5 Scholars people tend to mix up We all mix up names it is human nature especially if the names sort of resemble each other (just be careful not to call your wife/husband by the wrong name, consequences may prove to be unpleasant). Even in the Arabic language itself certain names have always been confused, for an example the two words ‘Umar and ‘Amr used to be spelt in the exact same way in Arabic but due to people constantly confusing one for the other the Arabs decided to give ‘Amr an extra و at the end, in order to distinguish the two. And even amongst the names of the scholars people often get confused and mix one with the other (I mean if everyone is called Muhammad and Abdullaah it is bound to happen right?) so I made a list of the 5 most common scholars people tend to mix up so that in future you know what you are talking about and don’t come across as a weirdo, you’re welcome. #5 Ibn Maalik and Imaam Maalik At least I can beat kids on my trike! Now for those of you who don’t know, the aforementioned scholar Ibn Maalik is the famous scholar by the name Muhammad bin ‘Abdillaah (I told you these names were popular) the author of the famous alfiyyah Ibn Maalik a poem consisting of one thousand lines of poetry (if you think that is a lot, perhaps now is the time I should tell you that the scholar himself originally made it three thousand, but shortened it down for his children to memorise! Yeah that’s right you got beat by a kid, once again) covering almost everything in the Arabic language and it is considered one of the most important books to be studied in the field of Arabic grammar. Something you will often hear is people (often young students) expressing their happiness when telling others “Yeah I study Imaam Maalik’s alfiyyah *brushes off shoulders*” that’s when you tell them “Wait, hold up, Imaam Maalik does not have an alfiyyah *awkward silence*” and that’s when the classical error is made clear. The young student, in his eagerness to show off the ‘big books’ he’s studying confused Ibn Maalik for the great Imaam Maalik the second of the four great Imaams who laid down the four math-habs. I mean that is an easy mistake to make, just a matter of 500 years apart, no biggy. #4 Maalik bin Anas and Anas bin Maalik So many twist and turns! This is probably the second most difficult scenario (only preceded by people with identical names) if you look at these two names you will notice that they are basically the same except for the important detail that one is the other way around. Maalik bin Anas is actually the full name of Imaam Maalik that we mentioned earlier whereas Anas bin Maalik is the famous Companion of the Messenger of Allaah salallaahu alyhi wasallam. But what makes this even stranger is the lineage of Imaam Maalik, because his grandfathers name is actually Maalik, so it is Maalik bin Anas bin Maalik! So his fathers name is actually Anas bin Maalik, but before you get too happy and ahead of yourself, again this is not the famous companion of the Prophet so I guess people can be forgiven for this complicated confusion. #3 Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawzee and Ibn al-Jawzee Ok so that’s not the tree of al-Jawz but still pretty right? So most of us know who Ibn al-Qayyim is, the famous scholar and student of the even more famous Ibn Taymiyyah. He has written many books in various fields of Islaam (he once wrote the book Zaad al-Ma’aad whilst on a journey starting by making an excuse for himself saying “if this book becomes short it is because I am writing it whilst on a journey and do not have my books with me” the book itself became several volumes in length!) He is often referred to as the doctor of the heart due to the fact that many of his books deal with soul purification (tazikiyat an-Nafs) in accordance with the Qur’aan and Sunnah, and sometimes whilst reading his books you might be so amazed and think to yourself “how can this shaikh be describing me in such a detail” and that is often when you get spooked, look over your shoulder and put the book down taking a break from reading. The problem is that people confuse him with another scholar by the name Aboo al-Faraj al-Jawzee (Ibn al-Jawzee), who himself was a great scholar in his own right, and authored many, many books (and by many I mean he is the scholar who wrote the most books ever!) granted he is considered to be from amongst the mutashadideen (strict) scholars when it comes to the science of Jarh and Ta’deel (in his book ad-Dhu’afaa he strangely mentioned three companions and classified them as weak!). But the reason why people confuse these two great Imaams is because of the addition of “al-Jawzee” at the end of their names. However in order to understand this you have to first know that Aboo al-Faraj al-Jawzee lived before Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawzee and he was actually born in Baghdaad, and there happened to be a tree close to where he lived known as al-Jawz and it was the only tree of its kind in that whole area so he became known by that name al-Jawzee. Now fast forward about a hundred years and the grandson of Aboo al-Faraj al-Jawzee moves to Damascus and establishes an Islamic school and names it after his grandfather and calls it the school of al-Jawziyyah, a few more years down the line the father of Ibn al-Qayyim becomes the head master of the school and Ibn al-Qayyim himself attends the school and becomes known as Jawziyyah, neat huh? Oh and a last thing to note is that scholars say when you mention Ibn al-Qayyim’s name you can either say Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah or Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawzee but not Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyyah (sorry that’s just how they roll). #2 Ibn al-’Arabi and Ibn ‘Arabi Guess which one is which? Don’t let Masterfile distract you Out of these two men one is a scholar and the other is not a scholar, actually he does not have much knowledge, matter of fact he isn’t really a Muslim even! “But wait, Aboo Thaabit, how are you making such a big accusation?” Well, person who asks important questions in my head, the scholars themselves have declared Ibn ‘Arabi to be a crazy lunatic (to put it mildly). This man has so much kufr and weird stuff about him that scholars such as ath-Thahabi have stated that ‘If the books of Ibn ‘Arabi do not contain any Kufr then I do not know what does!’ He is very famous for his deviant statements such as saying Allaah is everything and everything is Allaah, and statements such as ‘Since everything is Allaah I do not know if I should worship myself or that tree over there” so this man did not only have a screw lose in his brain, it could be argued – and rightly so- that he did not have a brain at all. As for the other man, known as Aboo Bakr al-’Arabi then he is from amongst the famous scholars in Islaam and has written many beneficial books wherein he defends the honour of the Companions etc. So to confuse these two men is a grave mistake, an easy way to remember which one is which is by knowing that the definite article ‘al’ in Arabic belongs to the well known scholar so it makes him ‘known’ as for the crazy lunatic we mentioned before, he does not have an ‘al’ before his name (Ibn ‘Arabi) and thus remains unknown. You’re welcome again. #1 Shaikh al-Islaam A crown fit for Shaikh al-Islaam! Sorry it wont fit if your bigheaded tho This title of Shaikh al-Islaam is pretty vague, to many of us it almost always goes along with Ibn Taymiyyah but in truth there are many people throughout Islamic history who have held this title which basically means Shaikh of Islaam. The first person to be referred to as Shaikh al-Islaam was actually Aboo Bakr as-Siddeeq radiyaAllaahu ‘anhu himself. And since then this name has been used for many scholars throughout time. For an example in Fat-h al-Baaree the explanation of Saheeh al-Bukhaaree written by Ibn Hajr al-Asqalaanee you will often notice him saying ‘and Shaikh al-Islaam said’ but he isn’t referring to Ibn Taymiyyah there, rather he is referring to his own teacher al-Balqini, and to add to the fact that he himself became known as Shaikh al-Islaam later on, shows it quite clearly that this name is not reserved for only one man. Even Shaikh Muhammad bin ‘AbdilWahhaab is also referred to as Shaikh al-Islaam not to mention all the other scholars like him. So just remember Shaikh al-Islaam does not always mean Ibn Taymiyyah. Obviously this article will not contain every person from amongst the scholars who might have similar names, such as Ibn Hajr al-Asqalaanee and Ibn Hajr al-Haytamee (yeah they were two of them, suprised?) etc, so if you know of any more please feel free to leave a comment on this article and benefit us all.
Posted on: Mon, 14 Jul 2014 06:26:29 +0000
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