Qadi Iyad

al-Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ ibn Mūsā al-Yaḥṣubī al-Sabtī (476 – 544 AH / 1083 – 1149 CE)

Known as: The Judge of the Maghrib and the Defender of Prophetic Honor

Early Life and Background

His full name was ʿIyāḍ ibn Mūsā ibn ʿIyāḍ al-Yaḥṣubī al-Sabtī
[عياض بن موسى بن عياض اليحصبي السبتي],
born in 476 AH / 1083 CE in Ceuta – سبتة (Sabta), then a flourishing Andalusian city under Almoravid rule.^1

He belonged to the Arab tribe of Yaḥṣub – يحصب, originally from Yemen, whose descendants had settled in the western Islamic lands.
His family was known for learning and judiciary service — his father a respected scholar and qāḍī (judge).

From a young age, al-Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ showed exceptional memory and literary talent.
He memorized the Qurʾān early and studied ḥadīth, fiqh, and ʿulūm al-lughah – علوم اللغة (linguistic sciences) under the leading Mālikī scholars of Ceuta and al-Andalus.

Education and Teachers

He studied under more than 200 teachers in Ceuta, Córdoba, and Granada, including:

Abū al-Walīd al-Bājī (أبو الوليد الباجي) — master jurist of al-Andalus;
ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Ṭalāʿ (عبد الرحمن بن الطلاع) — transmitter of Mālikī traditions;
Abū ʿAlī al-Ṣadafī (أبو علي الصدفي) — expert of Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī;
and scholars of Fez – فاس, the Maghrib’s intellectual capital.^2

By his twenties, he was already issuing fatāwā and teaching advanced students, known for his calm reasoning and poetic eloquence.

Judicial Career

His reputation as both scholar and moral authority led to his appointment as Qāḍī of Ceuta.
Later, he served as judge in Granada, Sabta, and finally Marrakesh under the Almoravid and early Almohad dynasties.^3

As judge, he was fearless in upholding justice and independence of the law from politics.
When rulers tried to pressure him, he replied:

“The truth is not strengthened by kings, but kings are strengthened by truth.”

His fairness earned him the title Qāḍī al-Jamāʿah – قاضي الجماعة (Chief Judge) of the western Islamic world.

Scholarship and Intellectual Outlook

Al-Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ’s scholarship harmonized:

Fiqh (فقه) — deep grounding in the Mālikī school,
ʿAqīdah (عقيدة) — defense of Sunni orthodoxy against heterodox sects,
Adab (أدب) — mastery of Arabic prose and rhetoric, and
Ḥubb al-Nabī ﷺ (حب النبي) — pure devotion to the Prophet of Islam.

His works combined precise reasoning with literary beauty, reflecting the Andalusian synthesis of law and art.

Major Works

Work	Arabic Title	Subject	Notes
al-Shifāʾ bi-Taʿrīf Ḥuqūq al-Muṣṭafā	الشفا بتعريف حقوق المصطفى	Prophetic rights & virtues	His magnum opus; a comprehensive treatise on the life, miracles, and status of the Prophet ﷺ. Considered second only to the Qurʾān and Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī in traditional reverence.^4
Tartīb al-Madārik wa Taqrīb al-Masālik	ترتيب المدارك وتقريب المسالك	Mālikī biographical encyclopedia	A monumental record of Mālikī jurists, their teachers, and methods — primary source for Mālikī intellectual history.^5
al-Ilmāʿ ilā Maʿrifat Uṣūl al-Riwāyah wa Taqyīd al-Samāʿ	الإلماع إلى معرفة أصول الرواية وتقييد السماع	Hadith methodology	A guide to transmission ethics, teacher-student etiquette, and isnād verification.
Mashāriq al-Anwār ʿalā Ṣiḥāḥ al-Āthār	مشارق الأنوار على صحاح الآثار	Commentary on canonical hadiths	Linguistic and theological analysis of difficult terms in Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī and Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim.
Bughyat al-Ruwāt fī Ṭabaqāt al-Naḥwiyyīn wa al-Lughawiyyīn	بغية الرواة في طبقات النحويين واللغويين	Lexicography & grammar	Chronicles Arabic linguists, preserving Andalusian philological heritage.

