Imām Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan al-Shaybānī

About the Author and the Source

The Author. The author of this work is al-ʿAllāmah Muḥammad Zāhid ibn al-Ḥasan al-Kawtharī (1296–1371 AH / 1878–1952 CE), an Ottoman-trained Ḥanafī scholar of Circassian origin, a graduate and later a teacher at the Fātiḥ madrasa in Istanbul, and Deputy Shaykh al-Islām (Wakīl al-Mashīkhah) of the Ottoman state in its final years. After the abolition of the caliphate, he settled in Cairo, where he spent the rest of his life teaching and editing the works of the early Ḥanafī authorities. The present work is one of three dedicated biographies he produced on the founders of the Ḥanafī school: alongside Ḥusn al-Taqāḍī fī Sīrat al-Imām Abī Yūsuf al-Qāḍī on Abū Yūsuf, and Taʾnīb al-Khaṭīb ʿalā mā Sāqahu fī Tarjamat Abī Ḥanīfah min al-Akādhīb, a biographical defence of Abū Ḥanīfah against the misrepresentations of al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī. His foremost student was Shaykh ʿAbd al-Fattāḥ Abū Ghuddah. He is among the most prolific and consequential defenders of the four-madhhab Sunnī tradition in the early twentieth century.

The Work. Bulūgh al-Amānī fī Sīrat al-Imām Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan al-Shaybānī is at once both a biography and a defence. Imām Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan al-Shaybānī (132–189 AH) is the principal codifier of the Ḥanafī school: nearly all of the ẓāhir al-riwāyah; al-Mabsūṭ, the two Jāmiʿs, the two Siyars, and al-Ziyādāt; comes from his pen. He transmitted Imām Mālik's Muwaṭṭaʾ directly from him; some scholars regard his recension a separate work, owing to the rulings, supporting aḥādīth, and notes he added in defence of the Ḥanafī positions. He was also one of the formative teachers of Imām al-Shāfiʿī. Al-Kawtharī writes against the backdrop of an early-twentieth-century intellectual climate in which the rank of Imām Muḥammad, and by extension Imām Abū Ḥanīfah and the Ḥanafī school as a whole, had come under sustained attack. The book aims to set the record straight: to assemble the testimony of the Imāms who knew him and the generations who studied his books, and to rebut the slanders that had reached print in modern times.

The Source Edition. This translation is based on the printing by Maktabat al-Azhariyyah li-l-Turāth, Alexandria, 1418 AH / 1998 CE, an 82-page volume reproducing al-Kawtharī's text.

I pray that this work is of benefit to the student, and I ask the reader's prayers. Wa al-ḥamdu lillāhi rabb al-ʿālamīn.

Author's Introduction

All praise belongs to Allāh, who has favoured some jurists over others; who has guided groups of them to perceive the differences between the obligatory and the imperative; who has expanded their faculties in the subtleties of legal questions and illumined their intellects to recognise the ranks of evidences. May the choicest peace and blessings be upon our master Muḥammad, sent with the easy and tolerant pure monotheistic religion; upon his pure and select family, and his devout and leading Companions; for as long as the minds of the jurists keep opening to the derivation of the rulings of the radiant Sharīʿah.

To proceed:

The history of fiqh testifies that the books authored upon the madhhabs of the imāms whose schools are followed, al-Mudawwanah, al-Ḥujjah, al-Umm, and what came after them, were composed in the light of the books of that great imām, Abū ʿAbdillāh Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan al-Shaybānī, may Allāh be pleased with him. His books remained in the hands of the jurists of every madhhab, before the centuries of pure imitation set in, passed about and benefited from, in recognition of the qualities by which they distinguished themselves: solidity of expression, clarity of exposition, soundness of foundational construction, and precision in derivation, with the citing of evidences for questions whose proofs were perhaps elusive even to many of the jurists of his own generation, let alone those who came later. This, alongside their breadth in generating subsidiary questions across the chapters, such that the books announce the deep penetration of their author into the secrets of Arabic, and his open hand in uncovering the mysteries of legislation, without ever showing on his pen the appetite to go alone or to break with the jurists when he debates their views, nor cunning and contention in the cause of preferring opinions which had become clear to him; this in contrast to what has afflicted many who lay claim to fiqh. Rather he highlights the merit of his shaykhs upon him and records their statements in his works, in acknowledgement of their good upon him; and the breadth of his knowledge did not deceive him, but only added sincerity to his sincerity, so Allāh, glory be to Him, recompensed him for that by placing barakah in his knowledge, until his books became the warp of the books composed in every madhhab, without exaggeration, and the benefit drawn from them was extended through the centuries.

You see that there has not reached us, from any jurist of his generation or one near it, books in fiqh of the order that has reached us of his works; and that is the bounty of Allāh which He gives to whom He wills.

I have gathered into these pages what is easy to transmit and unfitting to be ignorant of, from the life of that noble imām, in recognition of his merit, in illumination of one side of the history of fiqh, and to stir those qualified for the task to revive his legacy. I have named this brief work Bulūgh al-Amānī fī Sīrat al-Imām Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan al-Shaybānī. May Allāh make it sincere for His noble face. He suffices me, and how excellent a Trustee.

Name

He is Abū ʿAbdullāh Muḥammad Ibn al-Ḥasan Ibn Farqad al-Shaybānī. The majority of scholars are of the view that Imām Muḥammad, may Allāh ﷻ have mercy on him, has allegiance to Shaybān and is not from their descendants. Some have incorrectly said that Imām Muḥammad's grandfather was Wāqid and not Farqad.

Origin

Qāḍī Abū Ḥāzim ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd bin ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Baṣrī, the teacher of Imām Ṭaḥāwī, mentions that Imām Muḥammad was originally from a village close to Ramlah in Palestine, thereafter he migrated to Kūfah.

Muḥammad Ibn Saʿd, the scribe of al-Wāqidī, mentions in his Ṭabaqāt al-Kubrā that Imām Muḥammad's origin is from Algeria. His father was a soldier in Shām who came to Wāsiṭ, Iraq.

Al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī mentions in his Tārīkh that Imām Muḥammad was originally from a village called Ḥarasthā in Damascus. His father came to Iraq, where Imām Muḥammad was born.

Perhaps the correct view is that Imām Muḥammad is originally from Algeria, from Banū Shaybān, thereafter his father served as a soldier in Shām and acquired wealth. Thus he resided for a time in Ḥarasthā as well as in Palestine, both of which were considered part of Shām. Thereafter he moved to Wāsiṭ, where Imām Muḥammad was born, and later returned to Kūfah, where he was raised.

Birth

Imām Muḥammad, may Allāh ﷻ have mercy on him, was born in the year 132 AH. The opinion of Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr that Imām Muḥammad was born in the year 135 AH is incorrect.

Imām Muḥammad and Abū Ḥanīfah

Imām Muḥammad was an intelligent child, with a strong memory, beautiful in his features and character, stout and light spirited. When Imām Muḥammad was young he began memorising little from the Qurʾān, and thereafter attending lessons of Arabic and Ḥadīth. Kūfah at the time was a hub of Arabic, Fiqh, Ḥadīth and Islamic learning, since many senior ṣaḥābah had migrated there after ʿAlī, may Allāh ﷻ be pleased with him, made it the capital of the Islamic empire.

At the age of fourteen, Imām Muḥammad attended the circle of Imām Abū Ḥanīfah, may Allāh ﷻ have mercy on him, to ask him a question which he had. So he asked him saying;

Imām Abū Ḥanīfah replied: "Yes." Thereafter Imām Muḥammad stood up, took his sandals, and prayed in the corner of the masjid. This was Imām Muḥammad's first encounter with Imām Abū Ḥanīfah. When Imām Abū Ḥanīfah saw Imām Muḥammad repeating his ṣalāh, he remarked:

Indeed it came true. After seeing the greatness of such gatherings, Allāh ﷻ placed a love of fiqh in the heart of Imām Muḥammad. Imām Muḥammad returned to the circle of Imām Abū Ḥanīfah to learn more; but Imām Abū Ḥanīfah said that he should first learn the Qurʾān. This is because the lessons and methodology of Imām Abū Ḥanīfah turned on drawing evidence from the Qurʾān, so the one who did not know the Qurʾān would find it difficult. At that time, Imām Muḥammad's memorisation of the Qurʾān was not yet strong, so he disappeared for seven days and thereafter returned with his father, saying: "I have memorised it."

Once Imām Muḥammad asked Imām Abū Ḥanīfah a question, and Imām Abū Ḥanīfah was so impressed that he asked him: "Did you receive this question from someone else, or are you asking it of your own accord?" Imām Muḥammad replied that it was his own. Imām Abū Ḥanīfah then said: "You have asked a question over which there continues to be difference of opinion."

Throughout this period, Imām Muḥammad frequented the lessons of Imām Abū Ḥanīfah, remaining in his company for four years, until Imām Abū Ḥanīfah passed away in 150 AH. During this time he would make a note of the answers to the questions in the lesson. After Imām Abū Ḥanīfah, may Allāh ﷻ have mercy on him, passed away, Imām Muḥammad completed studying the fiqh of Abū Ḥanīfah from Imām Abū Yūsuf.

Teachers in Ḥadīth

As for Imām Muḥammad's teachers in aḥādīth, he took from Abū Ḥanīfah, Abū Yūsuf and other than them, many of whom were from Kūfah, Baṣrah, Madīnah, Makkah, Shām, Iraq and others. He gathered knowledge from Imām al-Awzāʾī, al-Thawrī and Mālik until he became an expert in the fields of Tafsīr and Ḥadīth, and a master of the Arabic language. It is mentioned that Imām Muḥammad inherited 30,000 dirhams, so he spent half of it in acquiring Arabic language, and the other half was split between acquiring fiqh and ḥadīth.

As for his teachers of ḥadīth from Kūfah, they include:

1. Abū Ḥanīfah (80 – 150 AH)
2. Ismāʿīl Ibn Abī Khālid al-Aḥmasī
3. Sufyān bin Saʿīd al-Thawrī
4. Masʿar bin Kadām (d. 155 AH)
5. Mālik bin Mighwal
6. Qays bin Rabīʿ
7. ʿUmar bin Dharr
8. Bukayr bin Āmir
9. Abū Bakr al-Nahshali ʿAbdullāh bin Qiṭāf
10. Maḥall bin Muḥriz al-Ḍabbī
11. Abū Kudaynah Yaḥya bin Muhlab al-Bajlī
12. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān bin ʿAbd Allāh bin ʿUtbah al-Masʿūdī
13. Isrāʾīl bin Yūnus
14. Badr bin Uthmān
15. Abū al-Aḥwas Salām bin Sulaym
16. Salām bin Sulaymān
17. Abū Muʿāwiyah al-Ḍarīr Muḥammad bin Khāzim
18. Zufar bin Hudhayl
19. Qāḍī Abū Yūsuf
20. Ismāʿīl bin Ibrāhīm al-Bajlī
21. Fuḍayl bin Ghazwān
22. Ḥasan ibn ʿAmārah
23. Yunus bin Abī Isḥāq al-Sabīʾī
24. Abd al-Jabbār bin al-ʿAbbās al-Hamdānī
25. Muḥammad bin Abān bin Ṣāliḥ al-Qurashī
26. Saʿīd bin Ubayd al-Ṭāʾī
27. Abū Farwah ʿUrwah bin al-Ḥārith al-Hamdānī
28. Abū Zuhayr al-ʿAlā bin Zuhayr

His teachers of ḥadīth from Madīnah include:

1. Mālik bin Anas
2. Ibrāhīm bin Muḥammad Abī Yaḥya
3. Ubaydullah bin ʿUmar bin Ḥafṣ al-ʿUmrī
4. ʿAbdullāh bin ʿUmar bin Ḥafṣ al-ʿUmrī
5. Khārijah bin ʿAbdullāh bin Sulaymān
6. Muḥammad bin Hilāl
7. Ḍaḥḥāk bin Uthmān
8. Ismāʿīl bin Rāfiʿ
9. Aʿṭṭāf bin Khālid
10. Isḥāq bin Ḥāzim
11. Hishām bin Saʿd
12. Usāma bin Zayd al-Laythī
13. Dāwūd bin Qays al-Farrāʾ
14. ʿĪsā bin Abī ʿīsā al-Khayyāṭ
15. ʿAbd al-Raḥmān bin Abī Zinād
16. Muḥammad bin ʿAbd al-Raḥmān bin Abī Dhiʾb
17. Khuthaym bin Irāk

His teachers of ḥadīth from Makkah include:

1. Sufyān bin ʿUyaynah al-Kūfī
2. Zamʾah bin Ṣāliḥ
3. Ismāʿīl bin ʿAbd al-Mālik
4. Ṭalḥah bin ʿAmr
5. Sayf bin Sulaymān
6. Ibrāhīm bin Yazīd al-Umawī
7. Zakariyya bin Isḥāq
8. ʿAbdullāh bin ʿAbd al-Raḥmān bin Yaʿlā al-Thaqafī al-Ṭāifī

His teachers of ḥadīth from Baṣrah include:

1. Abū al-ʿAwām ʿAbd al-Azīz ibn Rabīʿ al-Baṣrī
2. Hishām bin Abī Abdillāh
3. Rabīʿ bin Ṣabīḥ
4. Abū Ḥurrah Wāṣil bin ʿAbd al-Raḥmān
5. Saʿīd bin Abī ʿArūbah
6. Ismāʿīl bin Ibrāhīm al-Baṣrī
7. Mubārak bin Faḍālah

His teachers of ḥadīth from Wāsiṭ include:

1. ʿUbād bin al-Awām
2. Shuʿbah bin al-Ḥajjāj
3. Abū Mālik ʿAbd al-Mālik al-Nakhaʿī

His teachers of ḥadīth from Shām include:

1. Abū ʿAmr ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Awzāʾī
2. Muḥammad bin Rāshid al-Makḥūlī
3. Ismāʿīl bin ʿAyāsh al-Ḥimṣī
4. Thawr bin Yazīd al-Dimishqī

From Khurasān he took from ʿAbd Allāh bin al-Mubārak; from al-Yamāmah, his teachers include Ayyūb bin ʿUtbah al-Taymī. He also took from many others; we have not mentioned the narrations he took from his peers and from those below him.

