narration of hadith and the study of jurisprudence, especially in the countries of Andalusia, whose people used to provide memorization of the Qur’an and poetry and mastery of language knowledge. on other arts.

Ibn Hazm was not a heresy of his countrymen. He himself told us that he received the beginning of the first Islamic knowledge from the maidservants of his father’s palace, the minister, and in that he says: “And they taught me the Qur’an, and they showed me many poems, and trained me in calligraphy.” In this text, you find a window through which you look at the cultural situation of the people of Andalusia, and you see the prevalence of culture within the houses and among the housewives of boudoirs!

Abu Muhammad was a talent mine and a science kindergarten. Perhaps the best person who expressed the breadth of his knowledge was his student, the genius, the judge and historian Saed Al-Andalusi (d. 462 AH / 1070 CE), who said in his history, according to what Al-Dhahabi reported on him in “Al-Sir”: “Ibn Hazm was the gathering of all the people of Andalusia in the sciences of Islam and the most knowledgeable of them, with his expansion in the science of Tongue, rhetoric, poetry, biographies, and news… His son Al-Fadl (d. 479 AH / 1086 CE) told me that he had met with him in his father’s handwriting… Among his compositions are four hundred volumes that contain close to eighty thousand papers!!

And with Ibn Taymiyyah’s (d. 728 AH / 1328 CE) criticisms of Ibn Hazm; For he testifies to him – in the ‘Collection of Fatwas’ – that “he has faith, religion, and many broad sciences that only arrogant can push him away, and there is in his books a lot of knowledge of sayings and knowledge of conditions, and glorification of the pillars of Islam and the side of the message that does not meet the like of others!!”

Imam al-Dhahabi also described him with many inclusive descriptions, including that he is “the only imam, the sea, the possessor of arts and knowledge … the jurist, the memorizer, the speaker, the writer, the minister … He was the ultimate in intelligence, sharpness of mind, and wide knowledge of the Book, the Sunnah, doctrines, denominations and bees, Arabic, literature and logic And poetry, along with honesty and religion… and domination, wealth and an abundance of books.”

Abd al-Wahed al-Marrakshi (d. 647 AH / 1249 CE) – in his book ‘The Admirer’ – commented on this rising speech after he attributed its content to “more than one of the scholars of Andalusia”; He said about the volume of Ibn Hazm’s writings: “This is something that we did not teach to anyone who was in the period of Islam before him, except for Abu Jaafar Muhammad bin Jarir al-Tabari (d. 310 AH / AD), because he is the most classified among the people of Islam.”

And Al-Marrakshi adds: “And for Abu Muhammad Ibn Hazm, this is an abundant position in the science of grammar and language, and a valid section from the loan of poetry and the art of rhetoric.” Perhaps his proficiency in rhetoric was one of the “blessings” of his company with women. British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli (d. 1298 AH / 1881 CE) mentioned – in his memoirs – that he was asked about the secret of his eloquence and skill in rhetoric, and he said to his questioner: You have to be with women!

The keys to genius
Ibn Hazm’s keys to genius can be summarized in three reasons: the innate readiness for the strength of his memorization and his attachment to science; then devote himself to collecting it; Then the stimulating scientific environment. As for his memorization, the Andalusian historian Elisha bin Hazm Al-Ghafiqi (d. 575 AH / 1179 CE) describes it, saying: “As for Mahfouz (= Ibn Hazm), it is a turbulent sea, and turbulent water, coral of wisdom emerges from its sea … and he preserved the knowledge of Muslims and raised the people of every sect and religion.”.

Abu Muhammad was not satisfied with this divine talent, but rather remained committed to it, taking food to help strengthen the portfolio, until Abu Al-Khattab Ibn Dihya (d. 633 AH / 1236 CE) said about him, according to what Al-Dhahabi narrated on his authority: “Ibn Hazm had leprosy from eating frankincense and he was struck by a chronic disease ( = chronic disease)”, as he attributed to Imam Al-Ghazali (d. 505 AH / 1111 CE) his admiration for Ibn Hazm and his testimony to him of “the greatness of his preservation and the flow of his mind”!

However, Ibn Hazm’s confidence in his memorandum sometimes prompted him to rush his rulings on the men of hadith, both wound and ta’deel. Therefore, Al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar (d. 852 AH / 1448 CE) – in Lisan Al-Mizan – says about him that “he was very memorized, except that because of his confidence in his memorization, he used to attack the saying in the modification, defamation, and clarifying the names of the narrators, so he had outrageous delusions from that.”

Here we give you two reports that have a clear indication of the breadth of Mahfouz Ibn Hazm and his passion for science. He said in one of his letters: “I was detained (= between the end of 414 AH / 1024 CE and the beginning of 415 AH / 1025 CE) in the hands of [the Umayyad prince] nicknamed al-Mustakfi Muhammad ibn Abd al-Rahman (d. Because he was an ordinary, tyrannical sultan, of little religion and a lot of ignorance.

