Siraj al-Din al-Bulqini

He was born in the August 4th of 1324 CE. He memorized the Noble Qur'an when he was seven years old, which was a young age that only a few scholars ever did. He also memorized "Al-Muharir" in jurisprudence, "Al-Kafi" in grammar by Ibn Malik , and Mukhtasar Ibn Al-Hajib in Usul al-Fiqh and "Al-Shatibiyyah" in readings, and many other famous Islamic science books. His hometown is called Bulqini. It is said that the third grandfather of Siraj al-Din, was the first to reside in Bulqini, and that is why he was nicknamed Al-Bulqini which is a village belonging to the center of al-Mahalla al-Kubra, Gharbia Governorate on Tanta Road.[6]

His father brought him to Cairo when he was twelve years old. So he sought knowledge and studied under the scholars of his time, he studied under Sheikh Al-Maidumi, Sheikh Shams al-Din, Sheikh Al-Isfahani, others and most prominently Sheikh al-Islam Taqi al-Din al-Subki. He was authorized to issue fatwas when he was just ten years old.[7]

He surpassed his peers and colleagues, and the conditions of jurisprudence met in the correct manner. It was said that he was a "renewer of the ninth century AH", and his elders and colleagues praised him as a young man, and the study of science ended with him in the countries of the earth. Scholars and students came to him from every direction, and fatwas came to him from every side.[7]

He married a daughter of the grammarian and jurist Abd Allah ibn Abd al-Rahman ibn Aqil.[8]

After his primary education in Egypt. He assumed several positions, including the fatwa of the House of Justice, and he travelled to Damascus and was appointed as a Mufti in the year 769 AH, where he worked for a short period, then returned.[9]

He has also served as a lecturer at Al-Azhar Mosque. He had a vast number of disciples that the entire Egypt following the Shafi`i school had Ulama who were either his own disciples or disciples of his disciples.[10]

His most popular students were:

• Siraj al-Din Omar al-Balqini, his son who was the teacher of Al-Suyuti and Zakariyya al-Ansari
• Ibn Hajar Al-Asqalani
• Badr al-Din al-Ayni
• Jalal ad-Din al-Mahalli
• Ibn Nasir al-Dimishqi
• Burhan al-Din al-Muhaddith

He detracts those who say Waḥdat al-wujūd (the Unity of Existence), and this was quoted by his student Ibn Hajar Al-Asqalani in his translation of Ibn al-Farid in Lisan al-Mizan. Ibn Hajar said: "I had asked our sheikh, Imam Siraj al-Din al-Bulqini, about Ibn Arabi, and he immediately answered that he was an Kafir, so I asked him about Ibn al-Farid, and he said: I do not like to speak about him. I said: What is the difference between them and their poems are the same, and I recited from his poem, and after reciting several verses, he interrupted me by saying: This is kufr, this is kufr.".[11]

Imam Siraj al-Din al-Bulqini passed away on Friday the 1st of June in the year 1403 CE. His son, Jalal Al-Din, prayed for him and was buried in his school after a long life that he spent in the service of Islam and its sciences. His student Ibn Hajar and others mourned him with long poems. Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani says at the beginning of it:[9]

"Oh eye Judy to lose the sea with rain I know the tears do not remain and do not shed I spend my day in them and in grief and the length of my night thinking and staying up late and my heart dived into the sea of worries either you see shed tears of it Kaldarr God's mercy and contentment includes it safety is not worn out crying for my life manar Al-Din has set up clear his lamp lit the universe for mankind if Ibn Idris saw him, the imam authorized read and read his eyes from him by looking so he achieved how many extensions he had by conquest achieving the hope of the Prophet of God in Omar."