His Students

From amongst the students of Imām Muḥammad, may Allāh ﷻ have mercy on him, are:

1. Abū Ḥafṣ al-Kabīr al-Bukhārī Aḥmad bin Ḥafṣ al-ʿIjlī¹
2. Abū Sulaymān Mūsa bin Sulaymān al-Juzjānī²
3. Abū ʿAbdullāh Muḥammad Ibn Idrīs al-Shāfiʿī³
4. Abū Ubayd Qāsim bin Salām al-Harawī⁴
5. ʿAmr bin Abī ʿAmr al-Ḥarrānī
6. Muḥammad bin Samāʿah al-Taymī
7. ʿAlī bin Maʿbad bin Shaddād al-Raqqī⁵
8. Muʿallā bin Manṣūr al-Rāzī⁶
9. Abū Bakr bin Abī Muqātil
10. Asad bin al-Furāt al-Qayrawānī⁷
11. Muḥammad bin Muqātil al-Rāzī⁸
12. Yaḥya bin Maʾīn al-Ghiṭfānī⁹
13. ʿAlī bin Muslim al-Ṭūsī
14. Mūsa bin Naḍr al-Rāzī
15. Shaddād bin Ḥakīm al-Balkhī
16. Ḥasan bin Ḥarab al-Raqqī
17. Ibn Jabalah
18. Abū ʿAbbās Ḥamīd
19. Abū Tawbah Rabīʿ bin Nāfiʿ al-Ḥalabī
20. Ubaydullah bin Abī Ḥanīfah al-Dabbūsī
21. Abū Burayd ʿAmr bin Yazīd al-Jurmī
22. Muṣʿab bin Abdillāh al-Zubayrī
23. Ayyūb bin Ḥasan al-Nīsāpūri
24. Khalaf bin Ayyūb al-Balkhī
25. ʿAlī bin Ṣabīḥ
26. ʿAqīl bin ʿAnbasah
27. ʿAlī bin Mihrān
28. ʿAmr bin Mahīr
29. Yaḥya bin Aktham
30. Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Muʾaddib
31. ʿAlī bin Ḥasan al-Rāzī
32. Hishām bin Ubaydullāh al-Rāzī
33. Abū Jaʿfar Aḥmad bin Muḥammad bin Mihrān al-Nasawī¹⁰
34. Shuʿayb bin Sulaymān al-Kaysānī¹¹
35. ʿAlī bin Ṣāliḥ al-Jurjānī¹²
36. Ismāʿīl bin Tawbah al-Qazwīnī¹³
37. Abū Bakr Ibrāhīm bin Rustum al-Marwazī¹⁴
38. Yaḥya bin Ṣāliḥ al-Waḥāẓī al-Ḥimṣī¹⁵
39. Abū Mūsa ʿĪsā bin Abān al-Baṣrī¹⁶
40. Sufyān bin Saḥbān al-Baṣrī¹⁷

Muḥammad bin ʿUmar al-Wāqidī narrates from Imām Muḥammad, just as Imām Muḥammad in turn narrates from al-Wāqidī, in the manner of peers narrating from one another.

Imām Muḥammad's occupation with knowledge

Imām al-Dhahabī, al-Ṣamīrī and al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī mention, with their chains to Muḥammad ibn Samāʿah, that he said: Imām Muḥammad said to his family:

Imām Muḥammad and Imām Mālik

Imām Muḥammad remained in the company of Imām Mālik for three years and heard more than 700 aḥādīth from him. During this period, he also heard from the rest of the scholars in Madīnah.

The Muwaṭṭaʾ of Imām Mālik has approximately twenty-two different recensions, which vary in the number of narrations they contain.¹⁸ As for the Muwaṭṭaʾ of Imām Muḥammad, it is counted among the better versions, due to Imām Muḥammad's having heard directly from Imām Mālik over a period of three years. After each ḥadīth, Imām Muḥammad mentions whether the people of Iraq follow that opinion, and he also notes their view where there is a difference.

Incident between Imām Muḥammad and Imām Mālik

Al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī mentions, with his sanad to Majāshiʿ bin Yūsuf: I was with Imām Mālik in Madīnah whilst he was giving fatāwā, when Imām Muḥammad, the companion of Imām Abū Ḥanīfah, came to him and asked: "What do you say regarding a junub (person in the state of major ritual impurity) who does not find any water except that it is in the masjid?" Imām Mālik replied: "A junub should not enter the masjid." Imām Muḥammad asked: "What should he do if prayer has started and he can see the water?" Imām Mālik repeated: "A junub should not enter the masjid." After Imām Muḥammad's persistence, Imām Mālik asked him: "What do you say regarding this?" Imām Muḥammad replied that the junub should perform tayammum, enter the masjid, take the water, exit and then perform ghusl. Imām Mālik asked him: "Where are you from?" Imām Muḥammad pointed to the earth and said: "From the people of this," thereafter he left. The people informed Imām Mālik that this was Imām Muḥammad, the companion of Imām Abū Ḥanīfah. Imām Mālik said: "Muḥammad bin Ḥasan; how can he lie by saying he is from the people of Madīnah?" They replied that Imām Muḥammad had said he was from the people of this, pointing to the earth.

Imām Muḥammad's view regarding the fiqh of Imām Mālik

Abū Ismāʿīl al-Harawī brings his chain to Imām al-Shāfiʿī, who, it is as though, can be heard reporting Imām Muḥammad saying:

Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr mentions that Imām Muḥammad said:

This was said during a conversation between Imām Muḥammad and Imām al-Shāfiʿī. Imām Muḥammad meant that it was not fitting for Imām Mālik to give fatāwā in his era, given the presence of more senior scholars in his time. As for Imām Abū Ḥanīfah, there was no one more capable of giving fatāwā in his era; thus it was incumbent upon him to do so.

Thus, even though Imām Muḥammad travelled from Kūfah to Madīnah to study ḥadīth under Imām Mālik, he did not view him as authoritative in the field of fiqh. It is perhaps for this reason that many narrate that they would ask Imām Mālik a question and he would frequently say "I do not know". It is also known that Imām Mālik would not engage with hypothetical scenarios, and would refuse to answer a question unless the case had actually occurred. It is perhaps for this reason that his Muwaṭṭaʾ, in the riwāyah of Yaḥyā al-Laythī, mentions approximately 3,000 rulings, whereas the likes of Imām Abū Ḥanīfah and his companions would cover the same number of rulings in approximately three months. As for the many additional rulings found in the later versions of the Muwaṭṭaʾ narrated from Mālik, these are more likely rulings derived in line with the methodology of Imām Mālik, as others have clarified.¹⁹

Imām Muḥammad in comparison to Imām Mālik in terms of fiqh

Although Imām Muḥammad heard the Muwaṭṭaʾ from Imām Mālik, there were many positions he disagreed with, so much so that he wrote a book entitled al-Ḥujaj, known for refuting some of the practices of the people of Madīnah.

Many scholars have said that Imām Muḥammad was more accomplished in fiqh than many of his teachers of ḥadīth. ʿĪsā bin Sulaymān says: when Yaḥyā bin Aktham came with al-Maʾmūn, intending to travel to Egypt, they met Yaḥyā bin Ṣāliḥ al-Waḥḥāẓī (one of al-Bukhārī's teachers from Shām), and Ibn Aktham asked him: "O Abū Zakariyyā, who is more knowledgeable, Mālik bin Anas or Muḥammad bin Ḥasan?" Yaḥyā bin Ṣāliḥ replied: "Imām Muḥammad."

Al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī mentions, with his chain to Yaḥyā bin Ṣāliḥ, that he said: 'Ibn Aktham asked me, "I saw Imām Mālik and heard ḥadīth from him, and I also accompanied Imām Muḥammad. Which of the two is more well-versed in fiqh?" I said: "Muḥammad bin Ḥasan [in what he deduces himself] is more well-versed in fiqh than Mālik."' The phrase in square brackets is found in published versions, and was perhaps inserted by editors of the printed text.

Imām Dhahabī mentions;

Imām Muḥammad's role in the formation of the Mālikī Madhhab

Asad bin Furāth left Qayrawān in the year 172 AH, and heard the Muwaṭṭaʾ from Imām Mālik in Madīnah. The students of Imām Mālik would ask him questions, and he would answer them. It is narrated that, on one occasion, Asad bin Furāth asked Imām Mālik a question, and he answered him; he then asked another, and Imām Mālik answered him again. He then asked Imām Mālik a third question, to which Imām Mālik replied:

Thus Asad bin Furāth realised that his stay with Imām Mālik had grown so long that much of what he had set out to gain (meeting scholars and hearing ḥadīth from them) was being missed. He therefore travelled to Iraq, where he met Imām Abū Yūsuf and narrated the Muwaṭṭaʾ to him. Thus Imām Abū Yūsuf narrates the Muwaṭṭaʾ of Imām Mālik through Asad bin Furāth.

Asad bin Furāth studied with the companions of Imām Abū Ḥanīfah, among them Qāḍī Abū Yūsuf, Asad bin ʿAmr al-Bajlī, Muḥammad ibn Ḥasan and others. When he came to Imām Muḥammad he said to him: "I am a stranger to this land, little in terms of fiqh; studying with you is difficult due to the numerous number of students you have. What can I do?" Imām Muḥammad advised him: "Listen to the scholars in the daytime, and I will set aside a portion for you alone at night; come to me at night, and you may listen to me." Asad bin Furāth says that he would spend the nights in the company of Imām Muḥammad, who would keep a container of water in front of him, and when the nights grew long and he began to tire, Imām Muḥammad would scoop a handful of water and sprinkle it on his face to wake him. He would do this until they had completed the portion they had set out to study.

Imām Muḥammad would give Asad bin Furāth money whenever he learned that his funds had run out. Once he gave him eighty dinārs after seeing him drinking from the water set aside for wayfarers. It is indeed rare to find anyone more patient with his students, or more generous to them, than Imām Muḥammad, with the sole exception of his teacher, Imām Abū Ḥanīfah.

Asad bin Furāth narrates in his Riḥlah al-ʿIrāqiyyah that he was once with Imām Muḥammad in one of his circles when a man announced that Imām Mālik, may Allāh ﷻ have mercy on him, had passed away. Imām Muḥammad said:

The people were greatly aggrieved at the death of Imām Mālik. Thereafter, whenever Imām Muḥammad narrated from Imām Mālik, large crowds would attend his circles; but when he narrated from others, only a few attended.

Al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī relates, with his sanad to Imām Muḥammad, that he said:

Similar narrations have been transmitted by Ibn ʿAdī in his al-Kāmil and by Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr in his al-Intiqāʾ. This should not come as much of a surprise: Iraq was filled with scholars narrating ḥadīth, and the people had access to them whenever they wished. As for the narrations of Imām Mālik, it is only right that people sought them out and treasured them, particularly from a scholar of the calibre of Imām Muḥammad, and all the more so once their opportunity to hear directly from Imām Mālik had been cut off by his passing.

After benefiting from Imām Muḥammad, Asad bin Furāth travelled to Madīnah to question the companions of Imām Mālik regarding the rulings he had studied with Imām Muḥammad. However, he did not find the answers he was looking for, but was directed instead to Egypt, to put his questions to some of the companions of Imām Mālik there. On reaching Egypt, he went to ʿAbdullāh ibn Wahb and asked him about the rulings of Imām Abū Ḥanīfah and what the view of Imām Mālik was regarding them. ʿAbdullāh ibn Wahb hesitated to answer, so Asad bin Furāth went to Ibn al-Qāsim²⁰ and asked him. Ibn al-Qāsim answered his questions to the best of his knowledge, narrating what he had heard from Imām Mālik, and where he was in doubt he would say: "I think such-and-such." Asad bin Furāth compiled these rulings in his book al-Asadiyyah, and thereafter returned to Qayrawān, where he gained great standing on account of this work.

It is mentioned in Maʾālim al-Imān that before going to Ibn al-Qāsim, Asad bin Furāth went to Ashʾhab. He asked him a question, to which Ashʾhab replied. Asad bin Furāth then asked him: "Who said this, Imām Abū Ḥanīfah or Imām Mālik?" Ashʾhab replied: "This is my saying, may Allāh ﷻ bless you". So Asad bin Furāth said; "What is wrong with you, I ask you regarding Imām Abū Ḥanīfah and Imām Mālik, and you give me your opinion". Thereafter, ʿAbdullāh bin ʿAbd al-Ḥakam said to Asad bin Furāth, "What is the matter with you, a man answers your question, if you wish then accept it, if not then leave it".

On one occasion, Ashʾhab disrespected Imām Mālik and Imām Abū Ḥanīfah in a gathering, and voices were raised. Asad bin Furāth said: "O Ashʾhab, O Ashʾhab, O Ashʾhab." The students silenced him, and it was said to him: "What do you intend to say to him?" Asad bin Furāth replied:

Were it not for the books which Asad bin Furāth had acquired from Imām Muḥammad on the fiqh of Imām Abū Ḥanīfah, and thereafter presented to Ibn al-Qāsim for the ruling from the Mālikī perspective, it would not have been possible for Asad bin Furāth to put these questions, nor for Ibn al-Qāsim to answer each one in line with the framework of the scholars of Iraq. Thus, in the light of Imām Muḥammad's teaching, Asad bin Furāth was able to compile the rulings of the Mālikī madhhab in sixty books known as al-Asadiyyah.

It is worth noting that the development of the Mālikī madhhab was not due to Asad bin Furāth's connection with Imām Muḥammad alone. We also know that Imām Mālik himself would frequently review his fiqh with Imām Abū Ḥanīfah whenever the latter visited Madīnah.

Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ mentions at the beginning of his Madārik that Layth Ibn Saʿd saw Imām Mālik sweating, and asked him: "I see you sweating?" Imām Mālik replied:

It has also been narrated from ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Darāwardī that Imām Mālik would read the books of Imām Abū Ḥanīfah and benefit from them. Imām al-Shāfiʿī likewise mentions in his Kitāb al-Umm, on the authority of al-Darāwardī, that Imām Mālik had approximately sixty thousand rulings from Imām Abū Ḥanīfah.

Thus Imām Mālik would benefit from Imām Abū Ḥanīfah in Masjid al-Nabawī. Imām Muḥammad heard the Muwaṭṭaʾ from Imām Mālik. Imām Shāfiʿī studied the Muwaṭṭaʾ from Imām Mālik and also benefited from Imām Muḥammad. Imām Aḥmad bin Ḥanbal gained his proficiency in fiqh through Imām Abū Yūsuf and Imām al-Shāfiʿī, and also benefited from the books of Imām Muḥammad. In this way the imāms of all four madhhabs are connected, and through this connection the blessings of knowledge were attained.

Asad bin Furāth spread the madhhabs of Imām Abū Ḥanīfah and Imām Mālik in Africa; thereafter he confined himself to spreading the madhhab of Imām Abū Ḥanīfah, and thus it spread throughout the western lands. Asad bin Furāth passed away in 213 AH.

Some of the senior scholars of the Mālikī madhhab have said that where no narration from Imām Mālik exists for a given ruling, one should take the ruling of Imām Abū Ḥanīfah. Some have said that the difference between the two madhhabs lies in only thirty-two rulings.

Imām al-Shāfiʿī and Imām Muḥammad

Muḥammad bin Idrīs al-Shāfiʿī studied fiqh under Muslim bin Khālid al-Zanjī (100–180 AH) in Makkah until he gave him permission to give fatāwā. Thereafter, Imām Shāfiʿī travelled to Madīnah, when he was approximately fourteen years old, where he studied the Muwaṭṭaʾ under Imām Mālik. During this time he also heard from Ibrāhīm bin Muḥammad bin Abī Yaḥya al-Aslamī, one of the competitors of Imām Mālik. After this he travelled to Makkah to study from Sufyān bin ʿUyaynah, and after that he went to Yemen to work due to financial difficulties and stayed there for a while. In the year 184 AH Imām Shāfiʿī travelled to Iraq where he studied under Imām Muḥammad and accompanied him for a long time. During this period Imām Shāfiʿī devoted himself to studying fiqh under Imām Muḥammad and he copied the works of Imām Muḥammad for approximately sixty dinars. This stay with Imām Muḥammad was one of the most crucial components in Imām Shāfiʿī's rise in stature.

It is narrated that Imām al-Shāfiʿī once wrote to Imām Muḥammad asking to borrow his books²¹ so that he could copy them. As Imām Muḥammad did not answer his request, Imām Shāfiʿī wrote the following couplet:

Thereafter, it is said, Imām Muḥammad immediately gifted his books to Imām al-Shāfiʿī. It is well known that Imām al-Shāfiʿī met and benefited from the likes of Imām Mālik, Wakīʿ ibn al-Jarrāḥ and Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah; yet even then he mentions that he had not seen the likes of Imām Muḥammad. If only Imām al-Shāfiʿī had met Imām Abū Ḥanīfah!

Imām al-Dhahabī mentions in his Tārīkh al-Kabīr, with his chain to Abū ʿUbayd, that he said: I saw Imām al-Shāfiʿī with Imām Muḥammad, and Imām Muḥammad had given him fifty dīnārs, having previously given him fifty dirhams. He would say to him: "If you wish to seek knowledge, then do so." Abū ʿUbayd says: I heard Imām al-Shāfiʿī say: "I wrote a camel-load of books from Imām Muḥammad bin Ḥasan." Whenever Imām al-Shāfiʿī came to Imām Muḥammad, the latter would say to him: "Do not be embarrassed." Imām al-Shāfiʿī replied: "If you were someone I should be shy of, I would not have accepted your charity."

Imām Muḥammad was thus very generous with his students, both in financial aid and in the time he gave them. This is why we know that Imām al-Shāfiʿī took many narrations from Imām Muḥammad which others do not have. This was because Imām Muḥammad gave Imām al-Shāfiʿī time for private lessons, just as he did for Asad bin Furāth, Abū ʿUbayd and other great scholars of his time. This patience and dedication shown by Imām Muḥammad to his students is unmatched among the scholars of the past, with the exception of Imām Abū Ḥanīfah.

Imām Shāfiʿī mentions:

Khatīb Baghdādī also mentions with this chain to Imām Shāfiʿī that he said:

Rabīʿ narrates from Imām Shāfiʿī that he said:

Imām Muḥammad always looked after Imām al-Shāfiʿī and treated him with kindness; so much so that Ibn Samāʿah narrates that Imām Muḥammad gathered from his companions one hundred thousand dirhams for the sake of Imām al-Shāfiʿī.

Imām Dhahabī mentions from Idrīs bin Yūsuf al-Qarāṭīsī that he heard Imām Shāfiʿī say:

As for some of the rivalry mentioned between Imām Muḥammad and Imām al-Shāfiʿī, these accounts have been refuted on various grounds, including bias, weak narrators and confusion in wording.

Imām Muḥammad and Imām Abū Yūsuf

After Imām Abū Ḥanīfah passed away, Imām Muḥammad joined the circles of Imām Abū Yūsuf to continue his study of fiqh and ḥadīth under him. He completed his studies and became the principal narrator of the opinions of Imām Abū Ḥanīfah and Imām Abū Yūsuf in his books: al-Mabsūṭ, al-Jāmiʿ al-Ṣaghīr and al-Siyar al-Ṣaghīr. He was the one who spread the madhhab through his other books, whether or not he attributed the views to them by name.

Imām al-Ṭaḥāwī mentions, with his narration through Ismāʿīl bin Ḥammād, that he said: Imām Muḥammad would arrive early at the gatherings of ḥadīth, while we would go early to the gathering of Imām Abū Yūsuf. Imām Muḥammad would therefore come having missed some of the rulings; and while we conversed, Imām Abū Yūsuf would go over those rulings again with him. One day, while we were talking, Imām Muḥammad came in, and Imām Abū Yūsuf asked him about a ruling that had been covered earlier; Imām Muḥammad gave an answer that differed from what had been said before. Imām Abū Yūsuf said that this was not the correct reply, and a disagreement followed, with Imām Muḥammad saying: "This is not his (i.e. Imām Abū Ḥanīfah's) statement." They then sent for the book to check the reference. Once the book was checked, it became clear that Imām Muḥammad was correct, whereupon Imām Abū Yūsuf said: "This is how memorisation should be."

Al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī mentions, with his chain to Yaḥyā bin Maʾīn, that he heard someone say to Muḥammad ibn Ḥasan, the jurist: "Have you heard this book from Abū Yūsuf?" He replied: "No, by Allāh! I did not hear it from him; rather, I heard it from the most knowledgeable of people. I have heard nothing from Abū Yūsuf except for al-Jāmiʿ al-Ṣaghīr."

Imām al-Ṭaḥāwī narrates, from Ibn Abī ʿImrān from al-Ṭabarī, that he heard Muʿallā bin Manṣūr say: I met Abū Yūsuf while he was serving as judge, and he said to me: "O Muʿallā, whose company have you kept today?" I said: "I accompanied Muḥammad bin Ḥasan." Abū Yūsuf said:

He met me again afterwards and said: "O Muʿallā, whose company have you kept today?" I said: "Muḥammad bin Ḥasan." So Imām Abū Yūsuf said:

Thus, in his second statement, Imām Abū Yūsuf placed Imām Muḥammad at a lower rank than in his first.

The likely reason for the hostility between Imām Muḥammad and Imām Abū Yūsuf was the matter of the judgeship. This is what has been narrated by Ibn Abī al-ʿAwām, with his chain to Muḥammad ibn Samāʿah. He mentions: Abū Yūsuf was consulted about the best person to be appointed judge of Raqqah. Abū Yūsuf said: "I know of no one more worthy of the post than Muḥammad bin Ḥasan, even though he is in Kūfah. If you wish, then seek him out." They therefore sought out Muḥammad bin Ḥasan, and when he came, he went to Abū Yūsuf and asked him why he had been chosen. Abū Yūsuf replied: "They sought my counsel about the judge of Raqqah, so I pointed to you. I thought that Allāh ﷻ has transmitted our knowledge in Kūfah and Baṣrah and throughout the east, so I wished that, from this side too, our knowledge should also be spread through you in the lands of Shām." Imām Muḥammad replied: "Subḥān Allāh! I have no desire within myself for such a position." This incident alone was the cause of the hostility between Imām Muḥammad and Imām Abū Yūsuf, as Imām al-Dhahabī also mentions.

Imām Muḥammad was extremely wary of taking up positions of leadership and governorship, as such posts would distract him from knowledge and teaching, following in the path of his teacher Imām Abū Ḥanīfah. Some have said that, for this reason, Imām Muḥammad did not attend the funeral of Imām Abū Yūsuf when he passed away, may Allāh ﷻ have mercy on him. However, the most likely reason that Imām Muḥammad did not attend the funeral prayer is that the janāzah took place in Baghdād while he was serving as Qāḍī of Raqqah, and it was not possible for him to leave his duties.

ʿAllāmah al-Sarakhsī mentions in his Sharḥ al-Siyar al-Kabīr that Imām Muḥammad did not mention the name of Abū Yūsuf in his Siyar al-Kabīr, as he authored this work after the growing hostility between them. Every time he uses a narration of Imām Abū Yūsuf, he says: "akhbaranī al-thiqah" (a reliable narrator informed me).

Any account of hostility between Imām Muḥammad and Imām Abū Yūsuf is false and has been greatly exaggerated. Imām Abū Yūsuf was a great scholar of his time: he had mastery over the various sciences, an abundance of students, and many written works to his name. His work entitled Kitāb al-Amālī alone consisted of three hundred volumes, as narrated by Abū Āṣim al-ʿĀmirī. How could a man of such stature be jealous of his student, Imām Muḥammad, simply because of the great number of students he had, as some have falsely claimed? On the contrary, this should have been a source of pride and honour for him. Furthermore, had he harboured such jealousy towards him, why would he have praised him on multiple occasions and selected him for the Qaḍāʾ of Raqqah? I reject all such accusations in a chapter entitled "Hiya al-Kidhb min ayyi al-nawāḥī āthaythahā", the section that follows.

It Is a Lie from Whichever Angle One Approaches It

Consider, further, the very setting in which this hostility between Imām Abū Yūsuf and Imām Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan is alleged to have taken place. Imām Muḥammad was in Kūfah until he was summoned for the judgeship. How then could Imām Abū Yūsuf have previously seen the throngs frequenting Imām Muḥammad's circle and become resentful and envious of him? And how could he have wished to remove him from the seat of the caliphate when Imām Muḥammad was not in it at all, but rather in Kūfah? How then could Imām Abū Yūsuf have fabricated an illness for him that he did not in fact have, to the point where the story even claims that Imām Abū Yūsuf went so far as to feign illness publicly, with al-Rashīd dispatching a physician to treat Imām Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan, and physicians gathering at his door in numbers, as recounted at length in the tale? Yet does the same story not also state that al-Rashīd was already fond of him? And the one then chosen for the judgeship was not chosen for Egypt, but rather for Raqqah, which was the summer capital of the ʿAbbāsid caliphs and as close as could be to the gatherings of the caliphs themselves.

Furthermore, Imām Muḥammad's habit, when narrating from Imām Abū Yūsuf even after this estrangement, was to say "akhbaranī al-thiqah" (a reliable narrator informed me), by which he intended Imām Abū Yūsuf. How could he describe Imām Abū Yūsuf as al-thiqah if such atrocities had truly emanated from him? Thus lies are, in most cases, accompanied by what reveals their own inconsistency.

Perhaps al-Sarakhsī's excuse for narrating this anecdote in the manner he did is that he was in prison, far from his books, dictating from memory; the story had clung to his mind from some of the books of evening tales (kutub al-asmār), and he did not have the time to verify it, so he fell into this snare while dictating his work. We hold him to be a mountain among the mountains of knowledge, immovable in his lofty stature in scholarship, and it pains us to see him dictate such a clear fabrication in his enduring book. But Allāh has refused that anything be free of error save His own Book, as al-Shāfiʿī said to al-Muzanī when al-Muzanī presented al-Risālah to him several times and al-Shāfiʿī kept finding things in it to correct: "Leave it; Allāh has refused that anything be sound except His own Book", or words to that effect.

Asceticism of Imām Muḥammad

Imām Abū Yūsuf was the teacher of Imām Muḥammad; despite this, some coolness arose between the two over the matter of the judgeship of Raqqah. Abū Yūsuf's wish was to spread the knowledge of Imām Muḥammad in Raqqah and its surrounding areas, and this was a commendable wish on his part. Imām Muḥammad, however, was deeply displeased by it. He regarded it as a distraction from knowledge, following in the footsteps of his teacher Imām Abū Ḥanīfah.

It is narrated that when Imām Abū Yūsuf accepted the role of judgeship towards the end of the rule of al-Mahdī, Abū Yūsuf cursed him, saying:

He was tested by being made the supreme judge before his death, and he suffered for a while after being dismissed from the judgeship of Raqqah. He was prevented from giving legal opinions for a long time on account of his explicit answer regarding the safety of al-Ṭālibī, as mentioned in the Tārīkh of Ibn Jarīr, the book of Ibn Abī al-ʿAwwām and the book of al-Ṣaymarī, with their various chains and wordings.

Abū ʿAbdillāh al-Ṣaymarī relates with his chain to Muḥammad ibn Samāʿah, who says I heard Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan say: When the court of al-Rashīd was held in the city of al-Raqqah, I was summoned so I entered with al-Ḥasan ibn Ziyad, Abū al-Bakhtarī Wahb ibn Wahb, who was the Chief Justice after the death of Abū Yūsuf. He presented us with the security document that was written to Yaḥyā ibn ʿAbdullāh ibn al-Ḥasan, who was from the descendants of al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib. It was given to men and after reading it, I opted for the will of Allāh and the Hereafter. I said: 'This is a security, there is no way to revoke it.'

In another narration from al-Ṭaḥāwī, Ibn Abī al-ʿAwwām reported it: al-Ṭālibī had placed this document on a cushion, and a man with a sword stood beside him. Al-Ṭālibī implored him, as Hārūn (al-Rashīd) had given his security. The document was then taken from my hands and handed to al-Ḥasan ibn Ziyad. He read it and said in a weak voice "I do not know if it was heard or if you did not hear, this is a security.' He then took it from his hands and handed it to Abū al-Bakhtarī, who read it and said: 'I am not satisfied with it, this is a man who has harmed the Muslims, has caused division, and is acting against the community. There is no security for him.' He then hit the table, and I saw him pulling out a dagger. He cut the document in half and handed it to a servant, then returned it to al-Rashīd, saying: 'I will kill him, and his blood is on my neck.' We left the gathering, and a messenger from al-Rashīd came to me to inform me not to give fatwas to anyone nor to issue any judgments.

