He was a shaykh, imam, khatib (preacher), mudarris (teacher), and mufti. His lineage is as follows: Sherefuddin Abu'l-ʿAbbas Ahmad b. Shaykh Kamal al-Din Ahmad b. Nime b. Ahmad b. Jaʿfar b. Husayn b. Hammad al-Maqdisi. He belonged to the Shafiʿi madhhab. He was born in the year 622 AH. He heard a great number of hadith. He wrote beautiful, beneficial, and original works. In Damascus, he served as deputy qadi, mudarris, and khatib. Besides preaching, he taught at the Nuriya Dār al-Ḥadith and the Ghazaliya Madrasa. At one time, he also gave lessons at the Shāmiya al-Barrāniya Madrasa. He granted fatwa permission to a virtuous group of ʿulama. Among the ʿulama to whom he granted fatwa permission was Shaykh, Imam, Allamah, Shaykh al-Islam Abu'l-ʿAbbas b. Taymiyya. He used to take pride and rejoice in having granted fatwa permission to this person, saying, "I am the one who gave Ibn Taymiyya the permission to issue fatwas." He had solid knowledge in many sciences. He wrote beautiful poetry. He compiled a book on uṣūl al-fiqh (principles of Islamic jurisprudence). In this work, he gathered much knowledge. This work is currently with me in his beautiful handwriting. He passed away on a Sunday, the seventeenth of Ramadan of this year, having exceeded seventy years of age. He was buried in the Bāb al-Kaysān Cemetery next to his father's grave. May Allah have mercy on him and his father. After his death, on the day of ʿĪd, the khatib of the Jarrāḥ Mosque, Shaykh Sherefuddin al-Fazari, delivered the khutbah. Then a firman arrived appointing Badr al-Din b. Jamāʿ as the khatib in his place. One of Sherefuddin b. al-Maqdisi's poems is as follows:
"Turn toward the flower so that you may come to zeal and enthusiasm. Cast aside your sorrowful embers by hating them to one side. Whoever does not circle around the flower in its time, acts faultily because he has missed his opportunity."