So, I thought about it for days and nights until I saw the face of the statement in it…! By God, besides whom there is no god. it is not permissible to swear by anything other than Him: It was my pleasure on that day – while I was in that state – in winning the truth in what I was preoccupied with., more than my pleasure in releasing me from what I was in!! He even offers his pleasure over the pleasure of life and freedom!

As for the breadth of his memory and the large number of his archives; It suffices for his clarity to memorize – which is the Persian race – of the genealogies of the Arabs, so that he was able to draw a genealogical map that illustrates – as he says in the ‘Gatherage of the Genealogies of the Arabs’ – the power of “intertwining the wombs of the Arabs” with all their tribes and clans.

In his briefing on the lineage of the Umayyads, among whom is very strange news, he recorded it for us by saying – in the introduction to his book ‘The Genealogical Community of the Arabs’ – indicating the practical importance of genealogy: “When Muhammad ibn Ubaid Allah died in Cordoba (his lineage ends with Marwan ibn al-Hakam Umayyad d. 65 AH / 687 AD)..I inherited his money Muhammad bin Abdul-Malik bin Abdul-Rahman (d. after 415 AH / 1025 AD) .. in al-Qidd (= the closest relative present to the deceased) and I paid it to him., and this Muhammad bin Abdul-Malik had no knowledge that he was entitled to this money .. If it were not for my knowledge of the lineage, this money would have been lost.”

Ibn Hazm was so knowledgeable about the books of people of religions that he was able to invoke their texts against their followers, and therefore the Spanish orientalist Asen Plathius believes that he preceded the Europeans by a few centuries in studying the history of religions, which was not known in the West until the middle of the nineteenth century.

Ibn Hazm, may God have mercy on him, completed the tools of knowledge with the strength of his memorization and his eagerness to expand on it, so he drew from the well-known libraries of Cordoba, replacing his readings in them about the journey in seeking knowledge, and thus he obtained abundant and diverse knowledge, and he did not leave a branch of Islamic knowledge except that he singled it out with an authorship or a treatise. until he became the most classified author of Islamic scholars until his era; According to the Marrakech advanced certificate.

Ibn Hazm’s readings were not the readings of a seeker for entertainment, but rather the readings of a prospective researcher and an investigative scholar, so that we see him in his reading of the books of the people of religions. A few centuries before the Europeans, they studied the history of religions, which was not known in the West until the middle of the nineteenth century.

Among the examples of his argument with them in their books is what came in his response – within his book ‘Al-Fasl’ – to Ismail Ibn al-Naghil al-Jewish (d. He firmly established what Ibn al-Naghrila went to, that the sister here is meant by kinship, not brotherhood, and he replied to him, saying: “It is forbidden to exchange this word for a relative here, as he said (= Abraham, as narrated from him in the Torah): But [her] is not from my mother, but rather she My father’s daughter. So, it was necessary that he wanted the sister, the mother’s daughter., so he mixed [Ibn al-Naghrila] and did not come up with anything!

Ibn Hazm was not satisfied with reading the books of the early scholars, but rather his cognitive craving went beyond reading the books of his opponents, in which he did not see any root or the power of inference, as he says in one of his letters: “For my life, their sheikhs (= the owners of the Maliki school) do not have a well-known collection of books written in the text of their school except that we have seen it “.

As for knowing the Sunnah of the Prophet, which is the foundation of his doctrine; He took the lead in it until he said: “And we have collected. the true news of the Messenger of God, may God’s prayers and peace be upon him, and the majority of what was narrated by the hidden people who did not reach the level of evidence for their transmission. He was able to deny it, so let him show his page, and let him debate the scholars’ debate.”

As for his devotion
to knowledge as a lesson, study, debate and classification, one of the biggest factors was the political context in Andalusia at the time. In Dhu al-Qi`dah in the year 414 AH / 1024 CE, the Umayyad “caliph”, the mustazzer Abd al-Rahman bin Hisham – the grandson of Abd al-Rahman al-Nasser (d. 350 AH / 961 CE) – was executed after his “caliphate” lasted for two months, “and he was visited [in them] by Ibn Hazm al-Zahiri,” as al-Dhahabi says in ‘Sir’.

And here ended Ibn Hazm’s political aspirations that brought him to the position of “minister”, which in those days was equivalent in terms of executive powers to the position of “prime minister” today, and he accepted science to teach and uphold what was studied from the beacons of Sharia.

Here is an issue that we must address, and it is the secret behind Ibn Hazm’s retreat from politics, despite his being from a house of management and ministry. He saw in the continuation of the Umayyad caliphate a continuation of the political unity of the Muslims in Andalusia, and in the disruption of its conditions – starting from the year 399 AH / 1010 AD – Ibn Hazm saw things in political life that alienated him from preoccupation with it, especially after the failure of the last attempt to restore Umayyad rule with his friend Al-Mustazhar, so he pushed him Despair from political reform to devoting his life to scientific reform in all its forms.

