Al-Hakim al-Tirmidhi

Muslim scholar
Abu Abdullah Muhammad bin Ali bin Hasan bin Bashir Al Hakim At-Termizi
Title Hakim At Tirmidhī
Born 750 – 760 CE 133 AH - 143 AH
Died 869 CE 255 AH
Era Islamic golden age
Religion Islam
Jurisprudence Sufi-Sunni
Notable work(s) Navodir Al-Usul fi Ma'rifat Akhbor Ar-Rasul, and Khaqiyqat Al-Odamiyya
Not to be confused with the famous hadith collector Al-Tirmidhi.

Al-Ḥakīm al-Tirmidhī (Arabic: الحكيم الترمذي‎), full name Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Ḥakīm al-Tirmidhī al-Ḥanafī (d. ca. 869) was a Sunni jurist (faqih) and traditionist (muhaddith) of Khorasan, but is mostly remembered as one of the great early authors of Sufism. His full name is: Abu Abdullah Muhammad bin Ali bin Hasan bin Bashir (in some sources it is 'Bishr') Al Hakim At-Termizi. He is locally known as At-Termizi or Termiz Ota ("Father of Termiz city").

Information about his life and scientific and creative activities can be found in the works by Taj ad-Din Subki (Tabakat Ash-Shafii'yya Al-kubro), Hatiba Baghdad (Tarih Baghdad), Ibn Hajara AskAlani (Lisan Al-Miyzan), Sulami (Tabakat As-Sufiyya) and in a number of other treatises.

Al Hakim At-Termizi speaks about his life in his book Bad'u Shaani Abu Abdullah ("The Beginning of Abu Abdullah's Pursuit"), published in Beirut in 1965 by Yakh'ya Ismail Usman, together with the work of the scientist in Hatm Al-Avliya ("Seal of the Saints").

Life

Tirmidhi was apparently born between 820 and 830 AD in Termez, Khorasan. His father was a scholar of hadith and a jurist; his early education appears to have been very orthodox. He was reared as a scholar of hadith and fiqh (law), more specifically, the Hanafi school of law that was dominant in eastern territories of Islam. The range of Tirmidhi's education did not include the non-Islamic sciences, such as Greek natural science and philosophy. His subsequent reference to learning the use of the astrolabe, implying a knowledge of astronomy and mathematics, has been given different interpretations. "There is no trace of influence from 'natural science' in his writings." However, his general pursuit of knowledge gained him the name of "al-hakim" (the sage). He renounced his use of the astrolabe after being told to do so in a dream to which he attached significance.[1]

Early years

Different dates are used in written sources and present literature to indicate Al Hakim At-Termizi's date of birth and death. Some authors, Khwaja Khalif in particular, in his Kashf as-Zunun, give the year 255 in Hijra / 869 AD as Al Hakim At-Termizi's date of death. The same date was written on Al Hakim At-Termizi's tomb. If we proceed from the fact that Al Hakim At-Termizi lived more than one hundred years, some sources say 112, 116 or 120 years, he was born approximately between 750–760 AD. At the same time, Abdulfattah Abdullah Baraka who wrote his great "Al Hakim At-Termizi and Nazariyyatukhu fil" ("Al Hakim At-Termizi and his theory") thirty years ago, said that Al Hakim At-Termizi, was born in 205 in Hijri / 820 and died in 320 in Hijri / 932 and lived 112 years.

Detailed information about Al Hakim At-Termizi's childhood and youth is not available in the sources. According to his "autobiography", he started learning religious sciences when he was eight, and he made a Hajj to Mecca when he was twenty-eight.

Later life

Returning from Mecca, Al Hakim At-Termizi became a Sufi follower; he withdrew from people and learned treaties. His father Ali bin Hassan was a leading scholar, a Hadith specialist, who, looking for knowledge, went to Baghdad and took an active part in scientific discussions with prominent scholars of the time on various problems of Hadith. His mother and uncle were considered to be experts of Hadith. Consequently, Al Hakim At-Termizi grew up in the circle of educated and scientific people, which influenced greatly on his ideology.

