Al-Bayhaqi
Aḥmad ibn Ḥusayn (), better known as al-Bayhaqi () was a Sunni Shafi muhaddith. He followed the Ash'ari creed in Islamic theology. He was the author of Sahih al-Bayhaqi, also known as "Sunan al-Kubra", and Shu'ab al-Iman. Belonging from Sabzevar, Al-Bayhaqi was a prominent senior pupil of the scholar Al-Hakim. He lived in Nishapur and became a scholar of the Shafi'i school. He collected, organized and analyzed Shafi'i statements and beliefs, and later on, compiled his massive hadith collection, the Sahih al-Bayhaqi, which is among the largest Sunni hadith collections, and possibly, the  largest ever. Life. Early life. Al-Bayhaqi's full name is Aḥmad ibn Ḥusayn Ibn 'Alī ibn Mūsa al-Khosrojerdi al-Bayhaqī (أحمد بن الحسين بن علي بن موسى الخراساني البيهقي المشهور بالبيهقي). He was born c. 994 CE/384 AH in the small town of Khosrowjerd near Sabzevar, then known as Bayhaq, in Khurasan. He used to live in Nishapur. Teachings and death. Al-Bayhaqi was a scholar of "fiqh" of the Shafi'i school of thought, as well as of that of hadith. He studied "fiqh" under Abū al-Fatḥ Nāṣir ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad al-Naysaburi as well  as Abul Hasan Hankari. He also studied hadith under Hakim al-Nishaburi, Abu Mansur Al-Baghdadi and others, and was al-Nishaburi's foremost pupil. During his last years in Yemen, Al-Bayhaqi taught at the al-Hadi Mosque in Saada. He then settled in Sanaa, and preached there. Al-Bayhaqi succeeded in convincing a number of students of the superiority of Bahshami doctrines over Mutarrifi theology. He died in 1066 CE. Views. One focus of Al-Bayhaqi's was prophetic traditions which implied an anthropomorphic understanding of God. For Al-Bayhaqi, these characteristics, such as the "eye", do not  represent real parts but rather attributes of God. Al-Bayhaqi also had a variety of views stating his understanding of cosmology. Al-Bayhaqi believed that God first created water, and subsequently used this water as a basis for his creation of everything else. Bayhaqi's fourtheenth branch of faith is the Love of Prophet (s). Legacy. Al-Bayhaqi contributed to a significant reform in the traditionalist evaluation of hadith, emphasizing the use of reflective reasoning in evaluating which hadith material should be considered incompatible with Islamic theology. According to the historian Dhahabi, Al-Bayhaqi was capable of founding his own  madhhab. Al-Juwayni considered Al-Bayhaqi to be the only person, of whom, al-Shafi'i was indebted. The American scholar Jonathan Brown describes Al-Bayhaqi as the 'perfect champion' of the Shafi madhhab and writes that 'Every follower of the Shafi'i school owes to Shafi'i himself a favor, except Bayhaqi. Shafi'i owes a favor to him'. Often, Al-Bayhaqi would then understand such hadith as less reliable or allegorical. The use of Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim as authentic books was also started by Al-Bayhaqi. Bayhaqi's work is generally considered reliable and respected. Works. Bayhaqi was a  prominent author in his time, having authored more than one thousand volumes according to Al-Dhahabi. Among the most well-known books authored by him are: