Ibn Ashir al-Ansari عبد الواحد بن أحمد بن عاشر الأنصاري الفاسي

Imam Abu Muhammad Abd al-Wahid ibn Ashir al-Ansari al-Andalusi rahimahullah (990-1040 AH / 1582-1631 CE) was a Moroccan Maliki scholar whose family traced its lineage to Andalusia. Combining mastery of jurisprudence, scholastic theology, hadith, and Quranic recitation, he was among the leading scholars of Fez in the late Sa'adian period. His crowning achievement, al-Murshid al-Muin ala al-Daruri min Ulum al-Din, is a didactic poem of 317 verses in rajaz meter that synthesizes the three pillars of traditional Sunni practice: Ashari aqida, Maliki fiqh of worship, and the spiritual psychology of the moderate Sufi path in the Junaydi tradition. Ibn Ashir composed the poem in 1040 AH, the year he died, and it immediately became the foundational text of Moroccan religious schooling. It attracted numerous commentaries, the most celebrated of which were written by al-Munjur, al-Tawidhi, and al-Miyara, and it continues to be memorized and taught across the Maghrib and West Africa.