Shaykh Muḥammad Nūr al-Dīn Bariūn (d.2012)
Yesterday marks 9 years since the passing of Shaykh Muḥammad Nūr al-Dīn Bariūn, may Allāh be pleased with him and please him.
The Shaykh was the founder and owner of the world-famous Najaḥ Library/Bookstore in Libya. A place where students of knowledge and others could satiate their spiritual and physical hunger.
Shaykh Bariūn memorized the Qurʼān at a young age and was enrolled at both the Uthman Pasha and Aḥmad Pasha institutes of religious learning in Tripoli, Libya. He studied with the scholars of the age, such as Shaykh Muḥammad Misrati, Shaykh ʿUmar Janzūri and Shaykh Abū Bakr Bal-Latīf, and others.
After completing his formal qualifications as a teacher (1940s), the Shaykh was the Editor of various magazines, notably ‘Sawt al-Murabbi’ and ‘Huna Tarablus’. After this time (around 1950), he began to start work on building a small library (see image), which was near the Uthman Pasha school where he had studied as a youngster. The Shaykh was recognised for his literary and cultural achievements, and was appointed the Secretary-General for the Association of Libyan Writers.
In the 1960s, the Shaykh dedicated his energies in establishing the Najaḥ Library and it quickly became one of the largest in North Africa. It was often said that it could be compared to the massive, well-stocked Muthanna Library in Iraq, at that time. The Shaykh had travelled to Egypt and made lifelong connections with a number of publishing houses and erudite scholars such as the Shaykh al-Azhar, Dr. ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm Maḥmūd, Shaykh Metwallī Shaʿrawī and the Imām of al-Azhar, Shaykh Ṣāliḥ al-Jaʿfarī. He became a celebrated and close student of Shaykh Ṣāliḥ, having taken the spiritual path from him. Shaykh Ṣāliḥ visited him at his library in Tripoli (see image) and it was a joyous occasion for them both. After the passing of his teacher in 1979, Shaykh Bariūn would visit Egypt to meet Shaykh Ṣāliḥ’s son and successor, Shaykh ʿAbd al-Ghanī Ṣāliḥ al-Jaʿfarī and maintained a close relationship (see image).
Sayyida Dr. Fawzia Bariūn, the daughter of Shaykh Bariūn and mother of Shaykh Amjad Tarsin and Sidi Asad Tarsin, relates that she found a handwritten letter by Shaykh Maḥmūd Bariūn (her uncle, and the brother of Shaykh Muḥammad Bariūn) in which he mentions the significance and virtue of the Najaḥ Library:
“The Najaḥ Library is not just the shop that is found in Souk al-Turk. Rather it includes the traditional Arab-style house located just behind it, which has five large rooms and a large courtyard and another five rooms on the first floor. Each of the rooms are fitted with shelves made of the finest materials, to give respect to the content of the books they carry. The rooms and the house itself are filled with books of different sciences. A guest room is allocated on the first floor, for the guests of Shaykh Bariūn, from all over Libya and abroad. Guests receive the finest hospitality and meals. Anyone who is going through financial hardship receives aid and poor students of Knowledge are permitted to take books without payment. No one is turned away by Shaykh Muḥammad Bariūn at the Najaḥ Library.”
During the military coup of Libya by Qadhdhāfī, the Najaḥ Library was closed and destroyed. However, that did not stop Shaykh Muḥammad Bariūn from teaching the religious sciences in al-Najī neighbourhood. The Shaykh was asked by a journalist in his later life, “Are you seriously considering re-establishing the Najaḥ Library?”, to which the Shaykh sighed and with his trademark loving-smile said, “I have reached a very old age, al-ḥamdu li-Llāh, and no one has the same passion for books as I do, but I hope that ‘the book’ will have its place [in our lives and hearts] and [due] respect.”
He was a receptacle for knowledge and he had a sincere love for the Qurʼān, which he taught to students of all ages and completed its recitation several times in a month. He was known to stay awake in the nights and remember Allāh abundantly, and as someone who perfumed every gathering and meeting with salawat on the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ. It was said that the Shaykh was waiting for around an hour before his passing, for Divine permission and acceptance into the Hereafter. He instructed his students that if they hear of his death, that they should distribute sweets and juice to the young students of the Qurʼān school in al-Najī neighbourhood, in sharing and celebrating the joy that the Shaykh has in meeting his Lord, as per the ḥadīth in the Sunan of Ibn Māja:
It was narrated from Sayyida ʿĀʼisha that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said:
“Whoever loves to meet Allāh, Allāh loves to meet him, and whoever hates to meet Allāh, Allāh hates to meet him.” It was said to him: “O Messenger of Allāh, does hating to meet Allāh mean hating to meet death? For all of us hate death.” He said: “No. Rather that is only at the moment of death. But if he is given the glad tidings of the mercy and forgiveness of Allāh, he loves to meet Allāh and Allāh loves to meet him; and if he is given the tidings of the punishment of Allāh, he hates to meet Allāh and Allāh hates to meet him.”
May Allāh make his earthly abode a garden from the Gardens of Paradise and fill it with His lights and blessings. May we continue to benefit from the knowledge of the Shaykh and may it be a perpetual reward for him and his family. May he drink from the hand of his Grandfather ﷺ and enter the highest station in the highest Paradise, alongside all those whom he loves and those who love him. Ameen.
Al-Fatiha for the soul of our teacher, Shaykh Muḥammad Nūr al-Dīn Bariūn.
