ʿAbdurraḥmān b. Sībā b. Ẓiyāʾ al-Dīn Abū Muḥammad al-Fazārī. He was an imam and a great scholar (allāma). In his time, he was the teacher of the Shāfiʿīs. Surpassing his contemporaries, he had reached advanced stages in knowledge. Our teacher is the father of the great scholar Burḥān al-Dīn. Shaykh Taj al-Dīn was born in the year 630 AH. He passed away on the fifth of Jumādā al-Ākhirah, on a Monday, at the time of mid-morning prayer, at the Badrāʾiyya madrasa. After the Ẓuhr prayer, the funeral prayer was performed at the Umayyad Mosque. The prayer was led by Qāḍī al-Quḍāt Shihāb al-Dīn b. al-Ḥūyī. Then at the Jāmiʿ al-Jarrāḥ, Shaykh Zayn al-Dīn al-Fāriqī led the prayer a second time. Shaykh Taj al-Dīn al-Fazārī was buried in the cemetery at Bāb al-Ṣaghīr beside his father. On the day of his burial, a large crowd and great throng gathered. He possessed many beneficial sciences. He was of good character, eloquent in speech, well-organized in composition, and of high aspiration.
He applied fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) to his own nafs (lower self). He authored a book called al-ʾIqlīd, in which he made various admonitions and had reached the section on Bāb al-Ghaṣb. This work demonstrates that he applied fiqh to his own nafs, was insightful, of high value and strong aspiration, influential in outlook, farsighted, and a mujtahid (independent jurist). In most of his writings, he possessed the quality of sound ijtihād (independent reasoning). People benefited from him. He is the shaykh of our great shaykhs. Muḥyī al-Dīn al-Nawawī and he taught our great shaykhs. He prepared an abridgment of Ibn Jawzī's work al-Mawḍūʿāt. This work exists in manuscript form with me. He heard a great number of ḥadīths. He studied Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī under Ibn Zabīdī. He heard ḥadīths from Ibn Laysī and Ibn Ṣalāḥ. He acquired knowledge from them. He also benefited from ʿAlī b. ʿAbd al-Salām.
Ḥāfiẓ ʿĀlam al-Dīn al-Barzalī was one of his students and received ijāzah (authorization) from him. He granted permission (ijāzah) to transmit ḥadīth in a ten-juzʾ collection prepared by one hundred shaykhs, and some notable persons were present at the granting of this permission. Shaykh Taj al-Dīn al-Fazārī composed beautiful poetry. One of his poems is as follows:
“Allah has other days that will gather scattered states.
In these days, events will always occur, and finally sleep will flee. The beginning of my sorrow has been since the day I asked something from you. I have seen neither the thing itself nor its trace. O you who depart, you have become able to depart. Salvation is yours. We, however, cannot resist fate due to our weakness.”
When Shaykh Taj al-Dīn al-Fazārī passed away, his son Burḥān al-Dīn, who was our teacher in the circle of lessons and the council of fatwā at the Badrāʾiyya madrasa, began to be seen. He followed his father's path and took his way as an example. May Allah have mercy on him.