Another narration mentions that ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Harawī had been appointed as the judge. I remained in this state until Umm Jaʿfar intervened, prompting a reconsideration. I informed her that I had been prohibited from giving fatwās. I suspected that she had spoken to al-Rashīd, who then permitted me to issue rulings again.

Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan said: At that time, me and every resident in the court of al-Rashīd was amazed by Abū al-Bakhtarī's verdict. He was a judge and had issued a fatwa which led to the shedding of the blood of a man, also who carries a knife in their leather sock. However, al-Rashīd did not kill Yaḥya at that time; instead, he died later in prison. In another narration, it was said that he was killed during that session.

Al-Ḥasan ibn Saʿad narrated that after this event, al-Rashīd summoned Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan and appointed him the Supreme Chief Justice, taking him along to Rayy, where both he and al-Kisāʾī died on the same day. It was said that al-Kisāʾī died two days before Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan. Al-Rashīd said: 'I buried both jurisprudence and grammar in Ray.' According to Bakar al-ʿAmmī's narration, Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan did not approve of the security document, and Abū al-Bakhtarī gave a ruling to revoke it and declared the man's blood permissible."

Yaḥyā ibn ʿAbdullāh al-Ṭālibī said to Hārūn al-Rashīd: 'O Commander of the Believers, Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan gives you a fatwa confirming the validity of the security, and his status in fiqh is his status (i.e. well known), while this one give you fatwa of its revocation. What does he know about fatwas?' His father was a drummer in Madīnah.

Al-Ṣaymarī also said: Abū Bakr al-Damghānī informed us with his chain to ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān bin Qāsim bin Muḥammad bin Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq who said: 'I was present for this issue, all of it between Muḥammad ibn Ḥasan and Hārūn al-Rashīd. He added that when Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan left he cried profusely, so I asked him: "O Abū ʿAbdullāh, are you crying due to this fracture?". This is because Hārūn had thrown an inkpot at him when he gave a fatwa contrary to his preference in the assembly. The blood flowed on to his face and clothing. He said: "No, I am not crying for that, but I am crying due to my own shortcomings." I asked him: "What shortcomings do you speak of? You have reached a position where no one on earth has more dignity than you." He said: "I should have asked Abū al-Bakhtarī when he said what he said : 'From where did you say this?' So I could establish the evidence against what he said."

Ibn Abī al-ʿAwwām narrated from Aḥmad ibn Samāʿah that he said: Hārūn ordered that the books of Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan be searched, fearing that they might contain something that would encourage the students to rebel. Muhammad said to me: 'O Abu ʿAbdullāh (meaning Ibn Samāʿah), I beg you by Allāh in my affair, if you can go to my house and safeguard my books, so that nothing may be found in them that does not belong.' I did so, and when I examined his books, I found nothing in them except some notes on the virtues of ʿAlī (may peace be upon him). I brought them to Hārūn al-Rashīd, who said: 'We have more than this.'

Al-Ṭaḥāwī also narrated from Bakkār ibn Qutaybah, who mentioned this incident from Hilal bin Yaḥya from Muḥammad bin al-Ḥasan, and added that Hārūn al-Rashīd sent for Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan and said: 'This is a security document that I did not write myself, but I ordered someone else to write it. What would you say about a man who swears not to write a letter, but then orders someone else to write it?' Muhammad replied: 'If this were the case with the common people, he would not have broken his oath until he wrote it himself. But if it is a ruler, he would break his oath, because the ruler's letter is what is written by his order.' He mentions, this enraged Hārūn, and he did to Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan what he did.

Al-Ṭaḥāwī also narrated with his chain to ibn Samāʿah: When Hārūn ordered the killing of al-Ṭālibī, he said to him: 'O Hārūn, Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan and al-Ḥasan ibn Ziyad, who are the scholars of the world, say that this security is valid, so you do not accept it from them. But you accept it from this liar, who claims it is a valid security, and you order my death!'

He is referring to the fact that Abū al-Bakhtarī Wahb ibn Wahb, the judge, made claims to his lineage, Allāh ﷻ knows best.

Ibn Abī al-ʿAwwām narrated from al-Ṭaḥāwī, who narrated from Abū Ḥāzim, from Bakar ibn Aḥmad al-ʿAmā, from Muhammad ibn Samāʿah, that he said: "We were with Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan in the palace of Hārūn al-Rashīd (this was after Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan had been dismissed from the judiciary of al-Raqqah and reconciled with Hārūn through the intercession of Umm Jaʿfar). While we were sitting, Hārūn, the Commander of the Believers, entered. Everyone rose to their feet except Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan, who remained seated. Hārūn noticed him and, upon entering, granted him permission to remain while others were dismissed. I thought to myself that he intended to reprimand him for not standing in his presence.

After some time, Muhammad emerged, and I followed him to his house to inquire about what had happened. He explained: 'When I entered, he (Hārūn) said to me, "I have resolved to kill the fighters of Banu Taghlib and enslave their children." I asked him, "Why is that, O Commander of the Believers, when ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb had made peace with them?" Hārūn replied, "Umar only made peace with them on the condition that they would not baptise their children. They have since baptised them, thus breaching the terms of the agreement."

I responded, "Umar upheld their peace agreement even after they baptised their children, which indicates they retained their security without additional conditions." Hārūn objected, "No, Umar merely refrained from fighting them at the time because the duration (of his rule) was short."

I said, "Even though the time after that was short, it was followed by just rulers (ʿUthmān and ʿAlī) who continued to honour the treaty without any conditions, thereby affirming the peace agreement." At this point, he told me to leave.'

Al-Ṣaymarī added in his narration through the route of Ibn Atiyyah: al-Ḥasan ibn Ziyad bore ill-will towards Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan. When the people from the caliph's court entered, Hārūn al-Rashīd waited a little while and then the attendant came out and said, 'Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan.' His companions were distressed for him. He entered, and after some time, he came out in good spirits and happy. He said: 'Hārūn asked me, "Why did you not stand with the people?" I replied, "I disliked leaving the rank you placed me in. You honoured me with knowledge, and I did not want to descend to the rank of service, which is outside of it. The son of your uncle ﷺ said: 'Whoever loves that people stand for him, let him prepare his seat in the Fire.' He only meant by this, the scholars. As for those who stand for rightful service and to honour the ruler, this is a form of deterrence for the enemy. But as for those who sit and follow the Sunnah which we took from you, it is dignity for you."'

He (Hārūn) said: 'You have spoken the truth.' Then he asked him about the Banū Taghlib, and his response was similar to what has been mentioned before. He said in the end: 'This is the peace that was upheld by the caliphs after them, and there is nothing that implicates you in this matter. I have examined your knowledge and found your opinion to be superior.' He said: 'However, we must run it according to what they implemented, if Allāh wills. Allāh ordered His Prophet to consult, and so he would consult in his matters, and then Jibrīl would come to him with Allāh's direction. However, you must pray for the one whom Allāh has placed in charge of your affairs, and order your companions to do the same. I have commanded something to be given to you, which you may distribute among your companions.' Then a great amount of wealth was given to him, and he distributed it.

Something similar is mentioned in al-Khaṭīb's al-Tārīkh. These incidents highlight the firmness with which he upheld justice, whether the matter concerned Muslims or Christians, and his honesty in refuting falsehood and avoiding flattery or compromise, regardless of what he faced along this path. They also show his sincere determination in serving knowledge and religion.

Subtle Anecdotes and Valuable Benefits Narrated by Some of His Companions

Ḥasan ibn Shuhūb mentions: "I saw Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan go to the dyers and ask them about their work and how they went about it." Consider this great mujtahid: he was not content with his knowledge of the Qurʾān, the Sunnah, the statements of the Ṣaḥābah, the Tābiʿīn and the rest of the jurists of the lands, nor with his renown in the Arabic sciences. He still saw himself as needing to learn how the tradesmen carried out their dealings, and to know the difference between long-established custom and newly-arising custom, so that his speech would be safe from error in any aspect of explaining the rulings of the Sharīʿah. This is what genuine effort and ijtihād look like.

Ibn Abī al-ʿAwwām narrates: Imām Abū Jaʿfar al-Ṭaḥāwī, may Allāh have mercy on him, told me, saying: I heard Ibrāhīm ibn Abī Dāwūd (al-Burullusī) say: "I heard Yaḥyā ibn Ṣāliḥ al-Wuḥāẓī say: 'I performed Ḥajj in the company of Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan, and I said to him, "Narrate to me your book on such-and-such"; meaning one of his books in fiqh. He said, "I do not have the strength for it." I said, "Then I will recite it to you." He said, "Which is easier for you, that I read it to you, or that you read it to me?" I said, "That I read it to you." He said, "No: my reading it to you is easier for me. When I read it to you, I use only my eyes and tongue; but when you read it to me, I must use my eyes, my mind and my hearing, which is more taxing."'" Al-Dhahabī also reports this in his juzʾ. This same al-Wuḥāẓī is the one who used to prefer Imām Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan over Imām Mālik in fiqh, and is also a teacher of Imām al-Bukhārī, as has already been mentioned. This is a useful point worth noting.

Al-Badr al-Zarkashī mentions, in al-Baḥr al-Muḥīṭ that Imām Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan said: "If we accept the narration of upright transmitters (ahl al-ʿadl), believing that whoever lies among them is a fāsiq, then it is even more proper to accept the narration of ahl al-ahwāʾ, believing that whoever lies among them is a kāfir."

Ibn Abī al-ʿAwwām said: I heard Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Ḥammād say: I heard Muḥammad ibn Shujāʿ say: I heard Muʿallā ibn Manṣūr al-Rāzī say: "Whenever Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan was told that some people were speaking ill of the companions of Abū Ḥanīfah, he would recite this verse:

In Manāqib al-Kurdarī, Ibn Jablah said: I heard Imām Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan say: "It is not permissible for anyone to narrate from our books unless he has heard them from us, or from someone who heard them from us." This was because the practice of the companions of Imām Abū Ḥanīfah, may Allāh have mercy on him, was to discuss an issue among themselves for two or three days, and then write it down, in most cases without mentioning the proofs. They relied on the length of the discussions and their familiarity with the matter, satisfied with the recollection of the proofs they had before the issue was committed to writing. Thus, when one of them, well-versed in the school, heard the proof for a given issue, his heart was put at ease. The same was the case when his knowledge matched theirs; otherwise, his transmission would be a blind imitation.

Ibn Abī al-ʿAwwām also narrates from Imām al-Ṭaḥāwī, from Ibrāhīm ibn Abī Dāwūd, who said: I heard Yaḥyā ibn Ṣāliḥ al-Wuḥāẓī say: "I performed Ḥajj in the company of Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan. When we reached Banū Khālid (where Abū al-Haytham al-Wāsiṭī's place was), I went to his gathering and was crowded by some of the companions of Ḥadīth, until they irritated me. I said: 'These people, if you asked them a single issue of fiqh, they would not know the answer.' He said: 'May Allāh guide you! There may be some among them who are not like that.' He asked about an issue, and I answered. He liked my answer, and said, 'Where did you get this from?' I said, 'From Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan, and he is your companion in this Ḥajj.' He said, 'When we are done, take me to where he is staying so that I may greet him.' When we were done, I went with him to Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan, and when he saw him, he stood up for him and showed him great honour."

Imām al-Ṭaḥāwī also narrates from Ibn ʿImrān, from al-Ṭabarī, who said: Abū ʿAbdillāh al-Bursī told me: "Abū al-ʿAbbās's ḥalqah was the largest in the mosque of Baghdād, and Bishr ibn al-Walīd attended it. We continued in this state until Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan came to us, that is, from al-Raqqah. We came to him and started studying these issues from him. Bishr ibn al-Walīd would then come, and we would ask him about these issues, and he would answer; he became so taken with this that he largely abandoned his own ḥalqah." Imām al-Ṭaḥāwī said: I heard Ibn ʿImrān say: "I heard Abū ʿAbdillāh Muḥammad ibn Abī Mālik say: 'I saw Bishr ibn al-Walīd one day in the presence of my father, and Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan was mentioned. He said to him, "Do not, Abū al-Walīd! This Muḥammad, what has come into the people's hands of these books, and the issues he himself originated and authored, would you be content for us to put one of his issues before you, for you to undertake to give its answer? Allāh ﷻ will reward you for answering it.'"" Imām al-Ṭaḥāwī said: I heard Ibn ʿImrān relate from Ibn al-Tilijī, who said: When the issues of Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan were read to al-Ḥasan ibn Abī Mālik, he said: "Imām Abū Yūsuf, may Allāh have mercy on him, was not as precise as this."

This Bishr ibn al-Walīd transmits from Abū Yūsuf; through him, Yaʿlā al-Mawṣilī heard the books of Abū Yūsuf, to the point that al-Dhahabī, in Ṭabaqāt al-Ḥuffāẓ, mentions: "Were it not for the long span over which Yaʿlā heard the books of Imām Abū Yūsuf from Bishr ibn al-Walīd, his isnād would not have reached him." This shows that Abū Yūsuf's books were so many that hearing them all took time, even with the speed of the muḥaddithīn, to the point that some of them would hear al-Jāmiʿ of al-Bukhārī in three days. This is supported by what is said: that the Amālī of Abū Yūsuf alone was about three hundred juzʾ; let alone his other books being heard with elevated isnād. Allāh knows best. Al-Ḥasan ibn Abī Mālik is among the companions of Abū Yūsuf, may Allāh forgive them all.

