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The Remembrance Of God

THE REMEMBRANCE OF GOD

Imam Suyuti

His Retirement from the World at the Age of Forty

Ibn Iyas in Tarikh misr states that when al-Suyiti reached forty years of age, he abandoned the company of men for the solitude of Rawdat al-Miqyas by the bank of the Nile, avoiding his former colleagues as though he had never known them, and it was here that he authored most of his nearly six hundred books and treatises.

Wealthy Muslims and princes would visit him with offers of money and gifts, but he put all of them off, and when the sultan requested his presence a number of times, he refused.

 He once said to the sultan’s envoy: “Do not ever come back to us with a gift, for in truth God has put an end to all such needs for us.”

His Works

The editors of the book, A Guide to al-Suyiiti’s Manuscripts have listed 723 works to al-Suyiiti’s name.3 Some of these are brief fatwas which do not exceed four pages, like his notes on the hadith “Whoever says: ‘I am knowledgeable; he is ignorant’’* titled A ‘dhab al-manahil fi hadith man qala anda ‘alim; while others, like the Itqan_fi ‘uliim al-Qur’an or Tadtib al-rawi, are full-fledged tomes.

His student and biographer, Shams al-Din al-Dawidi al-Maliki—the author of Tabaqat al-mufassirin al-kubra—said: “I saw the Shaykh with my own eyes writing and finishing three works in one day which he himself authored and proofread.

At the same time he was dictating hadith and replying beautifully to whatever was brought to his attention.’ Sakhawi