Aswhab al-Wujuh: Imam Abu al-Qasim ‘Abd al-‘Aziz ibn ‘Abdullah ad-Dariki (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 al-Qasim ‘Abd al-‘Aziz ibn ‘Abdullah ibn Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-‘Aziz ad-Dariki (r.a.) was born after 300 AH.  He studied under Imam Abu Ishaq Ibrahim ibn Ahmad al-Marwazi (r.a.).  Imam Abu Hamid Ahmad ibn Abu Thahir Muhammad al-Iswfrayini (r.a.) studied fiqh under him. 

Imam Abu Hamid al-Iswfrayini (r.a.) used to say, “I have not seen anybody more knowledgeable in fiqh than him.” 

Imam ad-Dariki (r.a.) passed away in Baghdad, in the month of Shawwal, in 375 AH.  He was in his 80’s.