Ibn Abī al-ʿAwwām likewise narrates, from al-Ṭaḥāwī, from Sulaymān ibn Shuʿayb al-Kaysānī, from his father, who said: "Imām Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan dictated to us, saying: 'When people differ over an issue, one jurist regards it as forbidden, another regards it as lawful, and each gives a ruling according to his ijtihād, then what is correct in the sight of Allāh is one and the same: lawful or forbidden, the matter is one. Allāh has charged each one according to the level of his ijtihād, that he should exert it until his judgement reaches what is, in his view, the truth. So whoever has hit upon what is true in the sight of Allāh has hit upon it both in his view and in fact. And whoever exerted what was required of him but did not happen upon the truth in the sight of Allāh, has still done what was required, and is rewarded. As for someone who says, "What is forbidden in the sight of Allāh and what is lawful in the sight of Allāh are both correct"; this is something one should not say. Rather, what is correct in the sight of Allāh is one. The people have done what was required when they exerted their ijtihād and gave their verdict, but one of them has erred in this, since what was required of him was that he reach the position of the one who hit upon the truth. So though he erred, he discharged his ijtihād, and is rewarded; and though he erred, the truth in the sight of Allāh in all matters is one. This is the position of Imām Abū Ḥanīfah and Imām Abū Yūsuf, and it is our position too.'"

This shows that Abū Ḥanīfah and his companions were not among those who held that every mujtahid is correct in the absolute sense; and it refutes whoever has suggested otherwise about them.

Imām al-Ṭaḥāwī also narrates: I heard Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn Maʿbad say: I heard Ibn Shaddād al-ʿUbaydī say: I heard my father say: "I came to al-Raqqah while Imām Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan was its judge. I came to his door and asked permission to enter; he turned away from me, and I lingered at his door for several days. While I was there one day, on one of the streets, Imām Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan came along on his mount, in the bearing of judges. When he saw me, he came forward, and I felt awkward. He said, 'What is keeping you behind me, for I have been told that you arrived?' I said, 'I came to your house and was kept out, but I have come to you as you came to me when you were a judge other than this.' He was upset by this, and I sensed that he wanted to put it right. He said, 'Come with me to my house.' When he sat in his house I came in, and he said, 'What is your grievance, that I may inform you of it?' I said, 'You yourself brought this veiling upon yourself! They shut me out!' He said, 'Then I am wronged by anyone who shuts you out.' He said, 'Do not consult them, do not direct them to my door. Muḥammad, there is no veil between me and you save the curtain that screens the people, that I might clear my throat and clear my pace. If I am in a state in which it is fit for you to enter, I will let you in; if I am otherwise, you will hold off.' After that I would come to him, and the people would crowd at his door, and I would step over them and pass through their ranks until I reached his curtain, I would clear my throat, give greeting, and he would say, 'Come in, Abū Muḥammad,' and I would enter, or he would remain silent, and I would withdraw."

Imām al-Ṭaḥāwī also narrates from Yūnus ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā, who said: al-Shāfiʿī said: "Whenever Imām Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan sat down to debate in fiqh, he would have someone seated between himself and his opponent to act as judge between them. Whatever I have understood, I owe to this." Imām al-Ṭaḥāwī said: Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Aʿlā told us: "That man was ʿĪsā ibn Hārūn." This is the most balanced way of conducting a debate.

Al-Ṣaymarī said: ʿAbdullāh ibn Muḥammad al-Shāhid told us, from al-Qāḍī Mukram, from Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Mughallis, from Muḥammad ibn Samāʿah, who said: "ʿĪsā ibn Abān used to pray with us, but I would call him to come to Imām Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan; he would say: 'Those people contradict the Ḥadīth.' ʿĪsā was excellent at retaining Ḥadīth. So one day he prayed with us, and the assembly of Muḥammad was that day, he sat with us until the morning, and I did not part from him. When he had finished his sitting, I brought him in to Muḥammad and said, 'This is so-and-so, the son of your brother Abān, the scribe, and along with his sharp mind he has knowledge of Ḥadīth. I am calling him to you, and he refuses, saying, "You contradict the Ḥadīth."' Muḥammad came forward and said to him, 'Young man, what is it from the Ḥadīth in which you see us going against it? Do not give witness against us until you have heard from us!' Then he asked him about twenty-five chapters of Ḥadīth that day; Imām Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan answered him on each, telling him what these contained of abrogated and abrogating, and producing the supports and proofs. ʿĪsā left, and when we left after him he turned to me and said: 'Between me and you was a veil, that veil has been lifted. I never imagined there could be in any kingdom a man like this!' Imām Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan kept close company with him until ʿĪsā became deeply learned in fiqh."

This ʿĪsā ibn Abān was a mountain among the mountains of knowledge. He is the transmitter of al-Ḥujaj ʿalā Ahl al-Madīnah from Imām Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan, and the author of Kitāb al-Ḥujaj al-Ṣaghīr, in which he refuted ʿĪsā ibn Hārūn al-Hāshimī (a companion of al-Maʾmūn) for the claims he had made in his Kitāb al-Hāshimī about Imām Abū Ḥanīfah contradicting authentic aḥādīth. Al-Maʾmūn called upon the scholars to bring forth what they had in answer to Kitāb al-Hāshimī. Yet what Ismāʿīl ibn Ḥammād put together did not satisfy him, nor what Bishr wrote, nor what Yaḥyā ibn Aktham compiled. He was deeply impressed only with the book of ʿĪsā ibn Abān, and he took it as a final verdict against Kitāb al-Hāshimī. The matter is well known in Kitāb Ibn Abī al-ʿAwwām and Kitāb al-Ṣaymarī.

ʿĪsā ibn Abān also has Kitāb al-Ḥujaj al-Kabīr, which was the cause of Imām al-Shāfiʿī, may Allāh have mercy on him, leaving Iraq on his last journey: his old book had been refuted while he was away, so that he could no longer spread his earlier views in Iraq after the book of ʿĪsā ibn Abān. ʿĪsā ibn Abān also has a book refuting al-Marīsī and Imām al-Shāfiʿī on the conditions for accepting reports, as well as notes on principles which Abū Bakr al-Rāzī took into his own uṣūl; much of his transmission. The summary is that ʿĪsā ibn Abān is, in his own right, a mountain among the mountains of fiqh.

Statements Narrated from Imām Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal Regarding the Books of Imām Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan

Al-Khaṭīb said: al-Khallāl told me, ʿAlī ibn ʿAmr informed us, Muḥammad al-Nakhaʿī told us, Abū Bakr al-Qarāṭīsī told us; Ibrāhīm al-Ḥarbī said: "I asked Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal: 'These subtle issues, where do you take them from?' He said: 'From the books of Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan.'"

Shaykh ʿAbd al-Ḥayy al-Lakhnawī mentioned, in his introduction to al-Taʿlīq al-Mumajjad on the Muwaṭṭaʾ of Imām Muḥammad; narrating from Ibn al-Samʿānī, from Imām Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, may Allāh have mercy on him, that Aḥmad said: "When in any issue there are three positions [taken by these three], you will not hear of one differing from them." It was said to him: "Who are they?" He said: "Abū Ḥanīfah, Abū Yūsuf, and Muḥammad. Abū Ḥanīfah was the most penetrating in qiyās; Abū Yūsuf was the most knowledgeable of people in al-athar; and Muḥammad was the most knowledgeable in Arabic."

In Kitāb Miḥnat Imām Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, on the authority of Mūsā ibn Ḥazm al-Tirmidhī, who said: "I used to go to Abū Sulaymān al-Jūzjānī to study the books of Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan. I met Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal at the bridge. He said to me: 'Where are you going?' I said: 'To Abū Sulaymān.' He said: 'Astonishing! You have left three [generations of transmission] up to the Prophet ﷺ, and have settled for three up to Abū Ḥanīfah.' I said: 'How is that, O Abū ʿAbdillāh?' He said: 'Yazīd ibn Hārūn says: Wāsiṭ told us, Ḥamīd told us, from Anas, that the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ said such-and-such. And this man (i.e. Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan) says: Yaʿqūb told us, from Abū Ḥanīfah.' Mūsā ibn Ḥazm said: 'His words fell heavily on my heart, and I went to Wāsiṭ to hear from Yazīd ibn Hārūn'"; meaning whatever was easy of Ḥadīth, with no concern for deep fiqh.

ʿĀṣim ibn ʿIṣām al-Thaqafī said: "I was with Abū Sulaymān al-Jūzjānī, and I brought him the books of Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal. He said: 'If you would give up transmitting Muḥammad's books and come over to us, we would listen to Ḥadīth from you.' He wrote back to him on the back of the page: 'What is the use of us raising ourselves before you, when you do not raise us up to your level, and we do not have in our hands a single grain of these books to spread?'" Al-Kurdarī narrates this; and something similar passed between Aḥmad and Yaḥyā ibn Ṣāliḥ al-Wuḥāẓī, who received a comparable reply from him.

What was it, then, that drove Aḥmad to such inconsistency? At one moment, you see him praising Muḥammad's books and listening to them; at another, he is striving against those who would listen to them, saying that the chain, though elevated, gives little benefit in fiqh. At yet a third stage, he is striving against the transmitters of Muḥammad's books themselves, urging them not to transmit them, even after their own hesitation. Whenever he saw a student leaving his master in his choice of a science, he would say to a teacher's student: "I have come to you to take knowledge from you, since you have abandoned the teaching of so-and-so"; and this is very strange. These statements are met with concern, given how difficult they are to justify.

The truth is that, at the start of his life, Imām Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal studied with Imām Abū Yūsuf, may Allāh have mercy on him, for three years, heard Ḥadīth from him, and wrote down from him about three camel-loads of knowledge, as al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Sayyid al-Nās mentions in his commentary on the Sīrah and elsewhere. He also benefited from the books of Muḥammad, as is mentioned here. Then he became ascetic with regard to al-raʾy in the absolute sense; meaning deductive fiqh. His remarks on the views of Imām Mālik, may Allāh have mercy on him, al-Thawrī, Imām al-Shāfiʿī, may Allāh have mercy on him, Abū ʿUbayd, and Abū Thawr, and his fatwas, are well known in Manāqib Aḥmad of Ibn al-Jawzī and elsewhere.

We have alluded to some of these. Among them is the fact that Abū ʿAbdillāh Isḥāq ibn Manṣūr al-Kawsaj transmits from Aḥmad himself his issues in fiqh and al-raʾy; and Aḥmad himself, very strongly, testified against himself that he had retracted from those issues, none of them being excepted by anyone of the people of knowledge. Yet Kitāb Isḥāq ibn Manṣūr on the issues of Aḥmad and Ibn Rāhawayh is, in fact, among the most trustworthy of books on their views; al-Tirmidhī relies on it for citing the views of Aḥmad and Ibn Rāhawayh in al-Jāmiʿ. The book of Isḥāq ibn Manṣūr is among the manuscripts of al-Ẓāhiriyyah in Damascus.

The transmission of these fatwās from Aḥmad was not interrupted; rather, it was as though he sought to be taken as a model in taqlīd of them. He himself had cut off Ḥadīth-narration before his death by some thirteen years, as Abū Ṭālib al-Makkī and others mention. If he had brought forth in transmission what he had of these aḥādīth, the cessation of his teaching would not have been possible. And how few are those of the people of al-riwāyah who would erase books that they had spent their lives gathering and narrating, fearing that their transmission would bring upon them blame.

It is well known that the gathering of the Qurʾān in the time of Abū Bakr, may Allāh be pleased with him, took place only after much deliberation. The exchanges between him and ʿUmar are recorded: how Abū Bakr hesitated over the need to gather it, until the manifest need for it became clear. The same was the case when ʿUthmān, may Allāh be pleased with him, wished to make many copies of the Qurʾān and send them to the regions of the Muslims. Many of the early transmitters did not, at first, see fit to write down Ḥadīth or to codify it, and likewise tafsīr, fiqh and the rest of the sciences. Such caution was, the more ancient the period, the more excusable; but it would have been an unsound stance had it persisted into the third century, after the ummah as a whole had moved on to the codification of all the sciences, and the majority had affirmed the need for it.

Imagine what would have happened: if Abū Bakr had not gathered the Qurʾān between two covers, and ʿUthmān had not sent the standard copy under the supervision of the Companions to the regions of the Muslims, with skilled and trusted qurrāʾ attending to it, if they had not codified the Ḥadīth, taught it, and authored books in fiqh and the rest of the sciences; religious, intellectual and literary. Reflect on this, how the rectitude of the ummah depended on the codification of these sciences. Imām Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, like any other scholar, has the right to hold whatever positions he wishes in al-raʾy, al-riwāyah, fiqh, and Ḥadīth, on his own responsibility, and the right to refuse to be taken as a model in any of them. It is not for the people, however, to take him as a model in matters in which he himself, against his own wish, refused to be made one.

In sum: Imām Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, at the start of his affair, wrote Ḥadīth and fiqh, and held the words of Imām Abū Ḥanīfah, may Allāh have mercy on him, and his companions in high regard. Then his statements about Imām Abū Ḥanīfah and his companions wavered, until towards the end of his affair he corrected his speech concerning Imām Abū Ḥanīfah in the days of al-Miḥnah; as Abū al-Wurd, one of the Imāms of the Ḥanbalīs, mentioned in his book on the principles of religion. This is what ʿAllāmah Sulaymān ibn ʿAbd al-Qawī al-Ṭūfī al-Ḥanbalī conveyed in Sharḥ Mukhtaṣar al-Rawḍah in their uṣūl, found among the manuscripts of al-Ẓāhiriyyah in Damascus, in what Ibn Bīrān, whom Allāh moved to set his affair right; transcribed.

As for the words attributed to some of the companions of Aḥmad against Imām Abū Ḥanīfah and his companions, none of these actually disgrace those imām-jurists. Look, for example, at Kitāb al-Sunnah of ʿAbdullāh ibn Aḥmad, Ṭabaqāt of Abū al-Ḥusayn ibn Abī Yaʿlā, Jāmiʿ Ḥarb of Ismāʿīl, and Naqḍ ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd; these will fade away in the eyes of any who hold to a fair examination of them. What rank do these critics actually attain compared to that of these Imām-jurists? They reach no higher than the dreams of those obstinate ones, which then vanish.

Imām Muḥammad's Creedal Positions

Al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū al-Qāsim Hibatullāh ibn al-Ḥasan al-Lālakāʾī said, in Sharḥ al-Sunnah: with his chain to Abū Sulaymān al-Jūzjānī, who said: I heard Imām Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan, may Allāh have mercy on him, say: "Whoever says that the Qurʾān is created; he is a disbeliever, do not pray behind him." That is, what is established with Allāh and what is the writing of the scribes, the voice of the reciter, and the sound, its existence is in the memory of the ḥuffāẓ, witnessed in its gatherings: whoever calls it created, intending its createdness, has gone outside what is in the Book and the authentic Sunnah, and has fallen into disbelieving the one who says of the lafẓ of the Qurʾān that it is created in respect of the occurrence of the utterance and pronunciation. It has reached us that some of the transmitters of this view, deeply regretting it, departed from it, to the point that Ibn Abī Ḥātim, for instance, repudiated those of the ḥuffāẓ who acted on this excess.

