Soorah Al-Kawthar is the shortest chapter of the Qur’aan consisting of just three verses, named after a river of Paradise. In this book the author explains the vast meanings contained within this soorah despite its brevity.

The great Imaam and scholar, Ibn Katheer, said about his teacher Ibn Taymiyyah,

“And the least he would do when he heard something was to memorise it, and then engage himself in learning in it. He was intelligent and had committed much to memory. He became an Imaam in tafseer and everything related to it. He was also knowledgeable in fiqh, and it was said that he was more knowledgeable of the fiqh of the madhhabs, than the followers of those very same madhhabs, (both) in his time and other than his time. He was a scholar of the fundamental issues (usool), the subsidiary issues (furoo), of grammar, language and other textual and intellectual sciences,. And no scholar of a science would speak to him except that he thought that the science was the speciality of Ibn Taymiyyah. As for hadeeth, then he was the carrier of its flag, a haafidh, able to distinguish the weak from the strong, and fully acquainted with the narrators.” Taken from al-Bidaayah wan-Nihaayah of Ibn Katheer (14/118-119).

Soorah Al-Kawthar is the shortest chapter of the Qur’aan consisting of just three verses, named after a river of Paradise. In this book the author explains the vast meanings contained within this soorah despite its brevity.

The great Imaam and scholar, Ibn Katheer, said about his teacher Ibn Taymiyyah,

“And the least he would do when he heard something was to memorise it, and then engage himself in learning in it. He was intelligent and had committed much to memory. He became an Imaam in tafseer and everything related to it. He was also knowledgeable in fiqh, and it was said that he was more knowledgeable of the fiqh of the madhhabs, than the followers of those very same madhhabs, (both) in his time and other than his time. He was a scholar of the fundamental issues (usool), the subsidiary issues (furoo), of grammar, language and other textual and intellectual sciences,. And no scholar of a science would speak to him except that he thought that the science was the speciality of Ibn Taymiyyah. As for hadeeth, then he was the carrier of its flag, a haafidh, able to distinguish the weak from the strong, and fully acquainted with the narrators.” Taken from al-Bidaayah wan-Nihaayah of Ibn Katheer (14/118-119).

And al-Haafidh adh-Dhahabee, another of his students said of him in Tadhkiratul-Huffaadh, “And he was amongst the oceans of knowledge, from the limited intellectuals, the ascetics, the unique individuals, the great braves, the most generous nobles. He was praised both by the one who agreed with him and the one who differed with him and he became famous by his works – and perhaps they numbered three hundred volumes.” And he also said in Mu’jamush-Shuyookh (1/56-57), “Ahmad ibn Abdul-Haleem, ibn Abdis-Salaam, ibn Abdullaah, ibn Abul-Qaasim, ibn Taymiyyah – our Shaikh, the Imaam, Taqeeyud-Deen, Abul-Abbaas, al-Harraanee: the matchless individual of the time with respect to knowledge and cognisance, intelligence, memorisation, generosity, asceticism, excessiveness braveness and abundance of (written) works.”

About Sheikh ul Islam Ibn Taymiyah

Shaykh al-Islam Taqi ud-Din Abu’l-Abbas Ahmad Ibn al-Halim ibn Abd al-Salam Ibn Taymiyah al-Hanbali was born in , 661 AH (1263 AC) in Haran, which is now in Eastern Turkey, near the border of northern Iraq. His family had long been renowned for its learning , among his teachers, was Shams ud-Din Al-Maqdisi, first Hanbali Chief Justice of Syria following the reform of the judiciary by Baibars. The number of Ibn Taimiyah’s teachers exceeds two hundred.

Ibn Taimiyah was barely seventeen, when Qadi Al-Maqdisi authorized him to issue Fatwa (legal verdict). Qadi remembered with pride that it was he who had first permitted an intelligent and learned man like Ibn Taimiyah to give Fatwa. At the same age, he started delivering lectures. When he was thirty, he was offered the office of Chief Justice, but refused, as he could not persuade himself to follow the limitations imposed by the authorities.

Imam Ibn Taimiyah’s education was essentially that of a Hanbali theologian and jurisconsult. But to his knowledge of early and classical Hanbalism, he added not only that of the other schools of jurisprudence but also that of other literature.

He had an extensive knowledge of Quran, Sunnah, Greek philosophy, Islamic history, and religious books of others, as is evident from the variety of the books he wrote.