What strengthened this for him was that Andalusia was surrounded by political fragmentation at the time of the kings of the sects (422-484 AH / 1032-1091 CE), and political corruption – despite the accompanying flourishing of science and literature – entailed similar corruption in the positions of some scholars.

This is Ibn Hayyan Al-Andalusi, a contemporary of Ibn Hazm. He tells us the scientific scene as he sees it, and he says, according to what Al-Shantari narrates about him in “Al-Dhakhira”: “The scourge of people – since they were created – has remained in two types of them, they are like salt in them: princes and jurists … They are off the path..and the jurists, their imams, are silent about them, turning away (= turning away) from what God affirmed for them in making clear to them, and they have become among the eaters of their sweets, immersed in their whims, and sensing their fear.., and those are the few.

Here is an important indication, which is that the authority’s jurists confining themselves to the books of branches in their scientific construction weakened their moral motives, as they were far from preoccupying themselves with the legal text that pulses with its moral load. Perhaps Ibn Hazm saw that in restoring consideration for the legal text and its authority, it is a reclamation for those who made money among the jurists through caution and piety. Therefore, he did not accept himself to walk with one of the two teams of the previous jurists, so he did not mix with the sultans, nor was he silent about them, but rather he was absolutely decisive in describing their conditions and the misery of their reality, they and their scholars.
An absurd struggle
Here he is – in one of his messages – addressing his listeners, saying: “Do not deceive yourselves, and do not be deceived by the immoral and those affiliated with jurisprudence, who wear sheepskins on the hearts of lions, who adorn the people of evil, their evil, who support them for their immorality”; Then he incites them to boycott the two teams and resist them: “The savior for us in it (= sedition) is to hold tongues in one sentence, except for enjoining good and forbidding evil, and disparaging all of them. He denies this in his heart when they are overcome” from reforming conditions.

And we find him referring to us – from a hidden side – to the reason for his refusal to science and avoidance of politics by saying about the dissolution of the Umayyad state: “This is something we are tested with, we ask God for safety, and it is an evil sedition that destroyed religions – except for those who protect God Almighty – from many aspects that are long to discourse. That is because every ruler of a city or a fortress – in something from our Andalusia . – is a warrior against God and His Messenger and a seeker of corruption in the land, for what you can see personally from their raids on the money of Muslims., striking excise and tribute on the necks of Muslims, ruling the Jews over the roads of Muslims in seizing the tribute and the tax are from the people of Islam!

And Ibn Hazm mocks these conflicting princes over imaginary legitimacy, and he talks – according to al-Dhahabi in “Al-Sir” – about “a scandal [which is existence]: four men within a distance of three days are called the ‘Commander of the Faithful’ at one time [one]…, this is an unheard-of morality !! Then he announces to us his categorical despair of the righteousness of these opportunists who overpower the affairs of Muslims, and he says:

“By God, if they knew that the worship of crosses is in line with their affairs, they would have hastened to do it. We see them drawing on the Christians, enabling them to leave the Muslim campuses, their children, and their men, carrying them as captives to their countries.., and perhaps they gave them cities and castles voluntarily, so they emptied them of Islam and populated them with bells. May God curse all of them and set one of his swords on them.” !! two decades later; Ibn Hazm’s foresight for the fate of his country began with the loss of Toledo in the year 478 AH / 1085 CE, before its episodes continued later with the fall of Cordoba in the year 633 AH / 1236 CE.

Ibn Hazm does not stop at questioning the intentions and credibility of these politicians, but rather declares that the rest of the money that they are expanding and spending on their ministers and workers for them is money that has been allowed, and the proof of that is that I do not know – neither I nor anyone else – in Andalusia a lawful dirham, nor a good dinar that is cut off It is halal.”

Therefore, it is not surprising that these bleak conditions prompted Ibn Hazm to move away from the political scene to find in his scientific reform project. And it is enough for you as a fruit to empty it that he left – as he passed with us – scientific works estimated at eighty thousand pages in four hundred volumes; What an impact, and what a legacy!!

Repellent environment
As for the role of the stimulating scientific environment in its ingenuity; Ibn Hazm lived in a politically expelled and sectarian fanatic environment. So I pushed him to the strongest push for intellectual production, armed with the tools of argument and debate, for he was of a fiery nature that sharpened his enthusiasm in the presence of the opponent, and his taste revived in the presence of opponents!

The news of his severity was spread about him, and people spoke about its reasons until they exaggerated the interpretation of some of his texts in it, and even took charge of its matter until Ibn Hayyan said that “the most of his faults – they claimed – with his fairness: his ignorance of the politics of science”, that is, his abandonment of millions of violators!