Al-Lālakāʾī also said: Muḥammad ibn Sulaymān informed us, Abū Yaʿlā ibn Yūsuf ibn Yaʿqūb informed us, Abū Muḥammad Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī ibn Zayd al-ʿAjīrānī and Abū ʿAbdillāh Muḥammad ibn Abī ʿAmr al-Ṭawsī informed us, ʿAmr ibn Wahb said: "I heard Shaddād ibn Ḥakīm relate from Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan, regarding the aḥādīth that have come, such as 'Allāh descends to the lowest heaven,' and the like, that these are aḥādīth narrated by trustworthy transmitters: we narrate them and believe in them, but do not interpret them."

He also said: Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥafṣ informed us, Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad informed us, Abū Muḥammad Sahl ibn ʿUthmān ibn Saʿīd ibn Ḥakīm al-Sulamī said: "I heard Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm ibn Aḥmad say: I heard Abū Sulaymān ibn Mulḥah say: I heard ʿUbaydullāh ibn Abī Ḥanīfah al-Dabbūsī say: I heard Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan say: 'The jurists have all agreed, from east to west, upon belief in the Qurʾān and in the aḥādīth that have come, from the trustworthy transmitters, from the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ describing the Lord ﷻ, without interpretation, description or comparison. Whoever interprets anything of this today has gone outside what the Prophet ﷺ was upon, and has kharaja ʿan al-jamāʿah (kharaja ʿan al-jamāʿah): for they neither described nor interpreted, but rather gave fatwa with what is in the Book and the Sunnah, and then were silent. Whoever speaks with description has departed from the community, for he has described Him with a quality that is no thing.'"

This refutes those who slander them by claiming that they used to call to the createdness of the Qurʾān, or to the Jahmiyyah view. They refused to plunge into matters concerning the divine attributes, as is the way of the righteous salaf, the chosen ones, and bear in mind that this period gave rise to many sects, the cause of which was the necessity of taʾwīl in repudiating tashbīh, and the need to suppress those who ascribed letter, voice and movement to Allāh ﷻ.

Al-Ṣaymarī said: ʿAbdullāh ibn Mukrim told me, Abū ʿAbdillāh ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad informed us, Shuʿayb ibn Ayyūb said: I heard al-Ḥasan ibn Ziyād say: I heard Imām Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan say: "My way, and the way of Abū Ḥanīfah and Abū Yūsuf, is the way of Abū Bakr, then ʿUmar, then ʿUthmān, then ʿAlī (may Allāh be pleased with them all)." His statement on al-Īmān is the same as the position of Imām Abū Ḥanīfah: that īmān is al-ʿaqd and al-kalimah, with the detail that goes with it as is set out in the creed of Imām al-Ṭaḥāwī. As for one whose breast was so constricted by anything of this that he proceeded to brand them with anthropomorphism (al-tajsīm) or with deferral of judgement (al-irjāʾ), he is far indeed from the Sunnah, far from the earth and far from the heavens.

Some Words of the People of Knowledge in Praise of Imām Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan

Ibn Abī al-ʿAwwām al-Ḥāfiẓ mentioned, with his isnād, that Imām Mālik ibn Anas, may Allāh have mercy on him, said one day, while his Ḥadīth-companions were with him: "No one comes to us from the East in whom there is anything of substance." Imām Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan, may Allāh have mercy on him, was present at that gathering. Imām Mālik's eye fell upon him and he said: "except this young man." Note that Ibn al-Mubārak, Wakīʿ and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mahdī had also come to him; yet he gave Muḥammad this kind of preference over them.

He also mentioned, with his isnād, that Imām al-Shāfiʿī, may Allāh have mercy on him, said: "I have not seen anyone more knowledgeable of the Book of Allāh ﷻ than Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan, as if it had been sent down upon him." He also said: "I have never heard anyone; when he spoke, in a way that I imagined the Qurʾān had been sent down in his tongue, except Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan, and I copied from him a male bukhtī-camel-load of books." He singled out the male bukhtī because it carries more than other camels.

He also mentioned that al-Muzanī said: "A man addressed Ibn al-Ḥasan, saying: 'Muḥammad said.' He replied: 'Which Muḥammad?' The man said: 'Ibn al-Ḥasan.' He said: 'Welcome to one who fills the ear with hearing and the heart with understanding. Whatever I have said, al-Shāfiʿī said it too.'"

Al-Ṣaymarī mentioned with his isnād that Imām al-Shāfiʿī said: "I have not seen anyone more knowledgeable of the lawful and the forbidden, of al-ʿilal and the abrogating and the abrogated, than Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan." He also said: "I recognise the position of teacher (al-ustādhiyyah) for Mālik, and then for Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan." And he also said: "If the people did Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan justice, they would acknowledge that they have not seen his like. I never sat with a jurist whom I found more learned than him in fiqh, nor one whose tongue opened to fiqh as his did. He grasped of fiqh and its causes what even the great could not match." He also said: "I copied from Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan a camel-load of books; would that I had not done so! Of the knowledge I drew from him, the people are dependent on the people of Iraq, and the people of Iraq are dependent on the people of Kūfah, and the people of Kūfah are dependent on Abū Ḥanīfah."

Al-Muzanī said about the companions of Imām Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan: "By Allāh, they would fill the ears when they spoke, and bring delight to the jurists by what they said once they had understood." Then he turned to his own companions and said: "By Allāh, I did not say this of my own accord; rather, I heard al-Shāfiʿī say more than this." Al-Shāfiʿī also said: "I have not seen anyone more eloquent than Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan." He also said: "I have never asked anyone about an issue without his face changing, except Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan."

Al-Khaṭīb mentioned with his isnād that Imām al-Shāfiʿī said: "If I wished to say that the Qurʾān had been sent down upon the tongue of Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan, I would say so, for his eloquence." He also said: "I have not seen a stout man lighter of spirit than Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan; nor have I seen anyone more eloquent than him." He also said: "I have not seen anyone more sound of intellect than him." He also said: "I carried from Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan a bukhtī-load of books." He also said: "When Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan al-Shaybānī took up an issue, it was as though the Qurʾān were being sent down upon him: he would advance no letter and delay none." And to a man who asked him whether he had ever seen a jurist, Imām al-Shāfiʿī said: "Have you ever seen a jurist? Only one who has seen Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan can answer that. He made the eye and the heart flow." And: "I have not seen any stout man keener of mind than Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan." He also said: "The most reliable of people in fiqh, in my view, is Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan."

Imām al-Nawawī mentions much of this in al-Tahdhīb, and so did Imām al-Dhahabī, may Allāh have mercy on him, in his juzʾ. Among what Imām al-Dhahabī mentioned in his juzʾ is what Ibn Kās al-Nakhaʿī narrated from Aḥmad ibn Ḥammād, from Sufyān, from al-Rabīʿ, from Imām al-Shāfiʿī, who said: "I have not seen anyone more sound of intellect, more learned in fiqh, more ascetic, more devout, nor better in expression and speech, than Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan." Imām al-Dhahabī said no one transmits this besides Aḥmad ibn Ḥammād; saying: "Aḥmad ibn Ḥammād; they did not speak [adversely] in him"; though the report has supports.

In Manāqib al-Kurdarī, from Imām al-Shāfiʿī: "Allāh helped me by means of two men: Ibn ʿUyaynah in Ḥadīth, and Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan in fiqh." Also from him: "On the day I first met him, he was sitting in the cell, with the people gathered around him. I looked at his face: he was one of the most beautiful of people in countenance, his forehead like ivory. I then looked at his garment: he was one of the best-dressed of people. I asked him about a contested issue, hoping some weakness would overtake him and that he would slip in his speech. But he expounded his words and strengthened his school, and did not slip at all." Also from him: "I would frequent Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan, and sit with him, until I had heard his books." And: "No one has done me a favour in knowledge, nor in worldly matters, comparable to what Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan has done for me." He used to invoke Allāh's mercy on him often. Also from him: "I have not seen anyone more knowledgeable of the lawful and the forbidden, and of the abrogating and the abrogated, than Muḥammad." And from him also: "I have not seen the like of Muḥammad; he speaks with wisdom, and when he hears what is unbecoming, he does not tolerate it."

Al-Badr al-ʿAynī mentions, in Maghānī al-Akhbār fī Rijāl Maʿānī al-Āthār, on the authority of Ibn al-Athīr and Ibn Kathīr and others, words of Imām al-Shāfiʿī about Imām Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan that do not depart from what has come before. Al-Taqī al-Tamīmī is similar in his Ṭabaqāt.

Ibn Abī al-ʿAwwām brought forth, with his isnād, from Dāwūd al-Ṭāʾī, who said of Imām Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan, when he was an early Ḥadīth student: "If he lives, he will have a great matter." And from Imām Abū Yūsuf, may Allāh have mercy on him, on the memory of Imām Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan as a youth: "Such is what memory should be." And from him also concerning Imām Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan, when he was small: "What a sword he is; except that there is rust upon him, and he requires polishing." And from him also concerning Muḥammad: "He is the most knowledgeable of the people"; and in another wording: "Of the most knowledgeable of the people." And from Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn: "I copied al-Jāmiʿ al-Ṣaghīr from Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan." This is in the Tārīkh of Ibn Maʿīn, in al-Dūrī's recension from him, which is among the manuscripts of al-Ẓāhiriyyah in Damascus. Ibn Abī al-ʿAwwām likewise brought forth that al-Ḥasan ibn Abī Mālik said, when the issues of Imām Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan were read to him: "Abū Yūsuf was not as precise as this." The chains for all this are in the Kitāb of Ibn Abī al-ʿAwwām al-Ḥāfiẓ.

Al-Ṣaymarī brought forth, with his isnād from Abū ʿUbayd, that he said: "I have not seen anyone more knowledgeable of the Book of Allāh than Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan." And in Manāqib al-Kurdarī, from Muḥammad ibn Salām: "I spent on the books of Muḥammad ten thousand dirhams. If I could begin my affair from where I left off, I would not occupy myself with anything except the books of that righteous man, Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan." ʿĪsā ibn Abān was asked: "Is Abū Yūsuf the more learned in fiqh, or Muḥammad?" He said: "Take note of their books"; meaning that Muḥammad was the more learned in fiqh.

From Muḥammad ibn Salamah: "He divided the night into three parts: a part for sleep, a part for prayer, and a part for study. He kept long vigils. It was said to him: 'Why do you not sleep?' He replied: 'How can I sleep, when the eyes of the Muslims have been turned to us in reliance, saying: "If anything befalls us, we shall refer it to him, and he will clarify it for us"? If I were to neglect this, I would be squandering the religion.'"

In Tārīkh al-Khaṭīb (vol. 2, p. 174), with his isnād to Ismāʿīl ibn Ḥammād ibn Abī Ḥanīfah, that: "Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan held a sitting in the mosque of Kūfah while he was twenty years old." Al-Dhahabī mentions in his juzʾ that Imām Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan had exceptional sharpness of mind, complete intellect, dignity of bearing, and abundance of recitation. Imām al-Ṭaḥāwī said: I heard Aḥmad ibn Abī ʿImrān relate from some of the companions of Imām Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan that Muḥammad's daily portion was a third of the Qurʾān every day and night. Abū Khāzim said: I heard Bakr ibn Muḥammad al-ʿAmmī say: "It was from Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan that Ibn Samāʿah and ʿĪsā ibn Abān took the excellence of his prayer."

Ibn Abī al-ʿAwwām narrated from Imām al-Ṭaḥāwī, may Allāh have mercy on him, from Ibn Abī ʿImrān, from Muḥammad ibn Shujāʿ, who used to say (with a leaning towards his shaykh al-Ḥasan ibn Ziyād, after his parting from Imām Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan): "There has not been laid down in Islam, in the field of fiqh, a book like al-Jāmiʿ al-Kabīr of Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan." He also narrated from Imām al-Ṭaḥāwī, from Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Mardās, from Muḥammad ibn Shujāʿ: "Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan, in al-Jāmiʿ al-Kabīr, was like a man who built a great house: every time he raised it up to a level, he built a stairway by which to climb up to what he had raised, until he completed its construction in this manner. Then he came down from it and demolished its stairs, and said to the people: 'This is your concern, climb up if you can!'"

The truth is that this book is a marvel of original composition. It contains exquisite precision in branching upon the rules of language and the foundations of arithmetic, alongside its attainment of the fine points of the principles of the radiant Sharīʿah. He composed it as a touchstone by which the discernment of the jurists could be known, and the differing levels of their understanding distinguished, by how they unravelled its branchings.

Muḥammad ibn Saʿd said: "He grew up in Kūfah; sought knowledge; sought Ḥadīth; listened a great deal; sat with Abū Ḥanīfah and heard from him; reflected deeply in al-raʾy, became proficient in it, and was renowned for it. He went down to Baghdād; his school there flourished, and the people frequented him to listen to him in Ḥadīth and al-raʾy."

Al-Khaṭīb mentioned, with his isnād, that ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī, when asked about Imām Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan, said: "Ṣadūq." The like is in al-Muntaẓim of Ibn al-Jawzī and in Tahṣīl al-Manfaʿah of Ibn Ḥajar. Imām al-Dhahabī mentioned in his juzʾ that Imām al-Shāfiʿī took proof through him in Ḥadīth. Al-Dhahabī also said in Mīzān al-Iʿtidāl: "Al-Nasāʾī and others criticised him on the side of his memory, while he was a pillar of knowledge and fiqh in Mālik." How astonishing! How could he, in regard to what he heard in his shaykh's presence, be criticised for memory, when this Imām was, in what he had spent his life upon, an authority among the ḥuffāẓ. Among the people of jarḥ who would compete in throwing themselves down into a pit of fire is Ibn Daqīq al-ʿĪd. Al-Badr al-ʿAynī said in Mirʾāt al-Zamān of ʿulamāʾ al-Siyar: Sibṭ Ibn al-Jawzī said: "Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan was an Imām who is ḥujjah in all the sciences"; though he transmits this as the saying of his grandfather, Ibn al-Jawzī, in his Kitāb al-Ḍuʿafāʾ with respect to Muḥammad's standing, on the authority of Imām Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal. As for Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn, he had a marginal hostility to these two Imāms, and spoke of both of them with malice, even though he was someone from whose abundant knowledge Imām Muḥammad benefited, despite the acknowledgement of his rank, his trustworthiness, his piety, his asceticism, and his many manāqib, as al-Badr al-ʿAynī has noted.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim relates, from his father, in his Kitāb al-Sīrah concerning Imām Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan; Ṣāḥib al-Raʾy: "Al-Wāqidī, they did not retain aḥādīth from him." Yet they have transmitted from Imām Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan, from al-Wāqidī, aḥādīth and others have transmitted from Imām Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan from al-Wāqidī's shaykhs, such as Khārijah ibn ʿAbdullāh ibn Sulaymān ibn Thābit, Muḥammad ibn Hilāl, and al-Ḍaḥḥāk ibn ʿUthmān, all of this through al-Wāqidī from Imām Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan from these shaykhs.

