Al-Ikhtisas

Abu ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad b. Muḥammad b. al-Nuʿmān al-ʿUkbarī al-Baghdādī (Arabic: محمد بن محمد بن النُعمان العُکبَري البغدادي) (b. 336/948 or 338/950 - d. 413/1022) known as al-Shaykh al-Mufīd (Arabic: الشيخ المفيد) was among the greatest Twelver Shi'a scholars of the second half of the forth/tenth century and early fifth/eleventh century. He was among great revivers of Islamic sciences and among the hardworking preachers of Shi'a culture and jurisprudence. It is said by compiling the principles of jurisprudence, he founded a new approach in ijtihad which was a middle way between two other approaches namely extreme rational approach and hadith-based approach without applying the intellect. Al-Shaykh al-Saduq, Ibn Junayd al-Iskafi, and Ibn Qulawayh are among the greatest teachers of al-Shaykh al-Mufid. Al-Shaykh al-Tusi, al-Sayyid al-Murtada, al-Sayyid al-Radi, and al-Najashi are his most famous students. His most important works are Al-Muqni'a in jurisprudence, Awa'il al-maqalat in theology, and al-Irshad in the history of Imams.

1371

The World Conference of the Millennium of Sheikh Al-Mufid