Sirat al-Shab al-Salih Abd al-Rahman bin Said bin Ali bin Wahf al-Qahtani

Sirat al-Shab al-Salih Abd al-Rahman bin Said bin Ali bin Wahf al-Qahtani (The Biography of the Righteous Youth Abd al-Rahman bin Said bin Ali bin Wahf al-Qahtani) is a biographical memorial written by the Saudi scholar Saeed bin Wahf al-Qahtani (d. 1440 AH / 2018 CE) about his deceased son Sirat al-Shab al-Salih Ab…. The work also includes a biographical sketch of the author's younger son, Abd al-Rahim Sirat al-Shab al-Salih Ab….

Background and Purpose

The book was written in the aftermath of a fatal road accident on Sunday night, 17 Ramadan 1422 AH (December 2001), in which both brothers died while traveling to teach and study in Quran memorization circles Sirat al-Shab al-Salih Ab…. Abd al-Rahman was eighteen years, nine months, and nineteen days old, while Abd al-Rahim was twelve years and six months old Sirat al-Shab al-Salih Ab…. Their funeral prayer took place after the Zuhr prayer on 17 Ramadan 1422 AH at the al-Rajhi Mosque in the al-Rabwah district of Riyadh, and they were buried in the al-Naseem Cemetery Sirat al-Shab al-Salih Ab…. The author completed the text on Thursday, 26 Shawwal 1422 AH, as a record of his son's character, studies, and brief life Sirat al-Shab al-Salih Ab….

Structure and Contents

The biography is arranged into thematic sections outlining Abd al-Rahman's life and scholarly endeavors Sirat al-Shab al-Salih Ab…+1:

• Birth and Upbringing: Details his birth on 27 Dhu al-Qi'dah 1403 AH in the housing complex of the al-Faruq Mosque along the Kharj road in Riyadh, and his early upbringing focused on memorizing the Quran al-Jannah wa al-Nar min a…+1.
• Education and Teachers: Documents his schooling at al-Imam Hamza Elementary School, the Second Intermediate School for Quran Memorization—where he completed memorizing the Quran at age fifteen—and the Abu Amr al-Basri Secondary School, where he studied the seven canonical Quranic readings Sirat al-Shab al-Salih Ab…. It follows his enrollment in the Sharia department of the College of Sharia at Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University in Jumada al-Thani 1422 AH, listing his professors and classmates Sirat al-Shab al-Salih Ab…+1.
• Scholarly Activities: Covers his extracurricular studies, his teaching roles in Quran circles, his short treatises and marginalia on books, his written aphorisms in poetry and prose, his enjoining of good and forbidding of wrong, and his moral traits Sirat al-Shab al-Salih Ab…+1.
• Academic Benefits: Collects notes and scholarly benefits extracted by Abd al-Rahman during his three months at the College of Sharia in Quranic sciences, exegesis (tafsir), hadith terminology, and prophetic traditions Sirat al-Shab al-Salih Ab….
• Abd al-Rahim's Biography: Provides a short account of his younger brother Abd al-Rahim, who had memorized approximately seventeen parts of the Quran prior to his death Sirat al-Shab al-Salih Ab…+1.

Testimonies and Publication

The work concludes with written eulogies and personal recollections from scholars, teachers, and student colleagues Sirat al-Shab al-Salih Ab…. Contributors include Abdullah bin Salih al-Qusayr—under whom Abd al-Rahman studied Kitab al-Tawhid at the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Grand Mosque in al-Bahah in 1420 AH—as well as Saeed bin Faysal al-Qahtani, Hasan bin Sharif al-Mushaishi, and his university classmate Abd al-Halim bin Muhammad Faruq al-Afghani Sirat al-Shab al-Salih Ab…+2.

The treatise was published as an independent book and was later included as the opening text in Majmu' Rasa'il al-Shab al-Salih Abd al-Rahman bin Said bin Ali bin Wahf al-Qahtani, a five-treatise compendium edited by the author in 1431 AH Majmu Rasail Abd al-Rahma…+1.