Shams al-Dīn () Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Makkī ibn Ḥāmid al-Nabaṭī al-ʿĀmilī al-Jizzīnī
(1334–1385),
better known as al-Shāhīd al-Awwal
[ (, "The First Martyr"), was a ]Shi'a
Shia Islam is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that Muhammad designated Ali ibn Abi Talib () as both his political successor ( caliph) and as the spiritual leader of the Muslim community ( imam). However, his right is understoo ...
scholar and the author of ''al-Lum'ah al-Dimashqiyah'' () and. Although he is neither the first Muslim nor the first Shi'a to die for his religion, he became known as "Shahid al-Awwal" because he was probably the first Shia scholar of such stature to have been killed in a brutal manner.
Life
He was born in 734 AH (c. 1334) in Jabal 'Amel. His nisbah Al-Jizzeeni indicates that his family was also from Jizzeen in modern-day Lebanon. When Muhammad Al-Amili was 16 years old he went to study at the city of Hilla
Hillah ( ''al-Ḥillah''), also spelled Hilla, is a city in central Iraq. On the Hilla branch of the Euphrates River, it is south of Baghdad. The population was estimated to be about 455,700 in 2018. It is the capital of Babylon Province and is ...
in modern-day Iraq. He returned home when he was 21. He used taqiyya
In Islam, ''taqiyya'' ()R. STROTHMANN, MOKTAR DJEBLI. Encyclopedia of Islam, 2nd ed, Brill. "TAKIYYA", vol. 10, p. 134. Quote: "TAKIYYA "prudence, fear" ... denotes dispensing with the ordinances of religion in cases of constraint of preaching ...
to establish himself as one of the religious scholars of Damascus, using Sunni law to judge Sunnis, while covertly judging the Shia using Shia law.
Death
He was killed on Thursday the ninth of Jumada al-awwal, 786 A.H. (ca. 1385) during the reign of Sultan Barquq
Al-Malik Az-Zahir Sayf ad-Din Barquq (; born ) was the first Sultan of the Circassians, Circassian Mamluk Burji dynasty of Mamluk Sultanate (Cairo), Egypt ruling from 1382 to 1389 and 1390 to 1399. Born to a Christianity, Christian father in Cir ...
. His death was in accordance with the fatwa
A fatwa (; ; ; ) is a legal ruling on a point of Islamic law (sharia) given by a qualified Islamic jurist ('' faqih'') in response to a question posed by a private individual, judge or government. A jurist issuing fatwas is called a ''mufti'', ...
of a jurist from the Maliki
The Maliki school or Malikism is one of the four major madhhab, schools of Islamic jurisprudence within Sunni Islam. It was founded by Malik ibn Anas () in the 8th century. In contrast to the Ahl al-Hadith and Ahl al-Ra'y schools of thought, the ...
madhab
A ''madhhab'' (, , pl. , ) refers to any school of thought within Islamic jurisprudence. The major Sunni ''madhhab'' are Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i and Hanbali.
They emerged in the ninth and tenth centuries CE and by the twelfth century almost all ...
, which was endorsed by a jurisprudent of the Shaf'i madhab. Accusations against him included rafd, defamation of senior Islamic personages, the companions and family of Muhammad, Aisha
Aisha bint Abi Bakr () was a seventh century Arab commander, politician, Muhaddith, muhadditha and the third and youngest wife of the Prophets and messengers in Islam, Islamic prophet Muhammad.
Aisha had an important role in early Islamic h ...
, Abu Bakr
Abd Allah ibn Abi Quhafa (23 August 634), better known by his ''Kunya (Arabic), kunya'' Abu Bakr, was a senior Sahaba, companion, the closest friend, and father-in-law of Muhammad. He served as the first caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate, ruli ...
and Umar
Umar ibn al-Khattab (; ), also spelled Omar, was the second Rashidun caliph, ruling from August 634 until his assassination in 644. He succeeded Abu Bakr () and is regarded as a senior companion and father-in-law of the Islamic prophet Mu ...
, following the Nusayri
Alawites () are an Arab ethnoreligious group who live primarily in the Levant region in West Asia and follow Alawism, a sect of Islam that splintered from early Shia as a ''ghulat'' branch during the ninth century. Alawites venerate Ali ibn ...
faith, and permitting the drinking of wine.
These accusations were first brought against him by two of his former students from Jabal Amil, who were also former Twelver Shiites. One of them, Yusuf ibn Yahya, submitted a report (which included the signatures of 70 former Shiites from Jabal Amil) to the authorities detailing al-Amili's "vile doctrines and abominable beliefs."
However, according to Shia biographer al-Khwansari, al-Amili denied these charges in a letter to the governor of Damascus, protesting his love for "the Prophet and all who loved him, all the Companions without exception."crucified
Crucifixion is a method of capital punishment in which the condemned is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross, beam or stake and left to hang until eventual death. It was used as a punishment by the Achaemenid Empire, Persians, Carthaginians, ...
and stoned in Damascus
Damascus ( , ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in the Levant region by population, largest city of Syria. It is the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. Kno ...
whereby it was burned and the ashes were discarded into the air.
See also
* The Five Martyrs
References
External links
* http://www.annabaa.org/nba48/aalamshia.htm and references therein.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Muhammad Jamaluddin Al-Makki al-Amili
Lebanese Shia clerics
People from Hillah
1334 births
1385 deaths
Muslim martyrs
14th-century Arab people