Author Biography and Maliki Legal Tafsir

Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Abd Allah ibn Muhammad al-Ma'afiri al-Ishbili, known as Ibn al-Arabi al-Maliki, was born in Seville (Ishbiliyya) in al-Andalus in 468 AH (1076 CE). He should not be confused with the celebrated Sufi metaphysician Muhyi ad-Din Ibn Arabi (1165–1240 CE), a later Andalusian, to whom he is unrelated. Ibn al-Arabi al-Maliki was a jurist, hadith scholar, and theologian who became one of the foremost authorities of the Maliki school in the western Islamic world.

Ibn al-Arabi left Andalusia as a young man to study in the East, spending years in Egypt, the Hijaz, and most significantly in Baghdad, where he studied under the celebrated Shafi'i jurist Abu Hamid al-Ghazali and the hadith scholars of Iraq. This eastern formation gave him a breadth of exposure to the various legal schools and theological traditions that enriched his scholarly perspective, even as he remained committed to the Maliki school throughout his career.

Upon returning to Andalusia, he became a judge (qadi) in Seville and one of the most influential scholarly voices in western Islamic jurisprudence. His major works include Ahkam al-Quran, a tafsir focused specifically on the legal verses of the Quran, and Al-Awasim min al-Qawasim, a polemical historical work defending the Companions' conduct during the first civil war (fitna).

Ahkam al-Quran (Legal Rulings of the Quran) is Ibn al-Arabi's most enduring contribution to Islamic scholarship. It is organized to follow the Quranic sequence but engages only with verses that carry legal significance, providing a systematic Maliki legal commentary on the Quran's normative content. The work runs to approximately four volumes in modern editions and is considered one of the most authoritative works in the genre of ahkam tafsir.

He died in Marrakesh in 543 AH (1148 CE), having spent his final years in North Africa after being displaced from Andalusia during the turbulent political transition of the period.