Wisdom of Ab’ul-Faraj ibn al-Jawzi

Abū’l-Faraj Jamāl al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Ḥasan ʿAlī Al-Jawzī, known simply as Ibn al-Jawzī (510-597 AH/c. 1116 –1201 CE) – a descendent of Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, may Allah be well pleased with him – was a polymath who authored scores of books on Qurʾānic exegesis, Islamic law, Hadith, history, hagiography, heresiology and philology. He played a pivotal role in the promulgation of the Ḥanbalī school of law in Baghdad. He was also an extremely successful preacher and orator. The fortune that his deceased father left him allowed him to devote his entire life to learning from the greatest scholars of his time and then to teaching what he had learned until he breathed his last. He taught in different schools in Baghdad, and later established his own school to which he annexed a significant library. It is reported that more than one hundred thousand people repented either to Islam or the path of rectitude after attending his powerful and effective exhortations.