Al-Baghawi

Abū Muḥammad al-Ḥusayn ibn Masʻūd ibn Muḥammad al-Farrā' al-Baghawī (Persian/Arabic:ابو محمد حسین بن مسعود بغوی), also known as al-Baghawī was a Persian Sunni Muslim scholar based in Khorasan. He was a prominent Quran exegete (mufassir), traditionist (muhaddith), and Shafi'i jurist (faqih). He is best known for his two major works, Maʻālim at-Tanzīl and Masabih as-Sunnah.

Name His last name, al-Baghawī, comes from where he was born, and he is not the only scholar with this name; according to Yāqūt al-Ḥamawī (d. 626/1229), a number of scholars were born in this village and also had the same name. Al-Baghawī is also known as Ibn al-Farrāʾor al-Farrāʾ, which means “the furrier” or “son of the furrier.” Scholars disagreed as to whether this denotes his own occupation or his father's.

Although al-Baghawī's educational travels are not consistently documented, Ibn al-Subkī makes sure that al-Baghawī did not travel to Baghdad due to the lack of sources on his interactions in this area. Ibn Taghribirdi mentions that he travelled to different places to hear ḥadīths. The six other scholars mentioned as ḥadīth teachers of al-Baghawī were not all based in Baghshūr or al-Marw al-Rūdk but across Khurāsān. Some of his professors were hadith experts well-versed in adab and fiqh, including Abū ʿAmr ʿAbd al-Waḥid al-Malīḥī, Abū al-Ḥasan al-Dāwūdī, Abū Bakr Yaʿqūb al-Ṣīrafī, and Abū Bakr Muḥammad b. Haytham al-Turābī.

Abū al-Qāsim al-Qushayrī and Abū al-Ḥasan b. Yūsuf al-Juwaynī are the last two teachers of al-Baghawī who were major scholars of their respective times. Al-Qushayrī is considered a great Sufi master, but his knowledge encompassed fiqh, legal theory, ḥadīth, Quranic exegesis, and adab. Abū al-Ḥasan b. Yūsuf al-Juwaynī is a Sufi muhaddith who wrote a Sufi treatise called al-Silwa fī ʿulūm al-ṣūfiyya. He was also the elder brother of the renowned legal scholar Imam al-Haramayn. These scholars' names reappear in al-Baghawī’s ḥadīth isnads across his works. While many had teaching and adjudicating duties, the exact institutions remain unknown. Their educational backgrounds, writings, and positions give information on the Sunni scholarly scene.

Regarding the second pillar of science, al-Baghawī, which he acquired from his masters, he also studied the knowledge that earlier Muslim scholars (salāf) had left behind and drew on his own knowledge from literature. Al-Baghawī was well known for his religiosity and never taught without performing an wudu. Furthermore, it seems that he did not prioritise the wordily living because he liked to eat solely bread and began combining it with oil after his neighbours complained.

Al-Baghawī passed away in 516 AH in the month of Shawwal/1123 and was buried right next to his teacher al-Qadi Husayn in the Ṭāliqān cemetery in Marw al-Rudh.

Tafsir al-Baghawi, also known as Maʻālim at-Tanzīl, is a classical commentary on the Quran. At-Tahdhīb fī Fiqh al-Imām ash-Shāfiʻī, a work on Shafi'i law and it is considered a summary of Taʿlīqa authored by al-Qadi Husayn. 'Sharḥ as-Sunnah Maṣābīḥ as-Sunnah, a famous Hadith collection. Al-Anwār fī Shamāʼil an-Nabī al-Mukhtār Al-Jamʻ bayn aṣ-Ṣaḥīḥayn Majmūʻah min al-Fatāwā, a fatawa collection of his teacher al-Qadi Husayn. Kitāb fī al-alfāẓ wa-l-sunnan Kashf al-manāhij wa al-tanāqīḥ fī takhrīj aḥādīth al-maṣābīḥ Al-Arbaʻīn Ḥadīthā