If by these words this speaker wishes to discredit those aḥādīth on the ground that they are transmitted through al-Wāqidī, then al-Wāqidī has been declared trustworthy by more than one of the early scholars; and although some have criticised him for various reasons, those reasons are not accepted in the eyes of these [trustworthy authorities]. And if he means that Muḥammad sometimes transmits from al-Wāqidī's shaykhs without al-Wāqidī as intermediary, what objection lies in this? There is no problem in Muḥammad's having heard some aḥādīth from al-Wāqidī's shaykhs through al-Wāqidī, and others from these same shaykhs directly. Muḥammad was a long-time pilgrim, and he met those of the same generation as these shaykhs of Madīnah, such as Usāmah al-Laythī, ʿUbaydullāh al-ʿUmarī and Ibn Abī Dhiʾb. Al-Badr al-ʿAynī indeed mentions a narration from Abū Ḥafṣ: that al-Wāqidī used to come to Imām Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan, and Muḥammad would recite to him Kitāb al-Maghāzī, and al-Wāqidī would recite to him Kitāb al-Jāmiʿ al-Ṣaghīr, the like is in Manāqib al-Kurdarī. This is the transmission of contemporaries (riwāyat al-aqrān), in which they narrate from one another. How could Muḥammad have done without one such as al-Wāqidī in al-maghāzī, when Imām Abū Yūsuf could not do without Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq in this same field? The affair of such a noble Imām is not to be referred for arbitration to the likes of al-ʿUqaylī and Ibn ʿAdī, among the trailing edges of the Ḥashawiyyah.

Imām Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan was far removed from the circle of the Ḥashawiyyah among the transmitters, and was openly disdainful of their fancies, like his shaykh Imām Abū Ḥanīfah. For this their tongues stretched against the two of them; unlike Imām Abū Yūsuf, whom they used to handle gently. Eventually they said: "Abū Yūsuf was fair in Ḥadīth, as for Abū Ḥanīfah and Muḥammad, they were opposed to the athar." There is none among our Imāms who contradicts the authentic Sunnah. Rather, the one who holds that the Lord is seated upon the Throne and moves upon it, that the letters and the sound [of revelation] are pre-eternal, who inclines toward the Khawārij in the question of īmān, or toward the Qadariyyah in saying that He wills what He wills without any of these, to such a one's ravings none turns except those of his ilk in misguidance; may Allāh guide them.

The Books and Works of Imām Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan

From no scholar of his class has there reached us a body of fiqh comparable to what has reached us from Imām Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan. His books are the foundation of the codified books of the schools in fiqh. Many of the diligent investigators (let alone the judges of the Sharīʿah courts) have shown a sincere desire to publish the books of Imām Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan, acknowledging that his books are the foundation of the codified works in the fiqh of the schools.

A group of leading scholars in India, under the leadership of al-ʿAllāmah al-Faqīh al-Muḥaddith Abū al-Wafāʾ; may Allāh preserve him, has undertaken the search for the manuscripts of these works in the libraries of the world for the sake of publishing them. The people of this affair recognise their great service in this, may Allāh strengthen them and grant them success in bringing this beneficial work to completion. He is the One who answers.

The extent to which the codified books of the schools depend on the books of Imām Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan is no secret. Al-Asadiyyah, which is the basis of al-Mudawwanah in the school of Imām Mālik, may Allāh have mercy on him; was authored only in the light of Muḥammad's books, as has already been mentioned. Al-Shāfiʿī did not compose anything except after his fiqh in Muḥammad and his books, and what he had memorised of them. Imām Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, may Allāh have mercy on him, also used to answer questions on issues from the books of Muḥammad, and likewise the jurists who came after them.

The greatest of Muḥammad's works is Kitāb al-Aṣl, known as al-Mabsūṭ. It is said that Imām al-Shāfiʿī, may Allāh have mercy on him, memorised it and authored al-Umm in imitation of al-Aṣl. Aslam ibn Ḥakīm, one of the people of Iraq; said, in respect of one of those who differed with him over al-Mabsūṭ: "This is your Muḥammad's smaller book, what then of his greater book?" Al-Mabsūṭ is in six volumes, each of about five hundred sheets, narrated by a group of his companions such as Abū Sulaymān al-Jūzjānī, Muḥammad ibn Samāʿah al-Tamīmī and Abū Ḥafṣ al-Bukhārī al-Kabīr. Allāh ﷻ has granted this book great preservation, for it contains thousands of branchings in matters of the lawful and the forbidden, knowledge of which is incumbent upon the people. The author Abū al-Ḥasan ibn Dāwūd was from the people of Basra, and took pride in this work before the people of his school. His method in the book is to mention the rulings on issues alongside the views of Imām Abū Ḥanīfah, may Allāh have mercy on him, and Imām Abū Yūsuf, may Allāh have mercy on him, while stating his own opinion, without setting out the proofs explicitly; the aḥādīth indicating the issues being mostly handled by the majority of the jurists of his class. He sometimes cites his evidence in respect of issues from which their evidence has departed.

If the headings of this large book were extracted, it would form a fine volume on its own. Several full copies are extant: one in the libraries of Istanbul, in six volumes; another in the library of Fayḍ Allāh Effendi, in four volumes; and others in the libraries of Jārullāh, Walī al-Dīn Shaykh al-Islām, ʿĀṭif Effendi (the oldest) and Murād Mullā, all of these from the recension of al-Jūzjānī. The number of volumes varies according to the handwriting. There exists, in Maktabat al-Azhar, a volume of its first part; and in Dār al-Kutub al-Miṣriyyah several volumes under the names al-Aṣl and al-Furūʿ, although no fully complete copy is preserved there.

Among his books that have come down to us is al-Jāmiʿ al-Ṣaghīr, a blessed book containing about 1,532 issues, in which mention is made of disagreement on 170 issues. Qiyās and istiḥsān are mentioned in only two issues. Allāh ﷻ has decreed for it widespread dissemination, even commentaries by the Imāms of the muḥaqqiqīn. Shaykh ʿAbd al-Ḥayy al-Lakhnawī mentioned in al-Nāfiʿ al-Kabīr li-man yuṭāliʿ al-Jāmiʿ al-Ṣaghīr an account of its expounding. Among its transmitters are al-Jūzjānī, Abū Ḥafṣ, ʿAlī ibn Maʿbad, Bawayhī Abū Ṭāhir al-Dabbās, and al-Zaʿfarānī; without listing the issues. The reason for its composition was that Imām Abū Yūsuf had asked Muḥammad to compile a book gathering with him what he had memorised of what was narrated from Imām Abū Ḥanīfah, Muḥammad gathered this book and presented it to him. Imām Abū Yūsuf said: "Whatever I memorised from Abū ʿAbdillāh, except that he erred in three issues." Muḥammad replied: "I did not err: it is rather a matter of transmission." It is said that Imām Abū Yūsuf, despite his eminent rank, would not part from this book at home or on a journey. Al-Jāmiʿ al-Ṣaghīr was printed in India together with the commentary of Shaykh ʿAbd al-Ḥayy al-Lakhnawī, and also in Istanbul and in Egypt.

Among Muḥammad's other books is Kitāb al-Siyar al-Ṣaghīr, which he transmits from Imām Abū Ḥanīfah. Al-Awzāʿī tried to refute Imām Abū Ḥanīfah's Siyar, and Imām Abū Yūsuf wrote al-Radd ʿalā al-Awzāʿī in answer.

And among them is al-Jāmiʿ al-Kabīr, a great book of jurisprudence containing the issues together with the texts of their narrations and the substance of their narrative kernels, such that it is nearly miraculous, as al-ʿAqīlī said in his commentary on Talkhīṣ al-Khilāfī of al-Jāmiʿ al-Kabīr. We have already mentioned the saying of Ibn Shujāʿ regarding it: "Nothing has been laid down in Islam in fiqh like it." Imām al-Mujtahid Abū Bakr al-Rāzī said in his commentary on al-Jāmiʿ al-Kabīr: "I read certain issues of al-Jāmiʿ al-Kabīr upon al-Burzīnī in al-naḥw; meaning Abū ʿAlī al-Fārisī, and he was astonished by the strangeness and clarity of this book in al-naḥw." Ibn Abī al-ʿAwwām narrated, with his isnād to al-Akhfash, that he praised this book of Muḥammad greatly for its complete agreement with the rules of Arabic.

Al-ʿAllāmah al-Sharīf al-Naqīb Jamāl al-Dīn ibn ʿUbayd Allāh al-Mawṣilī wrote, dated 15 Muḥarram of the year 615 [AH], to al-Qāḍī Sharaf al-Dīn ibn Yaʿīsh ibn ʿAyn, and said: "I have, for a long time, been contemplating Kitāb al-Jāmiʿ al-Kabīr of Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan, may Allāh have mercy on him. The book, your discernment in this is correct, is wonderfully strange in its art, no one of his class has authored its like. He posed in it questions which the Imāms of memory had been baffled by, and the great king ʿĪsā answered them with what he extracted of the texts of the said book, which shows the deep penetration of Muḥammad and his shaykh into the secrets of Arabic. Through this book the ḥalqah of jurists is renewed, and by it is examined what stands between them of variation in their understanding and the degree of their swallowing of fiqh." All of the prominent scholars insist that he is ḥujjah in fiqh, just as he is ḥujjah in language. As for the people of al-raʾy, you see that the Shāfiʿiyyah differ amongst themselves on whether Imām al-Shāfiʿī is ḥujjah in language, as may be inferred from the discussion of the meaning of al-ṣifah in al-Burhān of Ibn al-Juwaynī.

This book has been commented on by scores of the lasting Imāms, and their enduring commentaries are preserved in the libraries of the world. There are numerous copies of al-Jāmiʿ al-Kabīr in the libraries of Istanbul, the oldest of which is in the library of Maktabat al-Fātiḥ, another copy is in the library of Walī al-Dīn Shaykh al-Islām, another in the library of Yenī Jāmiʿ. Al-Jāmiʿ al-Kabīr has been transmitted from Muḥammad by a great number of his companions, among them is ʿAlī ibn Maʿbad, on Ibn Shaddād.

Some of Muḥammad's other books are al-Ziyādāt and Ziyādat al-Ziyādāt, both authored after al-Jāmiʿ al-Kabīr as supplements to remedy what had passed in it of issues. They are among the wonders of his books, and are highly esteemed by the people of knowledge. There exist copies of these in Istanbul libraries, of the books transmitted from him by way of fame and notice, distinguished from al-Nawādir. It is said about the reason for his composing al-Ziyādāt: that Imām Abū Yūsuf in one of his sittings dictated subsidiary issues, and said: "These ramifications, were one to branch them out upon Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan, would be difficult." When this reached Muḥammad, he authored al-Ziyādāt; so that it might be evidence that those branchings, however subtle, were not difficult to expound. Allāh ﷻ knows best.

Among his books is Kitāb al-Siyar al-Kabīr, one of the latest of Muḥammad's compositions, written after Abū Ḥafṣ al-Kabīr's departure to Bukhārā. Its recension was confined among Baghdādīs like al-Jūzjānī and Ismāʿīl ibn Tawbah al-Qazwīnī. Hārūn al-Rashīd held this book in extraordinary regard, naming his sons al-Amīn and al-Maʾmūn after it, and dignifying its rank. A group of the Imāms have commented on it, and Imām al-Sarakhsī's commentary upon it has been printed in India in four volumes. The Shaykh of Shaykhs al-ʿAllāmah Muḥammad al-Munīb al-ʿAyntābī has a fine gloss on it titled al-Taysīr ʿalā al-Siyar al-Kabīr, found in the library of Shaykh al-Islām ʿĀrif Ḥikmah Beg in al-Madīnah al-Munawwarah. There exist manuscript copies of al-Siyar al-Kabīr in the libraries of Istanbul. Al-Siyar al-Kabīr was translated into Turkish by the pen of our shaykh of shaykhs, al-ʿAyntābī (the said one), in the time of Sultan Maḥmūd Khān al-ʿUthmānī, to make it easier for the leaders of the armies of the State to read in the rulings of jihād. The said translation was printed in Istanbul.

These six books, namely al-Mabsūṭ, al-Jāmiʿ al-Ṣaghīr and al-Jāmiʿ al-Kabīr, al-Siyar al-Ṣaghīr and al-Siyar al-Kabīr, and al-Ziyādāt; comprise what is called ẓāhir al-riwāyah of his school: the rulings transmitted from him by way of fame and tawātur. Beyond them lie his other books in fiqh, narrated by way of singular reports.

Among them is al-Ruqayyāt: issues which Imām Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan branched out during his judgeship at al-Raqqah, transmitted from him by Muḥammad ibn Samāʿah, who was in his company for much of his stay there. And among them is al-Kaysāniyyāt, which Shuʿayb ibn Sulaymān al-Kaysānī narrates from Muḥammad. Al-Ṭaḥāwī transmits from Sulaymān ibn Shuʿayb, from his father, from Muḥammad. It is said that it has Amālī as well, of which a portion is found in al-Aṣfiyyah library in Hyderabad Deccan and in the Dāʾirat al-Maʿārif there. There is, on the determination to print that section, as has reached me from my friend al-ʿAllāmah al-Faqīh al-Muḥaddith Abū al-Wafāʾ, Shaykh al-Ḥadīth at al-Madrasah al-Niẓāmiyyah in Hyderabad Deccan.