We will tell you about some of the features of the jurisprudential environment in Andalusia, and about the extremism of some of his opponents of the followers of the Maliki school that dominated the country at the time. Then, to put Ibn Hazm’s sharpness and his boldness against his opponents in place, and to make it clear to you how his sharpness was a revival of the Sunnah among the people of a country whose determination did not help them in reaching the first aid for legal knowledge, so they stopped their lives on the books of Malik bin Anas (d. 179 AH / 795 CE), the imam of their sect.

He employed his sharpness to be an effective tool for managing the conflict with the Malikis, and had it not been for it, he would have buried the history of Andalusia written in the pens of his opponents, although accuracy requires saying that his fiery and sharp nature was deviating from repayment, thus undermining other schools of thought that were not apparent in Andalusia such as the Hanafis and Shafi’is, as well as the rest of the theological sects. .

The Maliki judge Ayad al-Yahsabi (d. 544 AH / 1149 CE) describes to us – in his book “The Arrangement of Perceptions” – the beginnings of the entry of the Maliki school of thought into Andalusia, and how it settled and was circulated by the power of the Sultan; He says: “As for the people of Andalusia, their opinion – since [the country] was conquered – was according to Al-Awza’i’s opinion (d. 157 AH / 775 CE), until he left to Malik [his students]: Ziyad bin Abd al-Rahman (aka ‘Shabtoun’ d. 193 AH / 209 CE), and Qaraous Ibn al-Abbas (d. 220 AH / 835 CE), al-Ghazi Ibn Qais (d. 199 AH / 815 CE) and after them, so they came with his knowledge and demonstrated to people his virtue and the nation’s imitation of him.] Bin Muawiyah (d. 180 AH / 796 CE) . All people adhere to the doctrine of Malik, and the judiciary and fatwas are decided on it.

It seems that the Umayyads’ adoption of the doctrine of the Imam of the Prophet’s city as the official doctrine of their state in Andalusia was not devoid of a political occasion, reinforced by its coincidence with the beginning of the association of the Hanafi school of thought with the Abbasid state. It came to the attention of the aforementioned Hisham that Imam Malik had an inclination towards him when he heard of his beautiful biography from one of his Andalusian students, and Hisham was – as Al-Dhahabi says in ‘Al-Sir’ – “a devout religion … and is just in the parish”; Malik said, “We ask God to adorn our sanctuary with something similar” from the kings.

Ibn Hazm: Two sects spread at the beginning of their command of leadership and power: the sect of Abu Hanifa, because when the judges were appointed by Abu Yusuf, the judges were before him, so he was not entrusted with the judiciary of the country except for his companions belonging to his sect; And the doctrine of Malik bin Anas we have in Andalusia

Then the political background for the final demarcation of the Malikis as a doctrine of the state is completed by our evocation of the effects of the armed clash between the Umayyad regime and some of the senior Maliki jurists, which culminated in the “Rabadh Revolution” in the year 202 AH / 817 CE, which was led by senior jurists among them, in which Prince Al-Hakam bin Hisham (d. 206 AH / 821 CE) decided.) The struggle in favor of the regime, then his successor, his son Abd al-Rahman ibn al-Hakam (d. 238 AH / 852 CE), saw that the matter should contain a new, deeper alliance between the state and the owners of the prevailing jurisprudential school of thought.

Thus, the call to adhere to Malik’s doctrine became part of the state’s identity, thus gaining a kind of ‘constitutional immunity’ so that they “protected him with the sword from others altogether”; Ayyad says. And the strictness of the Umayyad authority in Andalusia in adhering to the Maliki school of thought continued to escalate with extremism until whoever deviated from it became described as an innovator. Judge Ayyad says that Emir Al-Hakam Al-Mustansir (d. 366 AH / 977 CE) wrote a letter in which he stated that “Whoever deviates from Malik’s doctrine is one of those who have seen (= imprinted) on his heart, and his bad deeds have been made attractive to him!!”

Ibn Hazm noticed that the Maliki school of thought did not take a natural path towards the adoption of the Andalusians, but was imposed by the authority of the state; In that, he says in his usual assertive tone: “Two sects spread at the beginning of their command of leadership and power: the doctrine of Abu Hanifa (d. 150 AH / 768 CE), because when the judges were appointed by Abu Yusuf (d. 182 AH / 298 CE), the judges were before him, so he was not in charge of the country’s judiciary – from The farthest east to the farthest African business (= Tunisia) – except for his companions who belong to his [Hanafi] school of thought, and the school of Malik bin Anas with us, because Yahya bin Yahya (Al-Laithi d. In our countries except with his advice and choice, and he only refers to his companions and whoever is on his doctrine.

