The Unfortunate Story of the Ulama; It's hard to collect books, Eh, children and wife sell

 

The Unfortunate Story of the Ulama; It's hard to collect books, Eh, children and wife sell

In the past, not everyone could get access to books. Books are still very expensive. The content and content can only be accessed by people who have received education, at least having studied with an ulema. No wonder if in the past the collection of books and books was an indication of one's intellectuality. Imam Zamakhshari even issued an attractive vow:

مَجْدُ التَّاجِرِ فِي كيسِه، وَمَجْدُ العَالِمِ فِي كَرَارِيسِه

“The pride of a merchant is in his 'thick' wallet, while the pride of a pious man is in his collection of books”

What will happen if the collection of books that have been the souls and lives of the pious people is finally in vain. They are even sold by people closest to them.

Here are some stories of scholars whose book collections ended up being owned by others;

Syafi' ibn Ali ibn Abbas al-Kannani (w. 730 H)

He is one of the chroniclers in Egypt. He is also known as an accomplished book collector. During his life, many saw that he had a very large collection of books and books. According to al-Shafadi's account in Nakt al-Himyan , he left 18 cupboards full of a collection of books. He is also a cleric who is in the final phase of his life going blind. But even so, he is so passionate about books, by touching the cover of his collection he can explain when he got the book and where he got the book from. It's a great memory skill.

However, after his death, his wife had bad intentions with the legacy of his book collection. The wife saw that there was a huge profit potential if the inheritance of the husband's book was sold. Sure enough, not long after the husband died the wife sold almost the entire collection of her books.

Ibnu Qoyyim al-Jauziyyah (w. 751 H)

Ibn Qoyyim al-Jauziyyah was a kinasih student of Ibn Taimiyyah. He is also one of the students who inherited most of his teacher's thoughts. Just like the teacher, he has a large collection of books. Ibn Qoyyim himself has many essays, such as Jala' al-afham, I'lam al-Muwaqqi'in, Bada'i' al- Fawaid and so on. In addition, he also collected books written by other scholars. Countless number of collections of books that he has collected.

But after his death all the books were sold by his children, except for a few books that they still need. This story was written by Ibn Hajar in Ad-Durar al-Kaminah (p. 137).

Ja'far bin Ahmad al-Maruzi

According to Ibn Nadim's notes in his collection of bibliography, Ja'far al-Maruzi was one of the pioneers in writing books on geography and dynastic history in Islam. But he couldn't finish it yet. He is also known as an accomplished book collector. However, after his death, the books he hunted were sold.

Abu Zakariyya Yahya bin Ziyad al-Farra'

'Abu Zakariyya Yahya bin Ziyad al-Farra' or better known as Imam Farra' is one of the reference scholars in the field of nahwu. Especially in the field of Arabic grammar of the Kufa school. According to most scholars, he is said to be the most pious person in the field of nahwu after Imam al-Kisa'i.

Imam Tha'lab says:

لولا الفراء لما كانت عربية، لأنه خلصها وضبطها، ولولا الفراء لسقطت العربية لأنها كانت تتنازع ويدعيها كل من أراد ويتكلم الناس فيها على مقادير عقولهم وقرائحهم فتذهب

"Without Imam al-Farra 'the science of Arabic grammar would never have existed. This is all thanks to the purification and compilation of the rules. Without Imam al-Farra 'the Arabic language will be lost, because there are so many debates about people who speak Arabic according to their own abilities.”

He is also known to have a large collection of books and essays. The most famous and phenomenal of course is Kitab Ma'ani al-Qur'an which is a pioneer book of interpretation with a language approach. 

However, it is very unfortunate, recently that many of his books have been sold. We can trace this to al-Jahiz's notes in Inba' al-Ruwat . When al-Jahiz arrived in Baghdad to visit Ibn Zayyat. He saw a crowd of people after getting off the pier. He was curious too. After being approached, it turned out that the crowd came from the auction market and the sale of books from the collection of Imam al-Farra'. Al-Jahiz was actually a bit surprised by this, considering that al-Farra' was one of the great scholars. So why are the books in his collection now for sale?

Al-Jahiz was also interested in buying one of the books to present to Ibn Zayyat whom he wanted to visit in that city. It turns out that none of al-Farra''s books captivated him.

Al-Jahiz searched for a suitable book for a long time until almost all of al-farra''s books were exhausted. But unexpectedly, behind the bookseller's pillow, al-Jahiz found the book Sibawaih in the original handwriting of al-Farra'. Suitable. Finally he presented the book to Ibnu Zayyat ( Inbah al-Ruwat fi 'ala Anbah al-Nuhat, vol. 4 p. 814)

Al-Jahiz himself was a scholar who lived in the period 159-255 AH. Or once lived at the same time as al-Farra' (144-207 AH) for half a century. So it is most likely when he visited Baghdad after the death of al-Farra'. So it could be that, after the death of al-Farra', the books in his collection were sold by some uninterested people.

Wallahu A'lam.