10th-century Islamic scholar
Al-Juwayni, `Abd Allah ibn Yusuf ibn `Abd Allah ibn Yusuf ibn Muhammad ibn Hayyuya, Rukn al-Din Abu Muhammad al-Ta'i al-Sinbisi al-Naysaburi al-Shafi`i al-Ash`ari (Arabic: أبو محمد الجويني), also known as Abu Muhammad al-Juwayni (died 1046 CE/438 AH), was a Sunni scholar based in Khorasan. He was a leading jurist (faqih), legal theoretician (usuli), Arabic grammarian, (nahwi), Qu'ran exegete (mufassir) and a scholar of theology, man of letters, and hadith.[2] He was the father of the great Imam al-Haramayn al-Juwayni.[3]
Early life
He was born in the villages of Juwayn in modern-day northeastern Iran, grew up in there, and read literature under his father Yusuf bin Abdullah, Abi Yaqoub.[4] He studied Shafi'i jurisprudence in Naysabur with Abu al-Tayyib al-Su`luki and in Merv with Abu Bakr al-Qaffal al-Marwazi. He also studied hadith from Abu Nu'aym al-Isfahani, Ibn Mahmish, Abu al-Husayn ibn Bishran, and others.[3]
Career
He settled in Nishapur after his intense educational journeys and began to issue fatwas, teach, and debate in the year 407 of Hijri. He became popular for his assiduous worship and the great dignity, majesty, and earnestness of his scholarly gatherings.[3]
Students
His famous students who became giants of their time include:[5]
Abu Muhammad al-Juwayni related that he once saw Prophet Yusuf in his dream where upon he fell to his knees in order to kiss his feet, but Yusuf prevented him as a mark of honour for the Imam, so the latter kissed Yusuf's heels. Abu Muhammad al-Juwayni said: "I interpreted it to mean that there would be blessing and honour in what I would leave behind." Ibn al-Subki commented: "What greater blessing and honour than his son (Al-Juwayni)!"[6]
Death
He died in the year 1046.
Abu Salih al-Mu'adhdhin said: "I gave Abu Muhammad his funeral bath. When we were wrapping him in the shroud I saw his right arm to the arm-pit luminous like the moon. I was bewildered, then I said to myself: these are the blessings of his legal responses."[6]
Reception
Al-Sabuni said: "If Shaykh Abu Muhammad had been born among the Israelites, they would have transmitted his immense merits to us and he would have made their pride."[3]
Ibn Asakir narrates from his maternal uncle, `Abd al-Wahid ibn `Abd al-Karim al-Qushayri the son of Imam Abu al-Qasim: "In his time our [Ash`ari and Shafi`i] imams and the verifying scholars among our companions saw in him such perfection and high merit that they used to say: If it were permissible to hold that Allah sent another prophet in our time, it would not have been other than he."[3]
