Ibn Babawayh (al-Saduq)

Ibn Babawayh, commonly known as al-Shaykh al-Saduq (c. 923–991 CE / c. 311–381 AH), was a Twelver Shia jurist, theologian, and hadith collector of Persian origin, born and raised in the scholarly milieu of Qom, then the leading center of Twelver hadith study. He is best remembered for compiling "Man la yahduruhu al-Faqih" ("For Him Who Has No Jurist Present"), counted in Twelver tradition as one of the Four Books that form the foundation of Shia hadith and law. More than 200 works are attributed to him; he wrote within the framework of Twelver belief, which holds that the twelfth Imam entered occultation. He traveled widely to gather hadith—including to Baghdad, where he met the theologian al-Shaykh al-Mufid—and spent his final years in Rayy at the invitation of the Shia-leaning Buyid ruler Rukn al-Dawla, dying there in 381 AH.