Abd al-Latif Al al-Shaykh

Abd al-Latif ibn Abd al-Rahman Al al-Shaykh (1225–1293 AH / 1810–1876 CE) was a Najdi Hanbali jurist, theologian, and judge who served as a leading religious authority and counselor in the Second Saudi State Mashahir Ulama Najd wa Gh…+1.

Lineage and Early Life

Abd al-Latif was the son of the scholar Abd al-Rahman ibn Hasan Al al-Shaykh, son of Hasan, son of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab Mashahir Ulama Najd wa Gh…+1. His mother was the daughter of the scholar Abd Allah ibn Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab Tuhfat al-Talib wa al-Jal…. He was born in Dir'iyyah in 1225 AH (1810 CE), though Ibrahim ibn Isa recorded his birthplace as Riyadh Mashahir Ulama Najd wa Gh…+1. Following the destruction of Dir'iyyah by Ottoman-Egyptian forces under Ibrahim Pasha, Abd al-Latif was transported to Egypt alongside his father around the end of 1230 AH or in 1233 AH, at approximately eight years of age, having already learned to read the Quran in his childhood Mashahir Ulama Najd wa Gh…+1.

Education and Stay in Egypt

Abd al-Latif resided in Egypt for thirty-one years, where he married and pursued an extensive scholarly education under both Najdi and Egyptian scholars Mashahir Ulama Najd wa Gh…+1. Among his Najdi teachers in Cairo were his father Abd al-Rahman ibn Hasan, his maternal uncle Abd al-Rahman ibn Abd Allah ibn Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, and his maternal grandfather Abd Allah ibn Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab Mashahir Ulama Najd wa Gh…+1. He also studied under his grand-uncles Ali and Ibrahim, the sons of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, as well as Ahmad ibn Rashid al-Ahsa'i Tashil al-Sabila li Murid…. Among the Egyptian scholars, he read under Ibrahim al-Bajuri, the rector of al-Azhar, Muhammad ibn Mahmud al-Jaza'iri al-Hanafi, Mustafa al-Azhari, Ahmad al-Sa'idi, and al-Quwaysini Mashahir Ulama Najd wa Gh…+1.

Career in Najd and al-Ahsa

In 1264 AH (1848 CE), Abd al-Latif returned to Najd carrying numerous books and joined his father in Riyadh during the reign of the Saudi ruler Faysal ibn Turki Mashahir Ulama Najd wa Gh…+1. After teaching in Riyadh for several months, Imam Faysal dispatched him to al-Ahsa to instruct its inhabitants, propagate Salafi doctrines, and debate local scholars, where he remained for two years Idafat lil-Nat al-Akmal l…+1. He subsequently returned to Riyadh, where he assumed the judiciary during his father's lifetime, held a prominent teaching circle, and frequently accompanied Imam Faysal on his travels Tashil al-Sabila li Murid…+1.

Numerous students studied under him, including his sons Abd Allah, Ibrahim, and Ishaq, as well as Hasan ibn Husayn Al al-Shaykh and Ahmad ibn Ibrahim ibn Isa Mawsuat Mawaqif al-Salaf …+1.

Scholarly Output and Standing

Abd al-Latif played a central role in articulating Najdi theological positions against regional opponents through formal polemics, legal responsa, and poetry Idafat lil-Nat al-Akmal l…+1. He composed Minhaj al-Tasis wal-Taqdis fi Kashf Shubuhat Dawud ibn Jarjis (The Method of Foundation and Sanctification in Exposing the Doubts of Dawud ibn Jarjis) to refute the Iraqi scholar Dawud ibn Sulayman ibn Jarjis's treatise Sulh al-Ikhwan, defending Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn al-Qayyim on questions of intercession and supplication, though he died before completing the entire book Minhaj al-Tasis wa al-Taq…+1. He also authored Misbah al-Zalam fi al-Radd ala man Kadhaba ala al-Shaykh al-Imam (The Lamp of Darkness in Refuting Whoever Lied About the Master and Imam), refuting Uthman ibn Mansur's claims regarding Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab's criteria for excommunication (takfir) Idafat lil-Nat al-Akmal l…+1.

Scholars praised his erudition and eloquence; the Iraqi historian Mahmud Shukri al-Alusi described him as a master of both rational and transmitted disciplines and of legal principles and branches, while the Hanafi scholar Abd al-Qadir al-Baghdadi composed panegyric verses commending his refutations Ijazat al-Shaykh al-Allam…+1.

Death

Abd al-Latif died on the night of Saturday, 14 Dhu al-Qi'da 1293 AH (1876 CE) in Riyadh at the age of sixty-eight, though reports by Ibn Isa and Umar Rida Kahhala place his death in 1292 AH, and an isolated account by a Najdi traveler recorded it as 1304 AH Idafat lil-Nat al-Akmal l…+1. His funeral prayer was led by his son Abd Allah at the Grand Mosque of Riyadh, and he was buried in al-Ud cemetery Tashil al-Sabila li Murid….