Therefore, the followers of the jurisprudential schools did not escape the harassment of the governmental jurists of the Malikis of Andalusia. This Imam al-Hafiz Ibn al-Fardi (d. 403 AH / 1013 CE) tells us – in the “History of the Scholars of Andalusia” – how the jurists of different schools of thought were invited to renounce their doctrines and move to the doctrine of the state. He says that the Qurtubi jurist Abu Kinana Zuhair bin Malik al-Balawi (d. 239 AH / 853 CE) “was a jurist according to the al-Awza’i school of thought, as the people of Andalusia were before the entry of the Umayyads.., and that Abd al-Malik bin Habib (the head of the Malikis in Andalusia d. 238 AH / 852 CE) He was humiliating (= blaming) Abu Kinana for his deviation from the madhhab of the people of Medina and his adherence to Al-Awza’i’s opinion!

applied imitation
Someone may say that limiting himself to a satisfactory school of thought of Islam – such as the school of Malik – does not have a disgrace that necessitates that Ibn Hazm sharpen his pens and outweigh his arrows. And he said this, he replied that the picture was not complete for him, as the matter did not stop at supporting a school of thought and hostility to another, but was mixed with neglect of the hadith among the authoritative Maliki jurists, and a celebration of the books of the branches at the expense of the books of the Sunnah, and we will show you this by reviewing some of the heads of the Maliki school in Andalusia, and showing the weakness of their goods in Hadith with the testimony of their senior colleagues in the doctrine.

This is Qarous ibn al-Abbas – and he is one of the first to carry his knowledge from Malik to Andalusia – Ibn al-Fardhi says about him: “His knowledge of issues was on the doctrine of Malik and his companions, and he had no knowledge of hadith.” This is Yahya al-Laithi, who ended up heading the sect in Andalusia, and he was among those who strengthened the Malikis’ relationship with power. Al-Hafiz Ibn Abd al-Barr al-Maliki (d. 463 AH / 1071 CE) says about him that “the sultan and the general public came to his opinion … and he had no insight into the hadith!” As if Al-Dhahabi did not like this absolute ruling on the most famous narrator of “Al-Muwatta” on the authority of Malik. He said, commenting: “I said: Yes; he was not one of the knights in this matter, but rather he was average in it.”

And this is Abd al-Malik bin Habib – who is the heir of Yahya al-Laithi in the presidency of the sect and the owner of the book “Al-Wadiha”, which is celebrated by the Malikis of Andalusia – Ibn al-Fardi says about him: “Abd al-Malik bin Habib had no knowledge of the hadith, nor did he know its authenticity from its sickness.”

And Imam Al-Maliki Ayyad – in “Target Al-Madarik” – transmitted this testimony of Ibn Al-Fardi in Ibn Habib without comment, as if he acknowledged its validity. Likewise, Asbagh bin Khalil Al-Qurtubi (d. 273 AH / 886 CE), fatwas revolved around him in Andalusia for fifty years. Ibn al-Fardhi says about him: “He had no knowledge of the hadith and no knowledge of its methods, but rather he used to distance him and attack his companions.” And Ibn Abd al-Barr said about him – according to Ayyad’s narration – that “he was hostile to the antiquities, had no knowledge of the hadith, was very fanatical to the opinion of Malik and his companions, and to Ibn al-Qasim (Al-Atqi d. 191 AH / 807 CE) among them.”

The Maliki jurists sought the hadith of Andalusia, Baqi bin Mukhalled (d. 276 AH / 889 CE) with the Sultan, and they still tempted him with him until they accused him of heresy and incited his killing. and the Musnad, which are unparalleled.”

Ibn Taymiyyah: Ibn Hazm had faith, religion, and many broad sciences that only arrogant can push him away, and in his books there is a lot of knowledge of sayings and knowledge of conditions, and glorification of the pillars of Islam and the aspect of the message that no one else can meet.

The traveler Al-Maqdisi Al-Bishari (d. 380 AH / 1091 CE) – in “The Best Divisions” – draws for us the limits of the Andalusians’ knowledge of the sources of legislation in his time. And he says: “As for Andalusia, the doctrine of Malik [is the one that is approved], and they say: We only know the Book of God and Muwatta Malik.

And Ibn Hazm used to censure his opponents among the Maliki jurists for their weakness in the hadith, and he said, commenting on their impugning the chain of transmission of some hadiths: “As for their saying: they were distorted in his way (= the weakness of his chain of transmission), it was not correct. And he says, responding to their accusation of his weak knowledge of the hadith: “As for what they said about us about the weakness of the narration and the stripping of the sheikhs, if they had brains, they would strike at this, because they are not among the people of the narration, so they know its strong from its weak, and they never preoccupied themselves with it for an hour of time, and they only know what is written on Correct them!

And this Judge Ibn al-Arabi (d. 543 AH / 1148 CE) tells their situation, and he is a star in the sky of the Maliki school: “Imitation became their religion and imitation became their certainty, so whenever someone came from the East with knowledge … they belittled his affair unless he was covered up by the Malikis.” Then he adds: “So obligate the people Working with Malik’s doctrine…, and the centuries continued on the death of knowledge and the emergence of ignorance, so everyone who specialized could not do more than relate to the apparent heresy (= the apparent doctrine)…!

