Imam al-Ṭaḥāwī, Born in a Place Called Ṭaḥā

This book, obviously, is the authorship of Imam al-Ṭaḥāwī. Only a brief account of his life is given here, because, māshāʾ Allāh, there are lots of things written on him to be found. Imam al-Ṭaḥāwī was born in a place called Ṭaḥā, which is in Egypt. Many of the great scholars actually came from Egypt. Egypt was the centre of learning later on. Al-Suyūṭī, for example, is from Asyūṭ. And Imam al-Shāfiʿī is actually buried there; he moved to Egypt as well. Ṭaḥā is in Upper Egypt.

He was born in 239 (some say 230, but 239), which is about 855^******, according to the Gregorian calendar: about 1200 years ago. Abū Jaʿfar was his title: Abū Jaʿfar al-Ṭaḥāwī. He died in 321, which is 933. He came from a background of learning and piety. He became a great muḥaddith. He is considered a great muḥaddith, having authored a number of works on hadith, like Mushkil al-Āthār and Maʿānī al-Āthār, that is, Sharḥ Maʿānī al-Āthār, which is actually taught in the madāris today.

He started off as a Shāfiʿī. His uncle, al-Muzanī, was a Shāfiʿī. And he became a Ḥanafī afterwards. There are a number of stories related as to how he became a Ḥanafī. One story that is related is that he just could not understand a particular issue his uncle was explaining to him. Over and over again (his uncle was very patient), over and over again, his uncle explained it to him in various different ways. He just could not get it at that time. His uncle became a bit frustrated, it is reported, and said: "You'll never amount to anything; you'll never be anything." He left his uncle, went and became a Ḥanafī, and started studying those books. Others say that he saw his uncle always looking into Ḥanafī books to benefit from them, and that is why he went over to the Ḥanafī side.

But he is considered one of the greatest of the Ḥanafī scholars. And Ibn ʿĀbidīn, in his Rasm al-Muftī, has actually considered him to be of the third tier of scholars in the Ḥanafī ranking system of fiqh and jurisprudence, out of the eight. There are eight degrees^*******. He is on the third degree from the top. So that is quite high-ranking, because Imam Abū Ḥanīfah (may Allah have mercy on him) is on the first. Some would put Abū Yūsuf and Imam Muḥammad in the first or second. So it is quite high.

A great scholar; he wrote a number of different works. And his piety can be seen coming through: Allah (swt) has given acceptance to his work, so that this work is still studied today. And this work is studied throughout the world. It has this acceptance. People gain knowledge of Allah (swt) through it, and thus he has all the reward of that. May Allah bless him. May Allah (swt) reward him. And may Allah (swt) allow us to benefit from this work.