A Brief Account of the Life of Shaykh 'Abd al-Rahman al-Mu'allimi
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Abu Ishaq: Well, our Shaykh, regarding Shaykh 'Abd al-Rahman ibn Yahya al-Mu'allimi al-Yamani, this man, despite his weight in knowledge and your praise of him and his knowledge, is almost unknown to generations like ours; I mean, if you could give us something aboutThe Shaykh : 'Abd al-Rahman ibn Yahya ... .
The Shaykh: By Allah, it is because of the scarcity of his works that we have at least looked into, that we have not been able to appreciate him fully. However, what has settled in my mind, within the limits of my little exposure to some of his works, and especially his book al-Tankil, is that first, the man is a Salafi in creed, Salafi in school and inclination; then, he has a long track record in the biographies of narrators, not only the narrators related to hadith, but he has a wide knowledge of the biographies of men from all strata, the exegetes, the hadith scholars, the linguists, and the like; so he is widely knowledgeable in this respect; and his annotations on al-Bukhari's Tarikh, and on al-Sam'ani's Kitab al-Ansab, and other things that do not come to my mind now, are the greatest proof of the breadth of his knowledge in these fields; but it seems that his concern with authentication and weakening was either little, or that he was not given the opportunity to enter this field and devote himself to it because of his engagement in serving the biographies, and it seems he was a specialist in that; but the truth is, when one looks at his discussion of al-Kawthari, whether from the hadith perspective or the jurisprudential perspective, all of that indicates that the man was well-grounded in the principles of hadith and the principles of jurisprudence on the one hand, and that he was also widely knowledgeable from the jurisprudential perspective on the other hand; this is what comes to my mind regarding this man (may Allah have mercy on him); and I also met him on that trip where I metThe Shaykh : Ahmad Shakir in Makkah, where he was the director of the Haram Makkah Library when the library was in the Haram itself; so I used to visit the library every day and see him there bent over research and verification, but I did not have sessions with him at that time because there was no prior acquaintance and no one was found to facilitate a way for us to meet; this is what I have.
The questioner : If you please.
Abu Ishaq: Raise your voice.
The Shaykh: By Allah, it is because of the scarcity of his works that we have at least looked into, that we have not been able to appreciate him fully. However, what has settled in my mind, within the limits of my little exposure to some of his works, and especially his book al-Tankil, is that first, the man is a Salafi in creed, Salafi in school and inclination; then, he has a long track record in the biographies of narrators, not only the narrators related to hadith, but he has a wide knowledge of the biographies of men from all strata, the exegetes, the hadith scholars, the linguists, and the like; so he is widely knowledgeable in this respect; and his annotations on al-Bukhari's Tarikh, and on al-Sam'ani's Kitab al-Ansab, and other things that do not come to my mind now, are the greatest proof of the breadth of his knowledge in these fields; but it seems that his concern with authentication and weakening was either little, or that he was not given the opportunity to enter this field and devote himself to it because of his engagement in serving the biographies, and it seems he was a specialist in that; but the truth is, when one looks at his discussion of al-Kawthari, whether from the hadith perspective or the jurisprudential perspective, all of that indicates that the man was well-grounded in the principles of hadith and the principles of jurisprudence on the one hand, and that he was also widely knowledgeable from the jurisprudential perspective on the other hand; this is what comes to my mind regarding this man (may Allah have mercy on him); and I also met him on that trip where I metThe Shaykh : Ahmad Shakir in Makkah, where he was the director of the Haram Makkah Library when the library was in the Haram itself; so I used to visit the library every day and see him there bent over research and verification, but I did not have sessions with him at that time because there was no prior acquaintance and no one was found to facilitate a way for us to meet; this is what I have.
The questioner : If you please.
Abu Ishaq: Raise your voice.
Source
www.al-albany.com
The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.