Some written sources contain reliable information about Al Hakim At-Termizi's teachers. His teacher was his father Ali bin Al-Hassan At Termizi "History of Baghdad" by Khatib Al-Bagdhadi contains some information. Among his other teachers were Kutaiba bin Sayid as-Sakafi Al- Balkhi (798-888 AD), Salih bin Abdullah At-Termizi of much interesting facts had been written in the book "Books about Famous People" by Ibn Khibbana; Salih bin Muhammad At-Termizi who was former qazi of Termiz for some time, Sufyan bin Vaki (died in 860), Hassan bin Umar bin Shafiq Al- Balkhi (died in 840 AD), Ahmad bin Khadravayh (died in 854 AD), Abu Turab An-Nakhshabi (link), and Yahya bin Maaz Ar-Razi (died in 875 AD).

Based on data given in the written sources characterize Al Hakim At-Termizi's life and his long life can be divided into the following periods:

Al Hakim At-Termizi had many of students, including: Abu Muhammad Yahya bin Mansur Al-Kadi (died in 960 AD), Abu Ali Mansur bin Abdullah bin Khalid Al-Zuhli Al Hiravi; Abu Ali Al-Hassan bin Ali Al-Jurjani. He also taught Ahmad bin Muhammad bin Isa, Abu Bakr Muhammad Ibn Umar Al-Al Hakim Al-Varrak, Muhammad bin Jaafar bin Muhammad bin Al-Haisam bin Umran bin Buraida, and others.

Al Hakim At-Termizi's scientific and creative activity is closely connected with his travels to other countries and cities. He visited Balkh, Nishapur, and Baghdad, where science and culture reached its zenith, and he met famous scholars and took part in discussions. Nevertheless Termiz, his native city played an important role in his scientific and creative activity, and there he created his basic works. His sermons and as well as some works, first of all, Hatam Al-Avliya (Seal of Saints), Hal Ash-Shari'a (Arguments of the Islamic Law) in which are discussed Muslim rituals, about "love for God" and about various categories of mystics, about "the Seals of Saints", along with existing "Seals of Prophets", had dissatisfied some parts of the falikh and rich. Escaping from his enemies' chase, Al Hakim At-Termizi had to move to Balkh and then to Nishapur, where he was very well accepted and where he obtained a large number of followers later.

Works

According to Radtke and O'Kane, "he is the first and, up until the time of Ibn al-Arabi, the only mystic author whose writings present a broad synthesis of mystic experience, anthropology, cosmology and Islamic theology... Tirmidhi's system of thought is representative of an old Islamic theosophy which had not yet consciously assimilated elements from the Aristotelian-Neoplatonic philosophic tradition."[2]

Different figures on the number of Al Hakim At-Termizi's works are mentioned in the written sources. Some authors say that the number of his work reaches four hundred. But the majority of authors tend to think that about eighty works belong to him. The famous Egyptian scholar Abdelfattah Abdulla Baraka writes that out of four hundred works by Al Hakim At-Termizi only about sixty had reached us. Though many works were lost, the most important ones that contain the great scholar's basic teachings, which comprise his scientific and spiritual legacy have been preserved (2).

The first work that must be mentioned is Navodir Al-Usul fi Ma'rifat Akhbor Ar-Rasul ("Unique Principles of Learning about RasulAllah - the Messenger of God"). It consists of 291 Hadith, and that to some extent it reflects the author's points of view, his outlook, his understanding the world. One copy of Navadir Al-Usul is kept in Tashkent, in the library of Muslim Board of Uzbekistan.

Other works of the scholar are: Khaqiyqat Al-Odamiyya ("Book about the Nature of a Man"), Adab an-Nafs ("Bringing up the Soul"). The majority of the works of Al Hakim At-Termizi reached us in the form of manuscripts and they are kept in different manuscript funds of the world. Conditionally they may be divided into five groups: manuscripts that are kept in Paris, Cairo, Damascus, Alexandria, Istanbul and London. The following works by Al Hakim At-Termizi are kept in the National Library of Paris (in the Arab department):[3][4]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ See a good online article for many biographical references.
  2. ↑ Radtke and O'Kane, The Concept of Sainthood in Early Islamic Mysticism (Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press, 1996).
  3. ↑ "Tirmiḏī, Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Ḥakīm al- (0820?-0932?)". BnF catalogue général. Bibliothèque nationale de France. Retrieved 11 June 2015.
  4. ↑ "Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Ḥakīm al- Tirmiḏī (0820?-0932?)". data.bnf.fr. Bibliothèque nationale de France. Retrieved 11 June 2015.

Further reading

External links

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