Question

Ass salaam alaikum wa rahmatullaah
May Allaah keep you in the best of Hidayath and Health.

Al-Hamdulillaah, I find your site very informative for those who are really interested in learning Quranic recitations. May Allaah accept this service from you. Aameen!
My question is: Can you provide me the details of Imaam As-Shaatibee? and Is there a website which contains books by Imaam Shaatibyee which can be downloaded?
Jazak Allaah-u-Khair

Answer

Wa alaikum assalaam wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh,

Jazakum Allahu khairan, and may Allah grant you with the same and Ameen, may Allaah ta’aalaa accept this from us. May Allah grant you great reward for your patience with our late answer to your important question.  

We are very happy to provide what we can of Imaam Ash-Shaatibiyy’s life.  He is one of the foremost scholars of the Qira’aat and other Qur’anic sciences.  We want to remind the visitors to the site that we cannot any longer provide biographies of modern reciters, but we are more than happy to try and provide biographies of the early scholars of the Qur’an.  It may take some time for us to put the reply up on the site, but we will do our best to oblige requests of this sort. 

Imam Ash-Shaatibiyy’s full name is Abu-l-Qaasim ibn Feerruh bin Khalaf bin Ahmed Ar-Ru’ayniyy Ash-Shaatibiyy,  or as stated in a book by the famous scholar Imam Ibn Al-Jazaree, his name was Al-Qaasim bin Feerruh bin Khalaf bin Ahmed, Abu-l-Qaasim and Abu Muhammed Ash-Shaatibiyy.  He was bord blind.  He was a non-Arab born Andulus, and his name “Feerruh” is said to mean iron. 

He was born in the year 538 Hijara in Shatibah, part of Al-Andulus.  He learned the qira’aat  and mastered them there at the hands of Abee Abdullah Muhammed bin Abee Al-‘AaS An-Nafzee, better known as Ibn Al-Laayuh.  After completing taking knowledge from the shuyookh of his area, Imam Ash-Shaatibiyy out to further distances in search of knowledge.  He ended up in Valencia and therein read the qira’aat and presented (recited orally from memory) the famous book of Ad-Daanee “At-Tayseer” to the famous Imam Abeel-Hasan Ali bin Al-Huthayl Al-Balansiyy (from Valencia).  He also heard from him Al-Hadeeth.  Imam Ash-Shatibiyy also took [learned by oral transmission] from Abee Abdullah Muhammed bin Humayd the following famous works: Kitaab by Sibawayy, Al-Kaamil by Al-Mubarrad, and Adab Al-Kitaab by Ibn Qateebah, besides other books. 

Imam Ash-Shatibiyy also heard [learned by oral transmission] from the great Imam Abeel-Hasan Ali bin Abdullah bin Khalaf bin Ni’mah Al-Ansariyy Al-Balansiyy (from Valencia) the work contained in numerous volumes “Rayy Ath-Tham’aan fee tafseer Al-Qur’aan”, which he himself authored, and the book Al-Im’aan fee Sharh sunan An-Nisaa’I Abdur-rahmaan.  He also learned from this imam Al-Hidaayah by Al-Muhdawiyy. 

There are many other books and works that Imam Ash-Shatibiyy learned and heard orally from famous shuyookh that are too many to mention in a short biography, but they include Saheeh Muslim, which he heard and learned from three different imams.

In the year 572, Imam Ash-Shatibiyy traveled with the intention of making Hajj.  When he reached Alexandria , Egypt , he listened to Taahir As-Salafi and others.  Then when he reached Misr (Cairo-or near it) Judge Al-Faadhil honored him and knew his worth and had him stay in his school that was built inside Cairo and Imam Ash-Shaatibiyy became a great honored sheikh.  His famous poem on the seven qira’aat was mostly written in Egypt , although part of it is said to have been written while he was still in what is known today as Spain . 

After Salah Ad-Deen Yusuf Al-Ayoob conquered Jerusalem , Imam Ash-Shatibiyy went there to visit Jerusalem  in the year 539 Al-Hijara.  He then returned to Al-Faadhil school in Cairo teaching until he died. 

He was a great imam and amazing in great intelligence, his great knowledge of Allah’s Book, memorized many hadeeth, and considered a leader in the Arabic language. 

Even though he was born blind, many amazing things were related about him from his companions and students.  One such story related in Ghaayah An-Nihaayah fee Tabaqaat al-Qurraa’ by Imam Ibn Al-Jazaree, was that he would pray the morning prayer in Al-Faadhiliyyah, and sit to listen to those who were reading Qur’an to him.  The students were known to hurry on the road at night to reach him.  When he would sit to listen, he would simply state, “Who came first?”  The one who had reached the school first would read first, then the second etc., taking them one by one according to who had reached the place before the other.  One day, a group of his companions raced to reach him.  Then when Sheikh Ash-Shatibiyy sat he said, “Whoever came second should read.”  He who had arrived second started reciting, and he who had preceding him didn’t know what to do.  He started thinking about what he had done in sin after parting from the sheikh the last time that made the sheikh forbid him to read.  He then remembered that he was junub (in a state of impurity) from the previous night  and in his great care in going to the school early, he had forgotten his impure state.  This student got up and went to the bathroom next to the school and made ghusl.  He then returned to the school before the one who had came second had finished his recitation.  When the one had came second finished, the Sheikh then said, “Whoever came first should read.” So the student who had came first then read. 

Imam Ash-Shatibiyy, may Allah be merciful to him, died 590 Hijara in Cairo , and was buried in Quraafah, between Cairo and Misr.  His student Abu Abdullah Al-Qurtabi became the imam of the school after him. 

He wrote many works, including the famous poem about the seven qira’aat: , which almost every student of the qira’aat memorizes.  He also wrote a well known and accepted poem about the writing of the Qur’an as well as different sciences of the Qur’an named:   . 

May Allah grant Imam Ash-Shatibiyyah great reward and a light in his grave and grant him the highest Paradise .

Sources:

Ghaayah An-Nihaayah fee Tabaqaat Al-Qur’aa’, Imam Muhammed bin Al-Jazaree, died 833 Hijara, may Allah be merciful to him.

Mukhtasar Al-Fat-h Al-Mawaahibee fee Manaaqib Al-Imam Ash-Shatibiyy, original work by Imam Shihaab Ad-Deen Ahmed bin Muhammad Al-Qastalaaniyy, died 933 Hijarah, may Allah be merciful to him.  Condensed version by Muhammed Hasan ‘Aqeel Musaa.   

The Shatibiyyah poem about the seven qira’aat can be downloaded at: http://qurankareem.info/ .  Scroll down until you see, shatebeyah.zip and click on the first blue  line below it.

We could not find a good download for the other famous poem mentioned in the biography.

Wa assalaam alaikum