'Ala' al-Din al-Bukhari

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'Ala' al-Din al-Bukhari (Arabic: علاء الدين البخاري), was a Hanafi jurist (faqih), Maturidi theologian, commentator of the Qur'an (mufassir),^[1] and a mystic (Sufi).

He is perhaps best known for issuing a fatwa (a legal ruling) whereby anyone that gives Ibn Taymiyya the title "Shaykh al-Islam" is a disbeliever,^[2] and authored a book against him entitled "Muljimat al-Mujassima" (Arabic: ملجمة المجسمة, lit. 'Curbing the Anthropomorphists').

Ibn Nasir al-Din al-Dimashqi (d. 846/1438) countered this fatwa by authoring Al-Radd al-Wafir 'ala man Za'am anna man Samma Ibn Taymiyya Shaykh al-Islam Kafir (Arabic: الرد الوافر على من زعم أن من سمى ابن تيمية شيخ الإسلام كافر), in which he listed all the authorities who had ever written in praise of Ibn Taymiyya or called him Shaykh al-Islam.

He was born in Persia in 779 A.H./1377 A.D., and grew up in Bukhara and later travelled extensively to India, Arabia, Egypt and Syria. After involving himself in debates in Cairo between supporters and opponents of Ibn 'Arabi,^[3] he moved to Damascus where he composed the "Fadihat al-Mulhidin wa Nasihat al-Muwahhidin" (Arabic: فاضحة الملحدين وناصحة الموحدين, lit. 'The Humiliation of the Heretics and Admonition of the Unitarians') and also proceeded to attack Ibn Taymiyya, to the anger of the city's Hanbalis.^[4]

He was praised by some scholars of his time, like Ibn Hajar al-'Asqalani, and Badr al-Din al-'Ayni.