Musa al-Hajjawi

Sharaf al-Dīn Mūsā al-Ḥajjāwī al-Ḥanbalī (895–968 AH / 1490–1560 CE)

Muftī of the Ḥanbalīs in Damascus and one of the foremost codifiers of late Ḥanbalī fiqh

Sharaf al-Dīn Abū al-Najā Mūsā ibn Aḥmad ibn Mūsā ibn Sālim ibn ʿĪsā ibn Sālim al-Ḥajjāwī al-Maqdisī, then al-Ṣāliḥī al-Dimashqī, was one of the leading Ḥanbalī jurists of the 10th century AH. His scholarly influence, especially through Zād al-Mustaqniʿ and al-Iqnaʿ, shaped the legal curriculum of the later Ḥanbalī school and continues to define its pedagogical tradition in the central Islamic lands.

Birth and Early Life

Al-Ḥajjāwī was born in 895 AH in the village of Ḥajjah, a district near Nāblus (in today’s Palestine). His nisba, al-Ḥajjāwī, derives from this locality. After receiving his initial education, he migrated to Damascus, where he took residence in the renowned Madrasa of Shaykh al-Islām Abū ʿUmar, a key Ḥanbalī center of learning.

Teachers

In Damascus he studied with many notable Ḥanbalī jurists of his era. Among the most prominent were:

•Najm al-Dīn ʿUmar ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Mufliḥ (d. 910 AH), one of the senior jurists of the Ibn Mufliḥ family.

•Abū al-Barakāt Muḥibb al-Dīn Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-ʿUqaylī, the preacher of Mecca.

•Kamal al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Ḥamza al-Ḥusaynī (d. 933 AH).

These and others contributed to his formation as a jurist, traditionist, and teacher of the madhhab.

Scholarly Career

Al-Ḥajjāwī quickly rose to prominence within the Ḥanbalī community of Damascus. His piety, asceticism, and reliability in issuing fatwās earned him widespread respect. He eventually attained the distinguished positions of:

•Muftī of the Ḥanbalīs in Damascus

•Shaykh al-Islām of the Ḥanbalī school

•Head teacher at the Abū ʿUmar Madrasa

•Lecturer in the Umayyad Mosque

Contemporary scholars describe him as the intellectual leader of the Ḥanbalīs of his time. His authority in legal verdicts and his mastery of the school’s transmitted positions are frequently noted in biographical dictionaries, including al-Kawākib al-Sāʾirah and Shadharāt al-Dhahab.

Students

Students traveled from various regions to study under him. Among the most notable were:

•Shihāb al-Dīn al-Wafāʾī (d. 1035 AH)

•Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Musharraf

•Zamīl ibn Sulṭān, judge of Riyadh

•Qāḍī Shihāb al-Dīn al-Shuwaykī (d. 1007 AH)

•Abū Bakr ibn Zaytūn al-Ṣāliḥī (d. 1012 AH)

•Muḥammad ibn Shihāb al-Dīn al-Mardāwī, known as Ibn al-Dīwān

•His son Yaḥyā ibn Mūsā al-Ḥajjāwī

Through his students and writings, al-Ḥajjāwī’s legal formulations became authoritative references in the school.

Works and Intellectual Contribution

Al-Ḥajjāwī authored numerous works, several of which became foundational texts for later Ḥanbalī jurisprudence. His writings are marked by precision, methodological clarity, and mastery of the transmitted positions (riwāyāt) and preferred rulings (mukhtārāt) of the madhhab. Al-Kamal al-Ghazzi remarked that his books achieved exceptional acceptance and circulation among scholars.

Major Works

1. Zād al-Mustaqniʿ fī Ikhtiṣār al-Muqniʿ

His most famous work, an abridgment of Ibn Qudāmah’s al-Muqniʿ, and arguably the most widely studied elementary text in Ḥanbalī fiqh to this day. Its concise style and pedagogical structure made it a standard primer and a central text in Najd, Iraq, and Syria.

2. Al-Iqnaʿ li-Ṭālib al-Intifāʿ

A comprehensive legal manual, often paired with Kashshāf al-Qināʿ of al-Bahūtī. Ibn al-ʿImād praised it highly, stating that “none wrote a work like it in its organization of narrations and abundance of legal issues.”

3. Commentaries and Treatises

•Commentary on al-Tanqīḥ al-Mushbaʿ

•Commentary on the poem of manners (Manẓūmat al-Adab)

•A treatise on Iraqi and Damascene weights and measures, important for legal judgments requiring precise ratios

•A poem on major sins, later commented on by al-Ṣafarīnī

His literary production demonstrates not only juristic mastery but also concern for practical legal methodology, ethics, and applied jurisprudence.

Death

Mūsā al-Ḥajjāwī passed away on Thursday, 12 Rabīʿ al-Awwal 968 AH (1560 CE). He was buried at the foot of Mount Qāsiyūn overlooking Damascus. His funeral was widely attended by scholars, judges, and notables of the city, who mourned the passing of one of the last great jurists of the post-Ibn Qudāmah and pre-Bahūtī era.

Legacy

Al-Ḥajjāwī stands as one of the most influential codifiers of late Ḥanbalī law. His Zād al-Mustaqniʿ and al-Iqnaʿ became foundational texts for the teaching of the madhhab, especially in Syria and the Arabian Peninsula. Through these works and his students, he helped shape the intellectual trajectory of the Ḥanbalī tradition into the Ottoman period and beyond.