Shaykh ʿAbd al-Wakīl al-Hāshimī – may Allah have mercy on him
A pillar of ḥadīth has fallen, and a sun from the suns of knowledge has set. On the night of the third of Rabīʿ al-Awwal 1447 AH, a lamp of the Sunnah was extinguished – a light that shone upon the people, guiding the bewildered to the springs of certainty. News that shook the hearts, darkened the sights, and stunned the ears was carried: tell those seekers of the lofty chains of transmission that mankind has descended a degree; the link that bound grandchildren to their forefathers has been severed. Convey to the dūr al-ḥadīth in Najd and Ḥijāz, in the Maghrib and Shām, in Egypt and ʿIrāq, in India and across the lands, that the circles of reading and listening have become widowed, and the gatherings of isnād and ijāzah have been orphaned.
Our Shaykh, the reliance of the muḥaddithūn in his age, the noble scholar, the dignified and noble lineage, ʿAbd al-Wakīl ibn al-muḥaddith ʿAbd al-Ḥaqq al-Hāshimī, has departed after a life exceeding ninety years. His body is absent, but his trace remains; his voice is silenced, yet its echo resounds in the corridors of the ḥaram and in the souls of his students spread east and west. O people of ḥadīth! Weep with pure hearts and flowing tears, weep for the best of those worthy of weeping today, he who yesterday was the refuge of travellers and the station of seekers.
Books were read before him, the great collections and musnads and compendia were heard from him. Allah blessed his life until he became the undisputed Shaykh of Makkah, the shelter of those in search of ḥadīth, the refuge of those seeking reports, a pillar of isnād, adorned with expansive character, supported by deep humility, and driven by an unflagging resolve – until age weighed him down and travel overcame him.
O Death! You have folded the page of his life, but how can you fold his remembrance? It endures forever in the isnāds of transmitters and in the imprints upon his students. The Shaykh has gone, but the seeds of knowledge he planted still flourish, and the light of guidance he instilled in hearts still burns bright.
A pearl has slipped from the necklace of the scholars; a leaf has fallen from the tree of the muḥaddithūn, leaving the branches desolate, the shade less generous, and the hearts bereft of those breaths that once inspired tranquillity and filled the gatherings of knowledge with blessing. Alas, our Shaykh! How many days were made familiar by you, how many nights brightened by you, how many found intimacy in your radiant face and fragrant speech!
O you who filled the world with “ḥaddathanā” and “akhbaranā,” who dispelled the doubts of disconnected and weak reports by preserving the continuous and sound transmissions! O you who raised the stature of transmission and ḥadīth, who revived the ways of the trustworthy and the skilled preservers! O you who were never accused of lying, nor of tadlīs, nor of altering a narration! Tell us, to whom shall we turn after you? Al-Zuhrī died and Mālik and the great ones succeeded him; Mālik died and al-Qaʿnabī, al-Tanīsī, and al-Laythī inherited. They roamed the plains, mountains, and valleys of Makkah, calling and seeking – but they found none to respond, none to fill the place you filled.
O Makkah of purity and clarity, sanctuary of hearts and abode of light! You witnessed Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah, a towering mountain to whom riders flocked, minds and hearts raced, and multitudes gathered until his space could not contain them. To him the isnāds culminated, and to him seekers travelled from every land, desiring sparks from his brilliance and a draught from his ocean. And now today you bid farewell to the last of your muḥaddithūn. With the fall of that star, a chapter of your glory has been concealed.
Indeed you mourn, and rightfully, over the man before whom both the long and the short works were read, whose knowledge was transmitted generation after generation – fathers to sons, and sons to grandsons – until his name became a thread woven through the fabric of time, a fragrance diffused in the hearts of working scholars.
O Shaykh of the ḥaram! You have folded your final garment and departed to a dwelling free of toil and burden. You have left us gazing upon your remaining traces, kissing them as one kisses the footprint of a beloved traveller, seeking solace in them for the ache of separation and the wounds of grief. We shall narrate your remembrance to generations, as you narrated to us the knowledge of ḥadīth; we shall carry your name in our isnāds, as you carried to us the light of prophethood.
Peace of Allah be upon you, O Shaykh of the Sacred Land, and His mercy as long as He wills. Never did you falter a day, nor slacken a moment. Though your departure pains us, it has kindled within us a resolve to remain faithful to what you founded and to preserve what you planted, until we meet you at the ḥawḍ, neither neglectful nor altered.
Verily, to Allah we belong and unto Him we return. O Allah, reward him with the best reward for his service to Islam and its people, grant him vast forgiveness, join him with the company of the righteous, raise him in ʿilliyyīn with the prophets, the truthful, the martyrs, and the righteous – and excellent are they as companions.
https://t.me/DrAkramNadwi/6849
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Disclaimer: This article was translated by AI. Original post: https://t.me/DrAkramNadwi/6849
