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12:41 AM
- Monday, March 30, 2009
Jalaluddin al-Suyuti (d. 911 A.H.) He is considered the mujaddid, the renewer of the faith, at the end of the 9th Islamic century. It’s not necessary to list all his great accomplishments, so I will jump straight to the point about his hadith collections.

Al-Kittani called him “the seal of the Hadith Memorizers (huffaz)”.

His pupil al-Dawoodi said, “He was the most knowledgeable of all the scholars of his time in the science of hadith…and he said of himself that he had memorized 200,000 hadiths and said ‘If I found more I would have memorized it”.

Ali al-Qari al-Makki said, “He is the one who revived the science of tafsir…and he collected all the scattered hadiths in his famous Jaami‘.”

Once he reached the age of 40, he went into seclusion in his house and dedicated all his time to worship and authoring, leaving all his prestigious positions and refusing all gifts from the rulers.

He himself saw in a dream that he was asking the Prophet (salallahu'alayhi wassalam) about hadiths and the Prophet said, “Ask oh Shaykh of the Hadith”.

And he confided to his friend, shaykh AbdulQadir al-Shadhili, that he saw the Prophet (salallahu'alayhi wassalam) in the waking state, saying to him, “Oh Shaykh of the Hadith!”
So he said, “Oh Messenger of Allah, am I of the people of Paradise?”,
so he(salallahu'alayhi wassalam) said “yes”.
“Without prior punishment?”
So he (salallahu'alayhi wassalam) said “yes.”

So AbdulQadir al-Shadhili asked him, “How many times have you seen the Prophet (salallahu'alayhi wassalam) while awake?” And he replied, “Seventy-some times.”

Al-Sha’rani said, “I saw in Shaykh Jalaluddin al-Suyuti’s own handwriting a letter, (preserved) with his companion Shaykh AbdulQadir al-Shadhili, to someone who had asked his intercession with Sultan Qaytbay. Its text is as follows:

‘Know my brother that I have been united with the Messenger of Allah (salallahu'alayhi wassalam) until now, seventy five times in which I both saw him and spoke to him, in a waking state. And if it were not for my fear that I will be veiled from him (salallahu'alayhi wassalam) if I approach the rulers, I would have entered the Citadel and interceded for you with the Sultan. But I am a man among the servants of his hadith (salallahu'alayhi wassalam) and I need him (salallahu'alayhi wassalam) to show the (true) hadiths that the hadith scholars have deemed weak as correct, and that is undoubtedly of greater benefit than assisting you, my brother.’ “

As for the matter of seeing the Prophet (salallahu'alayhi wassalam) awake and asking him (salallahu'alayhi wassalam) about the correctness of hadiths, that is normal for the greatest awliya. For example, al-Zawawi (d. 1517 CE) said, “We recite the tasliya on behalf of the Prophet (salallahu'alayhi wassalam) so often that he (salallahu'alayhi wassalam) then sits with us while we are in a waking state (hattaa yaseera yujaalisunaa yaqzatan) …. Then we question him about matters of our religion and about hadiths which are held to be weak in the opinion of our religious scholars. Subsequently we base our behavior on his words (salallahu'alayhi wassalam).”

Wallahu'alam