A Brief Biography of Ibn Abī al-Dunyā

He is: Abū Bakr ʿAbd Allāh b. Muḥammad b. ʿUbayd b. Sufyān b. Qays, al-Qurashī al-Umawī, al-Baghdādī, famous as Ibn Abī al-Dunyā.

He was born in Baghdad in the year 208 AH, and his family was a household of knowledge and righteousness; his father was among the scholars interested in hadith and its narrators, and this contributed to his scholarly upbringing and formation at an early age.

His sheikhs were many, to the extent that al-Dhahabī said of him: "Our Sheikh Abū al-Ḥajjāj collected the names of his sheikhs in alphabetical order, and they were a vast number of people."

Among his sheikhs were: ʿAlī b. al-Jaʿd, Khālid b. Khidāsh, and others.

Ibn al-Jawzī said: "He possessed chivalry, was trustworthy, and truthful."

Al-Dhahabī said: "The traditionist (muhaddith), scholar, truthful one."

Al-Zabīdī said: "The Hadith master (hafiz) of the world, Abū Bakr b. Abī al-Dunyā."

He authored many books, and many of them have been printed, including:

1 - Al-Ṣamt wa-Ḥifẓ al-Lisān (Silence and Guarding the Tongue).

2 - Al-Tahajjud wa-Qiyām al-Layl (The Night Vigil and Standing in Prayer at Night), printed under my verification.

3 - Al-Riqqah wa-l-Bukāʾ (Tenderness of Heart and Weeping), printed under my verification.

4 - Al-Waraʿ (Scrupulousness (Wara')), printed under my verification.

5 - Ḥusn al-Ẓann bi-Llāh (Good Expectations of Allah).

6 - Al-ʿUzla wa-l-Infirād (Isolation and Solitude), which is this book of ours.

He passed away, May Allah have mercy on him, on Tuesday, fourteen nights remaining of Jumādā al-Ākhira in the year 281 AH.