al-Hajjawi

Sharaf ad-Din Abu an-Naja Musa ibn Ahmad ibn Musa al-Hajjawi al-Maqdisi (d. 968 AH / 1560 CE) was an eminent Hanbali jurist who served as the imam and khatib of the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus and became the leading Hanbali authority in the Levant during the mid-tenth Islamic century. He was born in the village of Hajja near Nablus in Palestine and later relocated to Damascus, where he rose to the highest scholarly and religious positions available to a Hanbali scholar of his era.

Al-Hajjawi studied under the senior Hanbali scholars of Syria and Palestine, mastering the school's jurisprudence and legal methodology in depth. He was recognized as the foremost Hanbali authority in Damascus and appointed to lead the congregational prayers at the great Umayyad Mosque — one of the most prestigious religious appointments in the city. His students included many who became leading scholars in their own right, transmitting the Hanbali tradition through the Ottoman period.

His most enduring contribution is al-Iqna li-Talib al-Intifa (The Convincing Work for the Seeker of Benefit), a comprehensive manual of Hanbali jurisprudence systematically presenting the relied-upon positions of the school, covering all chapters from ritual purification through commercial transactions, family law, and criminal penalties. This work was later given an authoritative and definitive commentary by Mansur al-Buhuti titled Kashshaf al-Qina an Matn al-Iqna, which became one of the primary reference works of the entire Hanbali school.

He also authored Zad al-Mustaqni fi Ikhtisar al-Muqni, a compact and meticulously constructed abridgment of Ibn Qudamah al-Maqdisi's al-Muqni. This text became the most widely memorized Hanbali legal text in history and was given a beloved commentary by al-Buhuti titled ar-Rawd al-Murbi bi-Sharh Zad al-Mustaqni, later rendered more accessible by extensive recordings and explanations from twentieth-century Hanbali scholars including Ibn Baz and Ibn Uthaymin.

Al-Hajjawi's two works defined the standard curriculum of Hanbali legal education for the past five centuries. His ability to distill complex legal discussions into clear, authoritative texts made his writings both accessible to students and reliable for advanced scholars. He passed away in Damascus around 968 AH (1560 CE).