Then incidents occurred that they did not find in the Maliki texts, so they looked at them without knowledge, so they lost their minds…, and had it not been for a sect that fled to the House of Knowledge [in the East] and came with a pulp from it – such as Al-Asili (d. Dead hearts and fragrant exhaling nation breaths; Religion would have gone!!

In fairness, Judge Ibn al-Arabi should have mentioned Ibn Hazm – who is the sheikh of his father, the minister of the Bani Abbad kingdom and the ambassador of the Almoravid state to the Abbasid caliph in Baghdad – among those who revived the dead Andalusians. Abu Muhammad built the school of al-Athar with his book “Al-Mahalla al-Athar” and surrounded it with “Ahkam Usul al-Ahkam,” thus restoring consideration to the honorable Sunnah, and yet “Judge Abu Bakr did not do justice to his father’s sheikh in knowledge and did not speak about it with justice.” Golden says. Hence, Ibn Hazm’s revival project should be dealt with in this dark context of the slander of his opponents in his right, the domination of the branches and tradition over the Muslim community in Andalusia, and their neglect of the legal principles that alone have the nature of obligation

.
He restored, with his project, the consideration of the principles, and opened the door of ijtihad after it was closed due to the spread of imitation, and exaggerated its expansion until every Muslim was included in it.

Some say: “The tongue of Ibn Hazm and the sword of pilgrims were two brothers.” “Malikiyah fanaticism against him due to his long tongue and falling into the great jurists”!!

But what might the author of the reformist message do if the balance of power tends to his opponent? Ibn Hazm found in the scholarly struggle a way to reform what was corrupted by the influential scholars of Andalusia whom he described as “dumb if we include them with a council, and if they are absent they bring such rotten and ridiculous rhetoric.” !

Ibn Hazm was scorned by the fanatical jurists of his time, and his students underestimated their attribution to him. This is one of his followers writing to him – in the ‘phone from afar’ message – asking him not to reveal his affairs or reveal his name in response to his message and his question, for they have become “strangers among the fanatics”; As he says in the letter, “The Statement on the Truth of the Brotherhood.”

It seems that Ibn Hazm realized with his exhaustion that he should change his strategy, and get out from among the backs of his opponents to a neutral area where he works in construction and teaching, so he went in the year 430 AH / 1040 AD to the island of Mayorca, east of Andalusia, to settle in the encirclement of its minister, Ahmed bin Rasheeq (d. after 440 AH / 1049 AD). ), displaced from the areas of conflict and the dominance of opponents in Cordoba and its counterparts from the major cities.

Ibn Hazm: The luck of the one who prefers knowledge and knows its virtue is to use it as hard as he can, to read it as much as he can, and to achieve it as much as he can. That would be a revival of science

And this decision returned goodness to his doctrine, as he graduated from his hands from the people of Majorca who will carry his doctrine to the East and fly in his name in the horizons, that is his student Al-Hamidi Al-Azdi (d. As Ibn Bashkwal (d. 578 AH / 1182 CE) says in his book Al-Silah.

But the enmity of the Maliki jurists against him did not subside with their success in removing him from Cordoba. He was informed – while he was in Mallorca – of the burning of the Emir of Seville, Al-Mu’tadid bin Abbad (d. 461 AH / 1069 CE) of his books at the instigation of these jurists.

Then, when the vizier Ibn Rasheeq died, the Maliki jurists returned to chasing him and displacing him, and “the kings began to cut him off from their proximity and walk him from their country, until they ended up with him to the point where his trace was cut off from the soil of his country, showing confusion …, and he is not deterred and does not return to what they wanted with him, he broadcasts His knowledge is among those who come to him from the desert of his country from the general public of the quotes, among them are among the youngest students who do not fear blame, he talks to them, teaches them and trains them, and does not abandon perseverance in knowledge, and perseverance in writing.” According to Chanterini.

However, the atmosphere of scientific conflicts that Ibn Hazm fought did not prevent him from being fair to his opponents and recognizing their merits. Al-Dhahabi narrates – in “Al-Sir” – his saying about one of them: “I did not find more fairness in the debate than [the jurist-judge] Ibn Bishr (known as Ibn Gharsiya d. Grammar and accuracy of understanding.

He did the same with his most famous debater, Al-Baji. Al-Shantarini recounted that Ibn Hazm “used to say: The owners of the Maliki school after Abd al-Wahhab (al-Baghdadi d. 422 AH / 1032 CE) did not have the likes of Abu al-Walid al-Baji! ! Rather, he mentioned – in his book ‘Al-Fasl’ – what indicates his benefit from Al-Baji, the doctrinal opinions of some of the theological sects!

