Bahr ul-Ulum `Abdul Qadir Ad-Dumi

d. 1402 AH

One of the Maraji` of Sham

Described by many as, Zahid, pure soul, faqih, mujtahid, usuli, he is `Abdul Qadir
ad-Dumi al-Hattawi ad-Dimashqi al-Hanbali, born in the city of Duma in the
noble land of Sham. He had a strong hand in the fiqh and would sit in the classes
of the scholars.
He had high aspirations in fiqh and took a great deal of knowledge from the great
marja`, the judge and scholar, the Shaikh, Mustafa ibn Ahmad ibn Hasan ash-
Shatti then the Mufti over Duma and one of its marja` when he ceded the post
some years later. Shaikh al-Hattawi studied with him until he was licensed and
after the time of Shaikh ash-Shatti, he became the most knowledgeable of the
people in Duma and a marja`.
The Shaikh also surpassed his contemporaries in the study of fiqh, language,
poetry, knowledge of rhetoric and speech. He was the chief scholar and the
scholars and the students of knowledge would come to him and seek him out for
fatwa. The sheikh used to give fatwa and when he saw it was the best option, he
would make ijtihad.
After much prompting, he took responsibility for teaching and preaching in Jami`
us-Saliq. He preferred that the stand in preacher on occasions when he was not
there as he was not a marja`, should carry a khutbah the same way that he did.
This was by writing it down and even headlining it subject by subject so that he
did not deviate from the topic.
Some thirty years before his death, he was teaching advanced classes in fiqh in
al-Jami` ul-Kabir, the main masjid in Duma, in the hope of producing the next age
of marja` people. Just ten years before he died, he busied himself to the utmost in
authorship of works to do with fiqh, Arabic language and current disputes and
their solutions. This was while he was in residence at Masjid Hasibah.
Students and staff at the masjid often tried to give him a wage but he refused to
take it, stating that the wage and its reward was with Allah. Many people forget
that the Shaikh lived quite poor his whole life and worked manual labour jobs.
His last job was as a researcher in the Islamic Library, located in the Halbuni
district of the city of Damascus.
The Shaikh was renowned not only for his knowledge, but also for his generosity
and good character. After years of service and striving in the cause of Allah,
answering questions in and outside of Sham and as one of the great authorities
of the Ummah, Shaikh Al-Hattawi breathed his last in the year 1402 AH.