Khayr al-Din al-Ramli

Khayr al-DIn
Title	al-Ramli
Born	1585 CE
Died	1671 (aged 85–86)
Ethnicity	Arab
Religion	Islam
Jurisprudence	Hanafi

Khayr al-Din ibn Ahmad ibn Nur al-Din Ali ibn Zayn al-Din ibn Abd al-Wahab al-Ayubi al-Farooqui (1585–1671), better known as Khayr al-Din al-Ramli (Arabic: خير الدين الرملي‎‎), was a 17th-century Islamic jurist, teacher and writer in then Ottoman-ruled Palestine. He is well known for issuing a collection of fatwas that became highly influential in Hanafi (one of four major schools of thought in Sunni Islam) jurisprudence in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Khayr al-Din al-Ramli was born in al-Ramla in what is today central Israel. At the time, al-Ramla was a major garrison town in Ottoman-ruled Palestine (and in the early years of Islamic rule it had been the administrative capital of the Jund Filastin, or military district of Palestine). Al-Ramli receives his name from the town; al-Ramli translates as "from Ramla." Not much is known about al-Ramli's early life other than he began reading the Qur'an as young child.

In 1598-99 CE, al-Ramli traveled to Egypt with his elder brothers to study in al-Azhar, the highest scholarly authority in Sunni Islam. There he befriended Sheikh Fayed, a well-known sage in Egypt. Fayed taught him lessons on Islam as well as how to cut hair. At the time, al-Ramli was interested in studying the Shafi'i school of Sunni Muslim thought (madhab), but was discouraged by his older brother, Taj al-Din, who preferred he focus on the Hanafi madhab. According to his biographer Muhammad al-Muhibbi, al-Ramli had a dream in which the founder of the Shafi'i madhab, Imam Shafi'i, stated to him "We are all on the straight path." A senior figure in the 'ulema (council of scholars) of al-Azhar told al-Ramli that the dream signaled he should follow his brother's advice and study the Hanafi madhab.

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