With the exception of Hamid,
the scene of the conflict between Ibn Hazm and the Maliki jurists was not devoid of links between the two parties, which ranged from intimate friendship to a heated scientific meeting in debate boards full of audiences. An example of the first is the deep friendship between Ibn Hazm and Ibn Abd al-Bar, who were brought together by several bonds that may have made them serve one reform project, albeit with a variety of methods.

They were brought together by a fellowship in seeking knowledge on common sheikhs, and a quick embrace of the Shafi’i school of thought, and a temporary doctrine of Ibn Abd al-Barr in the Zahir school, and a great care of them for the hadith that made them two imams in it who are not competing with their diameter; Al-Dhahabi mentioned that Ibn Abd al-Barr “was extending to Abu Muhammad … and comforting him, and from him Ibn Hazm learned the art of hadith … Abu Omar was the most knowledgeable of those in Andalusia in Sunnah and antiquities … and in the beginning of his time he was a zealot in the school of thought … he was often tends to the Shafi’i school of thought.

Therefore, it is not surprising that the golden century – in ‘Al-Sir’ – between the two men in scientific excellence at the level of the Islamic world; He quoted the words of al-Izz bin Abd al-Salam (d. 660 AH / 1262 CE): “I have not seen in the books of Islam in science such as ‘Al-Muhalla’ by Ibn Hazm, and the book ‘Al-Mughni’ by Sheikh Muwaffaq al-Din (Al-Maqdisi, d. 620 AH / 1223 CE).”

Then Al-Dhahabi added: “I said: Sheikh Izz al-Din was right. And the third of them: ‘Al-Sunan al-Kabir’ by al-Bayhaqi (d. 458 AH / 1066 CE), and the fourth of them: ‘al-Tamheed’ by Ibn Abd al-Barr.” It is noteworthy here that three of the four participated in one era, represented by Omar Al-Bayhaqi (384-458 AH / 995-1066 AD), the equivalent in destiny to Omar Ibn Hazm!

As for the scholarly debates, the most famous of them is what took place between Ibn Hazm and Abi Al-Walid Al-Baji – and they were brought together by disciples of sheikhs, including “Sheikh Al-Andalus” Ibn Mughith Al-Qurtubi (d. graceful.

Al-Baji – who was deported to the East, so he absorbed the sum of his family’s knowledge in mentalities and traditions, and trained in the art of debates – found help from his colleague in the sect and demand, Abi Abdullah Al-Mawarqi (d. about 460 AH / 1068 CE), so he decided to eliminate Ibn Hazm’s uniqueness in the scientific scene, so they “collectively Together, we looked at Ibn Hazm, so he protected him and took him out, and this was the principle of enmity between Ibn Hazm and Al-Baji. Of course, the researcher cannot accept this claim of obfuscation due to the absence of full texts of these debates.

To the extent that these debates were the cause of Ibn Hazm’s isolation from the public sphere; It was a wide entrance for Al-Baji towards this field, in which he soon occupied a great position due to his success in three matters: the first is to neutralize the head of the “hazmiyya phenomenon” in Andalusia from the forefront, and the second is his combination of archaeological sciences and doctrines of opinion in jurisprudence and beliefs, and the third is the strong connection with all the sultans of Andalusia.
A generous relationship
and with all the aforementioned manifestations of the conflict between Ibn Hazm and his opponents; We see that this imam has a tendency to collect the word, and that his opposition to the jurists is not enmity to their followers. Here he is – in “The Message of the Imamate” – answering those who asked him about the validity of one’s prayer behind an imam who does not know his jurisprudential school of thought in a way that achieves the unity of Muslims. He says: “The search for something like this was created by the Kharijites, for it was they who exposed people [about] their doctrines and tested them in that…, and none of the Companions ever abstained … nor the choice of the followers from praying behind every imam who prayed with them.”

Then Ibn Hazm concludes his fatwa with a statement that makes it clear to us that he believed that carrying out his reform project was necessary for him, and that he did not seek it out of lust for fame, rivalry, or leadership, so he says: “God knows that I am not keen on fatwas, and whoever knows that his words are part of his work – he is counted and responsible for him.” He spoke uncertainly.

And it is not more informative in denoting Ibn Hazm’s sense of nobility and the importance of his reform project than his saying that Abu Hayyan Al-Andalusi (d. 745 AH / 1344 CE) narrated about him – in his interpretation of ‘Al-Bahr Al-Muheet’ – quoting Al-Hafiz Al-Humaidi, a student of Ibn Hazm; And it is: “The luck of those who prefer knowledge and know its virtue is to use it as hard as he can, to read it as much as he can, and to achieve it as much as he can, rather if he was able to chant it on the streets of passers-by, call for it in the streets of Al-Sabilah, and call for it in the gatherings of the car!

Rather, if it were possible for him to give money to his students, pay wages to those who quoted him, and magnify the honors (= prizes) for those who seek him, and make his family happy, patiently with hardship and harm in that; That would have been a lot of luck, good work, generous happiness, and a revival of knowledge, otherwise it was studied and obliterated, and only nice traces and flags remained of it!!