al-Shifāʾ bi-Taʿrīf Ḥuqūq al-Muṣṭafā – الشفا بتعريف حقوق المصطفى

Written in Ceuta around 520 AH / 1126 CE, al-Shifāʾ became one of the most beloved works in Islam — a manifesto of love and reverence for the Prophet ﷺ.
It outlines:

His noble lineage and character,
His miracles and divine protection,
His rights upon the ummah (ḥuqūq al-nabī – حقوق النبي), and
The legal and moral consequences of disrespect toward him.

Scholars of every madhhab regarded al-Shifāʾ as a protection and cure of hearts — it was read in mosques, memorized in madrasahs, and kept as a charm in homes.

Ibn Khaldūn (ابن خلدون) later wrote:

“al-Shifāʾ is a book whose blessing spreads wherever it is recited.”^6

Mālikī Heritage and Legal Vision

As a Mālikī, al-Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ upheld ʿamal ahl al-Madīnah – عمل أهل المدينة (the living practice of Madīnah) as a legal source, like Mālik ibn Anas before him.
He also defended the orthodoxy of Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jamāʿah – أهل السنة والجماعة, especially during periods of political upheaval and sectarian conflict in the Maghrib.

His Tartīb al-Madārik preserves the entire biographical genealogy of the Mālikī school, from Imām Mālik through the Andalusian jurists — making it an irreplaceable historical source for later scholarship.

Trials and Martyrdom

Under the Almohad regime, whose early doctrines contained Muʿtazilite and anti-Mālikī tendencies, al-Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ’s defense of orthodox Sunni belief brought him into conflict with the rulers.
He was imprisoned and later exiled to Tādlā – تادلة in Morocco.^7

In 544 AH / 1149 CE, during political unrest, he was martyred, reportedly refusing to compromise his creed or his scholarly integrity.
His death elevated him to the status of a saint-scholar in Maghribi memory.

He was buried in Marrakesh – مراكش, where his Maqām al-Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ – مقام القاضي عياض remains a site of deep veneration to this day.

Legacy

Field	Contribution
Hadith & Prophetic Studies	Authored al-Shifāʾ, the foundational text on the Prophet’s rights and virtues.
Mālikī Law	Preserved juristic lineage through Tartīb al-Madārik.
Arabic Philology	Revived Andalusian linguistic heritage.
Ethical Literature	Modeled balance of intellect, piety, and literary eloquence.
Cultural Impact	Revered across the Islamic world — his Shifāʾ is read publicly in Morocco, Andalusia, Egypt, and the Ḥijāz.

“If al-Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ had written nothing but al-Shifāʾ, it would have sufficed him.”
— Ibn Khaldūn

References (for Chicago-style citation)

Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed., s.v. “ʿIyāḍ al-Yaḥṣubī.”
Ibn Farḥūn, al-Dībāj al-Mudhahhab fī Maʿrifat Aʿyān al-Madhhab (Cairo: Dār al-Turāth, 1972), 188.
al-Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ, Tartīb al-Madārik, vol. 1 (Rabat: Wizārat al-Awqāf, 1983), 27.
Ibid., vol. 2, 311.
al-Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ, al-Shifāʾ bi-Taʿrīf Ḥuqūq al-Muṣṭafā (Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyyah, 1986), Introduction.
Ibn Khaldūn, al-Muqaddimah, ed. al-Qāsimī (Cairo: Dār al-Fikr, 1995), 402.
al-Dhahabī, Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ, vol. 20 (Beirut: Muʾassasat al-Risālah, 1986), 298.