To God we belong and it is to Him that we return…
The blessed upbringer and expert legal scholar, al-Hajja Duriyya al-‘Ayta has transferred on to the mercy of her Lord today. “If a scholar dies a gash opens up in Islam, and nothing will close it until the day of judgement.” We cannot console ourselves nor can we console the Muslim Ummah for the loss of one of her greatest flagships (the legal scholar, honorable upbringer, al-Hajja Duriyya al-‘Ayta). Our teacher, our beloved, our dear and distinguished companion whose mark will never be forgotten. May Allah reward you with all that is good, and reward you with goodness for all that you put forth for us. You were of the best of mothers who cared for her offspring without tiring and without tedium. May God’s mercy be upon you O Dear one, and may Jenna be yours. O God open the doors of heaven for her soul. O God, forgive her, have mercy upon her, pardon her, and pardon on behalf of her, and make it a blessed descent (into her grave), and widen her resting place, and wash her with snow and water, coolness, and remove her errors, as one removes stain from a white garment. And replace her home with a better home, give her blessed companions, and enter her into jenna and remove from her the punishment of the grave, and keep her far from the punishment of hellfire. May Allah in His mercy have mercy upon us as we grieve you and look in vain for those who might stand in your shoes. You brought fiqh to thousands and thousands of women (and men), and made sloppy prayers neat and tidy, corrected unsure fasts, and led many accepted pilgrimages. You will be deeply and sorely missed.
– Anse Tamara Gray
Al-Hajja Duriyya is the author of Fiqh al ʿIbādāt: al-Madhhab al-Shāfiʿī, the textbook used at Ribaat for the Level 2 Fiqh course. She was a beloved teacher and murabbiya of several Ribaat instructors