Ibn Hazm did not live in intellectual luxury. He used to see in his life a reform project to rescue the Sharia from the books of rigid branches, and to return people to the guidance of the texts of revelation, and perhaps he did not intend that his character and his unity would lead him to quarrels, but rather he employed some of his character in the battle of his life, and there is a difference between the two matters.

And he left us – in his letter “Ethics and the Path to Healing Souls” – what indicates his doctrine and that he did not take it as a luxury or fabrication. He said: “And beware of opposing the companions and opposing the people of your time in that which does not harm you in this world or in the hereafter, even if it is small, because you will benefit from that harm, discord and enmity … and if you have no choice but to anger the people or anger God Almighty .. then anger the people and alienate them, and do not anger your Lord.” And do not contradict the truth.”

Victory and siege,
and at the end of a scholarly march that spanned four decades (415-456 AH / 1025-1065 CE) began with the tragedy of a statesman shattered dreams and ended with the abundant knowledge of an encyclopedic imam who still arouses interest. Ibn Hazm died at the end of Shaaban in the year 456 AH in the village of ‘Mint Lishem’ in Badia Leblah, leaving behind a doctrine that testified to its spread in Andalusia, its staunchest enemy!!

This judge, Ibn al-Arabi al-Maliki, talks – in ‘The Capitals of the Qawasim’ – about the dominance of the Dhahri doctrine over the scientific scene in Andalusia on the eve of its introduction in the year 496 AH / 1103 CE of his trip to the countries of the East. And he says: “When I returned from the trip, I found my presence (= my city: Seville) of them overflowing and the fire of their misguidance burning”!!

Among the strange paradoxes is that the al-Zahiri doctrine – represented in the legacy of Ibn Hazm – found a century after his death a royal supporter for him from the Almohad state that overthrew the Almoravid state in the year 541 AH / 1146 CE, especially in the days of Al-Mansur Jacob Al-Mohadi (d. 595 AH / 1199 CE), who narrates Al-Maqri – in ‘Nafah al-Tayyib’ – that he admired Ibn Hazm, and that he stood one day at his grave and then said: “All scholars are children of Ibn Hazm”!

Perhaps this admiration is what prompted this Almohad sultan to “revenge” Ibn Hazm from his opponents, so he committed people to the Zahir doctrine and ordered the year 591 AH / 1195 CE to burn the books of the Maliki jurisprudence branches, not only in Andalusia, but also in the Maghreb countries.

And about this incinerator, an eyewitness tells us about a scene from it that took place in Fez, and he is the Marrakech historian who says in his book “The Admirer”: “[Al-Mansur] ordered the books of the [Maliki] school to be burned…, I witnessed – while I was at that time in the city of Fez – loads were brought from it and placed And he shoots fire at it…, and his intention in the sentence was to erase the doctrine of Malik and remove it from Morocco at once, and to make people follow the apparent meaning of the Qur’an and Hadith. This particular intention was the intention of his father (= Abu Yaqoub d. 580 AH / 1184 CE) and his grandfather (= Abd al-Mu’min d. 558 AH / 1163 CE Except that they did not show it, and this Jacob showed it.

And after the death of Mansour; His successors abandoned the heritage of the Tumertian call that their fathers embraced, and the state reverted to adopting the Maliki school of thought, so the Dhahiri doctrine and the Hazmi inheritance were subjected again to the siege of its opponents until Andalusia fell completely, so Ibn Khaldun (d. A century before the fall of Granada, he says: “Then he studied the doctrine of the people of al-Zahir today with the lessons of his imams and the public’s denial of his impersonator, and only the bound books remained!”

Despite his stormy life of political wars and the anguish of fanaticism for half a century; Ibn Hazm – may God have mercy on him – was tolerant in describing his morals, and he showed us an aspect of his delicacy and kindness that contradicted what he was known for in terms of sharpness and intensity, and he was famous for his insulting expressions against the violators.

Ibn Hazm tells – in ‘The Collar of the Dove’ – about the quality of his loyalty and intimacy with everyone close to him, and he says: “I do not say this saying praising [myself], but taking the politeness of God Almighty: “As for the grace of your Lord, speak.” And God Almighty has granted me Loyalty to everyone who comes to me with one gift, and grant me from the province to those who disdain me, even with an hour’s conversation, luck for which I am thankful and praising.., and nothing is heavier than treachery!

This morality was not limited to his companions and students, but he also dealt with it among the women who fell in love with her, and she was his sweetheart during his boyhood days, his slave girl, “Yes”, whom we see grieving over her, lamenting her loss. He says: “And if a ransom was accepted, I would have ransomed her … with some parts of my body that are dear to me, hastening obediently, and I did not enjoy living after that, and I did not forget to mention them, and I did not forget about anything else”!!