Al-Sarakhsi

This article is about the 11th-century Hanafi scholar. For Al-Kindi's pupil, see Ahmad ibn al-Tayyib al-Sarakhsi.

Abu Bakr al-Sarakhsi
أبوبکر محمد بن أبی سهل السرخسی
TitleThe sun of the leaders
(شمس الأئمة)
Personal
Born
Sarakhs
Died483 Hijri (1090 CE)
ReligionIslam
EraIslamic golden age
RegionGreater Khorasan
DenominationSunni
JurisprudenceHanafi
Main interest(s)
Notable work(s)Al-Mabsut, Usul al-Sarakhsi, Shar al-Siyar al-Kabir
Muslim leader
Influenced by
Influenced

Muhammad b. Ahmad b. Abi Sahl Abu Bakr al-Sarakhsi (Persian: محمد بن احمد بن ابي سهل ابو بكر السرخسي), was a Persian jurist and also an Islamic scholar of the Hanafi school of thought. He was traditionally known as Shams al-A'imma (شمس الأئمة; transl. The sun of the leaders).[1]

He is an influential jurist in the Hanafi school where the tradition is reported to have been that: "when in doubt, follow Sarakhsi".[2] Both Al-Kasani and Burhan al-Din al-Marghinani, in their flagship fiqh books of Bada'i' al-Sana'i' and Al-Hidaya, have extensively drawn upon the discussions and legal reasonings presented in al-Sarakhsi's Al-Mabsut and Usul al-Sarakhsi.[2]

The Indian Muslim scholar of the 19th century, Abd al-Hayy al-Lucknawi, classifies al-Sarakhsi in the second grade of mujtahids, along with scholars such as Al-Tahawi, who are believed to be the seminal jurists after Abu Hanifa's students (i.e. Abu Yusuf and Muhammad al-Shaybani).[3]

  1. ^ Norman Calder, Jawid Ahmad Mojaddedi, Andrew Rippin, ed. and tr., Classical Islam: A Sourcebook of Religious Literature (Routledge, 2003), p. 210.
  2. ^ a b Al-Sarakhsi, Money Exchange, Loans, and Riba: A translation of Kitab al-Sarf from Kitab al-Mabsut, translated by Imran Ahsan Khan Nyazee, Advanced Legal Studies Institute, Islamabad, 2018.
  3. ^ Al-Marghinani, Burhan al-Din, Al-Hidayah, translated by Imran Ahsan Khan Nyazee, Center for Excellence in Research, Islamabad, 2016, page 9.