ʿAlī b. Muḥammad b. ʿAlī b. ʿImād al-Dīn Abū'l-Ḥasan al-Ṭabarī. Known as Kayyā al-Ḥarāsī. He was one of the great fuqahāʾ (jurists) and a leader among the Shāfiʿī scholars. He was born in the year 450 AH. He studied under al-Imām al-Ḥaramayn. Both he and al-Ghazālī were the greatest students of al-Imām al-Ḥaramayn. Both were appointed as mudarris (professors) at the Nizāmiyya in Baghdad. Abū'l-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. Muḥammad was an eloquent speaker with a strong and beautiful voice. While climbing the seventy-step staircase of the Nizāmiyya madrasa in Nishapur, he would curse Iblīs seven times on each step. He heard a great number of ḥadīth, issued fatwās, and taught lessons. He was a great and virtuous person and a leader among the fuqahāʾ. He wrote a book as a refutation (raddiyya) of the ḥadīth collected individually by Imām Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal and compiled in one volume.
He also authored other works of classification. At one time, he was accused of collaborating with the Bāṭinīs and was removed from his position as mudarris. Later, when a group of scholars including Ibn ʿUqayl testified to his innocence, he was reinstated as mudarris. He died at the age of fifty-four on a Thursday at the beginning of the month of Muḥarram that year. He was buried next to the grave of Shaykh Abū Isḥāq al-Shīrāzī. According to Ibn Ḥallikān, ʿAlī b. Muḥammad memorized ḥadīth and would debate those who confronted him with the ḥadīth he had memorized. He said:
“When the heroes of ḥadīth roam the battlefields and storms blow, the heads of the analogists (qiyās practitioners) fly.”
According to a narration from one of the Salaf, he was asked for a fatwā on whether ḥadīth books fall under the category of wasiyya (bequest) for fuqahāʾ, and he said that they do fall under wasiyya, citing the following ḥadīth as evidence:
“Whoever memorizes forty ḥadīth from my ummah, Allah will resurrect him as a scholar on the Day of Resurrection and grant him intercession.”
He was asked about Muʿāwiya’s son Yazīd, and he said that he was a sullen person occupied with play, and for this reason, it was permissible to curse him. As for al-Ghazālī, he opposed ʿAlī b. Muḥammad on this matter, stating that it is not permissible to curse Yazīd because he was a Muslim and it cannot be established that he consented to the killing of Ḥusayn; even if it were established, it would not make it permissible to curse him, because cursing the killer is not correct, especially since the door of tawba (repentance) is open, and the One who accepts the repentance of His servants is the Forgiving and Merciful. Al-Ghazālī continued, “As for praying for mercy upon Yazīd, this is permissible and even recommended. We also pray for mercy upon him along with other Muslims and believers in the general prayers.”
Ibn Ḥallikān narrates all these details extensively while recounting the biography of Kayyā al-Ḥarāsī, that is, ʿAlī b. Muḥammad. Kayyā al-Ḥarāsī, namely ʿAlī b. Muḥammad, was a person of great esteem, a leader, and respected. Allah knows best.