Aswhab al-Wujuh: Imam Abu Sa’id ‘Utsman ibn Sa’id as-Sijistani ad-Darimi (r.a.) in Brief

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ 

The following is adapted and extracted from “Biographies of Some of the Aswhab al-Wujuh in the Shafi’i Madzhab.”  The Aswhab al-Wujuh are the scholars who developed and transmitted the Shafi’i madzhab from the time of the immediate students of Imam Abu ‘Abdullah Muhammad ibn Idris ash-Shafi’i (r.a.), circa 200 AH, to the time of Imam Abu Hamid Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Ghazali (r.a.), circa 500 AH.  Thereafter there was a pressing need for recension of all this development into a single body of work.  This task was met by Imam Abu al-Qasim ‘Abd al-Karim ibn Muhammad ar-Rafi’i (r.a.) and Imam Abu Zakariya Yahya ibn Sharaf an-Nawawi (r.a.), who became known as the Shaykhayn in the madzhab. 

Imam Abu Sa’id ‘Utsman ibn Sa’id ibn Khalid ibn Sa’id as-Sijistani ad-Darimi (r.a.) was an imam in both fiqh, which he took from Imam Abu Ya’qub Yusuf ibn Yahya al-Buwayti (r.a.), and ahadits, which he took from Imam Yahya ibn Ma’in (r.a.).  Those that knew him said they saw none like him, and he saw none like himself. 

Among his books are Kitab fi ar-Radd ‘ala al-Jahmiyyah, al-Musnad, and Ahkam al-Qur’an.  He held the view that foxes are haram to eat, whereas the madzhab holds it to be ja’iz.  He also reported from Imam al-Buwayti (r.a.) that Imam ash-Shafi’i (r.a.) said the Prophetic prohibition of earning from cupping is tanzihi because it is a disgraceful way of earning.