Nasser Al-Huzaimi

Published: July 13, 2026: 02:05 PM GST Last updated: July 13, 2026: 02:07 PM GST

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When the scholar Abu al-Walid al-Baji discussed a hadith from Sahih al-Bukhari regarding the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah and how the Prophet (peace be upon him) signed it with his name and his father's name, the common people around him rose up and created a disturbance, and the lead in that was taken by those who resemble scholars. They called for the excommunication of Abu al-Walid al-Baji because, in their claim, he had contradicted the Quranic text that the Prophet was illiterate, unable to read or write. Their poet even said: "I disown whoever trades this world for the Hereafter / And says that the Messenger of Allah wrote." So the judge Abu al-Walid al-Baji (may Allah have mercy on him) wrote a treatise in which he explained that this does not detract from the miracle, and many recanted. Here, Sheikh al-Dhahabi comments after recounting this incident in his book 'The History of Islam': "I say: It is permissible for the Prophet (peace be upon him) to write only his name, and that does not remove him from being illiterate, and whoever among the rulers and governors writes his name as a habitual mark is not considered a scribe. Judgement is based on the norm, not on rare exceptions. The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: 'We are an illiterate nation, we neither write nor count.' That is because most of them were like that, though there were a few scribes among them." This is what Imam al-Dhahabi said. To avoid being drawn into tangential discussions, we must first introduce Judge Abu al-Walid al-Baji: He is the Imam, the scholar, the memorizer, the master of multiple sciences, Judge Abu al-Walid Sulayman ibn Khalaf al-Baji al-Andalusi al-Qurtubi, author of many works, who traveled to Baghdad in pursuit of knowledge and returned to al-Andalus after thirteen years with vast knowledge in both transmission and reasoning, and authored beneficial books that traveled widely, some of which have reached us. As is well known, Abu al-Walid al-Baji was narrated from by the scholar Abu Muhammad ibn Hazm and the Imam Abu Umar ibn Abd al-Barr. This Imam, despite being one of the great scholars of al-Andalus in the Maliki school and one of the leading jurists of Ahl al-Sunnah, did not escape the foolishness of the common people and their like among some envious students of knowledge. Abu al-Walid al-Baji was not unique in this situation; many scholars have fallen under the fangs of the common people and those who incite them from among the envious pseudo-scholars. If Abu al-Walid al-Baji escaped the violence of the common people because of a statement or a work, Imam al-Nasa'i did not escape them. As is well known, Imam al-Nasa'i, author of al-Sunan, wrote a small treatise on the virtues of the Commander of the Faithful Ali ibn Abi Talib (may Allah be pleased with him) and entered one of the towns known for al-Nasb (hostility towards Ali) with this treatise. He had written this treatise on the virtues of Imam Ali to prevent them from insulting and reviling the Imam. At the end of his lesson, one of the common rabble said to him: "Why don't you write about the virtues of Muawiyah?" Imam al-Nasa'i replied: "I do not know anything about his virtues." So a group of coarse commoners rose against him, beat him, and kicked him between his thighs. He fled from them and died during his flight due to the beating and kicking, may Allah have mercy on him. This great Imam, the authority, the scholar of the nation, faced what he faced because of the common people, the rabble, the idle, and the mob. May Allah protect us from their evil.

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