Mar'i ibn Yusuf

Mar'i ibn Yusuf ibn Abi Bakr al-Karmi al-Maqdisi (963-1033 AH / 1556-1624 CE) was a Hanbali scholar, jurist, and theologian born in the village of Tur Karma near Tulkarem in Palestine. His nisba al-Maqdisi connects him to Jerusalem (al-Quds) and the broader Palestinian scholarly tradition. He later settled in Cairo where he taught, issued legal opinions, and produced numerous scholarly works that became important references in the Hanbali tradition across the Arab world and the Arabian Peninsula.

Al-Karmi studied under leading Hanbali scholars in the Levant and Egypt, mastering jurisprudence, theology, hadith, and other Islamic sciences. He became one of the leading Hanbali figures in Egypt during the early Ottoman period, contributing to the preservation and transmission of the school in a region where it was a minority tradition compared to the dominant Shafii and Hanafi schools.

His Dalil at-Talib li-Nayl al-Matalib is a carefully constructed introductory text in Hanbali jurisprudence that presents the relied-upon positions of the school in concise and memorizable form, covering all major chapters of fiqh. It became popular across the Arab world and especially in the Arabian Peninsula, where it later received its most famous commentary: Manar as-Sabil fi Sharh ad-Dalil by Ibrahim ibn Muhammad ibn Dawyan (d. 1353 AH / 1935 CE), which became widely used in Hanbali teaching circles in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf.

In theology he wrote Aqawil ath-Thiqat fi Tawil al-Asma was-Sifat wal-Ayat al-Muhkamat wal-Mutashabihat, discussing the divine names and attributes in accordance with the Athari creed and addressing the interpretation of ambiguous texts in the Quran and Sunnah. This work reflects his commitment to the Athari position on matters of divine attributes.

He also authored Ghayat al-Muntaha fil-Jam bayn al-Iqna wal-Muntaha, a comprehensive synthesis combining al-Hajjawi's al-Iqna and Ibn an-Najjar's Muntaha al-Iradat into a single work. He passed away in Cairo in 1033 AH (1624 CE), leaving a legacy of accessible yet authoritative Hanbali scholarship.