Among them is al-Jurjāniyyāt, which ʿAlī ibn Ṣāliḥ al-Jurjānī narrates from Muḥammad. And among them is al-Hārūniyyāt, which has a recension by way of Ibrāhīm ibn Rustam; Kitāb al-Nawādir; and another by Ibn Samāʿah, and yet another by Hishām ibn ʿUbayd Allāh al-Rāzī. Such books have come to be regarded as nawādir in the libraries, just as their issues count as nawādir in the school.

Of his is Kitāb al-Kasb; it is said that he died before putting the final touches to it. They had asked him to compose a book on al-waraʿ (scrupulousness in earnings), and he answered them by composing a book on al-bayʿ (transactions): that one wishing to clarify the matter of waraʿ, when he sought a beautiful means of conducting his livelihood, must, by way of seeking pure earning, insist on putting it down. He began to compose this book, but death intercepted him before completing it. Shams al-Aʾimmah Imām al-Sarakhsī commented on this book in al-Tarājim. There is, in Dār al-Kutub al-Miṣriyyah, a copy preserved under no. 11 in the fann al-ṣināʿah, of about forty-five sheets, mentioned on the authority of al-Mukaybis; said to be the Talkhīṣ of Kitāb Ibn Samāʿah of Kitāb al-Kasb by Muḥammad's writing on its back: Kitāb al-Iktisāb fī al-Rizq al-Mustaṭāb. The book is fine of its kind, though there is some doubt, in al-Anbas, about attributing the book by this name to Ibn Samāʿah; and Allāh knows best.

There has been printed recently Kitāb al-Makhārij wa-l-Ḥiyal by Imām Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan, narrated by Imām Abū Yūsuf, at Dār al-Kutub al-Miṣriyyah. Ibn Abī al-ʿAwwām said: I heard Ibn Abī ʿImrān say: I heard Ibn Samāʿah say: I heard Imām Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan say; concerning Kitāb fī al-Makhārij wa-l-Ḥiyal that some people circulated: "This book is not from our books; rather, it has been thrust into them." Ibn Abī ʿImrān said: "Ismāʿīl ibn Ḥammād ibn Abī Ḥanīfah composed it." I have spoken about this in my note on Kitāb Zaghal al-ʿIlm of Imām al-Dhahabī, may Allāh have mercy on him, p. 14; and so on.

As for the books in which he transmitted riwāyat al-ḥadīth from his books that have come to our hands: among them is Kitāb al-Muwaṭṭaʾ, from his transmission of Imām Mālik, with what he added of al-Yazīd over what he had narrated from Imām Mālik. It contains around 1,005 aḥādīth and āthār; marfūʿ, mawqūf, and what is narrated from about 40 shaykhs other than Imām Mālik. This Muwaṭṭaʾ is from the masmūʿāt of Abū al-Walīd al-Bājī by way of Abū Dharr al-Hirawī, as in the latter part of Sharḥ al-Muwaṭṭaʾ (vol. 7, p. 300). By it the Muwaṭṭaʾ of Muḥammad spread in al-Andalus, and the chains of his Muwaṭṭaʾ by his recension of Muḥammad have been mentioned in Ithbāt mashāyikhinā from the levels of the easterners. The importance of this Muwaṭṭaʾ has been spoken of in the account of Muḥammad's journey to Imām Mālik, may Allāh be pleased with them. It has been commented on by al-Qārī, al-Bīrī (commentator on al-Ashbāh), and ʿUthmān al-Kamākhī. The Muwaṭṭaʾ of Muḥammad was printed in India many times, with the gloss of al-Taʿlīq al-Mumajjad of al-ʿAllāmah ʿAbd al-Ḥayy al-Lakhnawī.

However, a ḥadīth was inserted by mistake in the Sawāfī, in the Ṣalīb, namely a ḥadīth of al-Qirāʾah khalfa al-Imām, in the report of Abū ʿAlī ibn Maḥmūd al-Marwazī to the end of the isnād. Al-Lakhnawī was perplexed by it in respect of its men in this isnād. He thought that "Abū ʿAlī" was Abū ʿAlī, the shaykh of Imām Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan, but he has nothing to do with Imām Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan in this ḥadīth, for Abū ʿAlī is in fact Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Ḥasan al-Ṣawwāf, of the rijāl of the fourth century. Refer to the tarjamah of Shaykh al-Marwazī in Tārīkh al-Khaṭīb (vol. 13, p. 94). The insertion of this ḥadīth in the al-ṣalīb was the work of one of the scribes, the version preserved in the Dār al-Kutub al-Miṣriyyah under no. 439 is the correct one. Shaykh ʿAbd al-Ḥayy was likewise perplexed in the rijāl of the ḥadīth of al-Shaʿbī in the ṣalāh of al-qāʾid: "Muḥammad; Bishr; Aḥmad; informed us Isrāʾīl." But "Muḥammad" at the head of the isnād is Abū ʿAlī al-Ṣawwāf, the said one; "Bishr" is Bishr ibn Mūsā al-Asadī, the rāwiyah of al-Muwaṭṭaʾ; "Aḥmad" is Aḥmad ibn Mihrān al-Tasawī, the companion of Muḥammad and the transmitter of al-Muwaṭṭaʾ from him, and Isrāʾīl is from him. Muḥammad fell out from between Aḥmad and Isrāʾīl, as appears from another version preserved under no. 440, where the scribe entered al-tāsīʿ here from some of the late transmitters of Muḥammad in the body of the isnād; as is the practice of many of the early scribes. Al-ʿAllāmah Muḥammad Qāsim al-Ḥāfiẓ has authored a work on the rijāl of the Muwaṭṭaʾ.

Among his books is Kitāb al-Ḥujjah, the well-known argumentation against the people of Madīnah; a substantial portion of it has reached our hands, printed long ago in India of the Maḥmūdiyyah edition in al-Madīnah, mentioned (p. 10).

And among them is Kitāb al-Athār, in which he narrates from Imām Abū Ḥanīfah aḥādīth; marfūʿ, mawqūf, and mursal; and many narrations from Ibrāhīm al-Nakhaʿī, the shaykh of the Iraqi school. He narrates a few from some twenty shaykhs other than Imām Abū Ḥanīfah. It is a most beneficial book; al-mashāyikh gave it special concern in its narration. Al-ʿAllāmah Ibn Ḥajar; author of al-Iʿthār bi-Maʿrifat Ruwāt al-Athār; wrote about its men, on the suggestion of his companion al-ʿAllāmah Qāsim al-Ḥāfiẓ. He also authored another book on its rijāl; likewise al-Musnad of Imām Abū Ḥanīfah in the recension of Muḥammad. Of what is mentioned among Muḥammad's compositions in al-Fihrist of Ibn Isḥāq al-Nadīm: Kitāb Ijtihād al-Raʾy, Kitāb al-Istiḥsān, Kitāb al-Ḥujaj (containing many books, and Kitāb al-Khiṣāl), Kitāb al-Radd ʿalā Ahl al-Madīnah, and Kitāb Uṣūl al-Fiqh, the first treatise of Imām al-Shāfiʿī in al-uṣūl corresponding only to his school in al-uṣūl in al-Umm. He was preceded in al-uṣūl by Imām Abū Yūsuf, as al-Ḥāfiẓ Ṭalḥah mentions, as well as Imām Abū Ḥanīfah, with his Kitāb al-Raʾy, as has preceded, every one of which Imām Mālik traces back from Rabīʿah from Ibn al-Musayyab; as in Ṣilat Ibn Bushkuwāl.

Chains of Transmission for Some of Imām Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan's Books, as Recorded in the Registers of Teachers

In most of the ithbāt and muʿjams, across the centuries, chains are mentioned for many of the books of Imām Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan, may Allāh have mercy on him: al-Āthār, al-Musnad, al-Muwaṭṭaʾ, and the Six Foundational Books (al-Uṣūl al-Sittah). Al-Jamāl al-Ḥaṣīrī in his time was unique in transmitting these by way of samāʿ through his well-known chains. The chains of our shaykhs to him are codified in the registers, but it does no harm here to point out our own chains in respect of the said books of Imām Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan.

As for Kitāb al-Āthār, I narrate it by general ijāzah, with my chain to Imām Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan.

(ḥ) I also have it conveyed to me by an elevated chain, through general ijāzah, with my chain to Imām Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan al-Shaybānī. And I narrate it again through reading of its opening sections, with ijāzah for the rest, by another chain.

As for Musnad Imām Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan, I narrate it likewise by general ijāzah, with my chain to its author.

Ibn Ḥajar mentioned his chains for the Muwaṭṭaʾ Muḥammad, and al-Āthār, and al-Siyar al-Kabīr of his, in al-Muʿjam al-Mufahras.

As for Kitāb al-Muwaṭṭaʾ in the recension of Imām Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan, I likewise narrate it by general ijāzah, with the isnād up to Ibn Ṭūlūn, from Umm ʿAbd al-Razzāq Khadījah bint ʿAbdullāh al-Urmuwiyyah, mushāfahatan (orally), from Abī al-Ḥasan al-Quṭmī Muḥammad, from Abī al-Buṭlī, from Ibn Khayrūn and Abī al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn Ayyūb; both said: We were informed by Abū Ṭāhir ʿAbd al-Ghaffār ibn Muḥammad ibn Jaʿfar al-Muʾaddib, who said: We were informed by Abū ʿAlī Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn al-Ṣawwāf, who said: We were informed by Abū ʿAlī Bishr ibn Mūsā ibn Ṣāliḥ al-Asadī, who said: We were informed by Abū Jaʿfar Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Mihrān al-Sāʾī, who said: It was conveyed to him by Imām Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan al-Shaybānī, may Allāh have mercy on him.

As for the Six Books, namely al-Jāmiʿ al-Ṣaghīr, al-Jāmiʿ al-Kabīr, al-Siyar al-Ṣaghīr, al-Siyar al-Kabīr, al-Mabsūṭ, and al-Ziyādāt: I narrate them by general ijāzah, with my chain to Imām Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan, may Allāh have mercy on him.

As for the recension of al-Siyar al-Kabīr through the way of Ismāʿīl ibn Tawbah in particular, I narrate it by general ijāzah, with my chain to Imām Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan, may Allāh be pleased with him; may He continue the unbroken sequence of chains for his sciences, that we may be filled with his blessings.

Death of Imām Muḥammad

It is said Imām Muḥammad, may Allāh ﷻ have mercy on him, passed away on the same day as Imām al-Kisāʾī such that the Caliph Hārūn al-Rashīd exclaimed:

Imām Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan, may Allāh have mercy on him, was born in the year 132 AH, as set down by Ibn Abī al-ʿAwwām, Ibn Saʿd and Imām al-Khaṭīb (among others). Some, however, gave the year 135 AH, including Ibn Saʿd, Ibn al-Khayyāṭ and Imām al-Khaṭīb. His death was in the year 189 AH, with some disagreement reported by Ibn Saʿd, Ibn al-Khayyāṭ and Imām al-Khaṭīb. The view that he was born in 138 AH (as in Ibn Abī al-ʿAwwām), is anomalous.

Al-Ṣaymarī said: Abū ʿAbdillāh al-Ṣaymarī informed us, al-Marzubānī told us, and Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿArafah al-Naḥwī said: "Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan and al-Kisāʾī died at al-Ray in the year 189 AH. Hārūn al-Rashīd said: 'Fiqh and grammar have been buried in al-Ray.'" It has been mentioned that al-Kisāʾī died after Muḥammad by two days, and it has also been said that they died on the same day. Allāh ﷻ knows best.

In Manāqib al-Kurdarī, it is narrated that Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Mūsā al-Qummī mentioned that Imām Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan was buried at al-Ray on a hill called Ṭabrak, near the residence of Hishām ibn ʿUbaydullāh al-Rāzī, with whom he had been lodging. Al-Kisāʾī was at Ranbūyah, four farsakhs distant, the army of al-Rashīd was four farsakhs further. Imām Muḥammad camped on one side, and Imām al-Kisāʾī on the other side. This was when al-Rashīd had set out on his campaign against the rebel Rāfiʿ ibn Layth ibn Naṣr ibn Sayyār in Samarqand.

Imām al-Dhahabī mentioned in his juzʾ, from Yūnus ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā, from ʿAlī ibn Maʿbad, concerning the Rāzī in whose house Muḥammad died (that is, Hishām ibn ʿUbaydullāh), who said: "I was present when Muḥammad died. He wept, and I wept with him. He said to me: 'See, has not Allāh ﷻ paused with me concerning you, O Muḥammad? "What was it that brought you to al-Ray? Was it jihād in My way, or to seek My pleasure? What can I say?"' Then he died, may Allāh have mercy on him."

Al-Ṣaymarī said: ʿUmar ibn Ibrāhīm informed us, Mukrim told us, Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Salām told us, Sulaymān ibn Dāwūd ibn Kathīr al-Bāhilī and ʿAbd al-Wahhāb ibn ʿĪsā told us, Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Abī Rajāʾ told us, who said: I heard my father say: I heard Abū Rajāʾ say: "I saw Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan in a dream and said to him: 'What did your Lord do with you?' He said: 'He admitted me into Paradise and said to me, "I did not make you a vessel of knowledge for that alone; rather, I wish to forgive you."' I said: 'And what about Abū Yūsuf?' He said: 'He is above me by a degree.' I said: 'And what about Abū Ḥanīfah?' He said: 'He is in the highest heights (aʿlā ʿilliyyīn).'"

Ibn Abī al-ʿAwwām al-Ḥāfiẓ said: Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Ḥammād told us, Aḥmad ibn al-Qāsim al-Burqī told us, Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Abī Rajāʾ said: I heard my father say: "I saw Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan in a dream. I said: 'What did your Lord do with you?' He said: 'He has forgiven me.' I said: 'For what?' He said: 'He has placed this knowledge upon me in forgiveness.' I said: 'And Abū Yūsuf?' He said: 'Above me by a degree.' I said: 'And Abū Ḥanīfah?' He said: 'In the highest heights.'" In another wording from Imām al-Khaṭīb: Ibn al-Mughallis transmits it through ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Sulaymān, from Abū Najīb ibn Abī Rajāʾ, from his uncle Maḍmūyah, one of the Substitutes (al-Abdāl). Allāh ﷻ knows best.

May Allāh send abundant rain upon his grave, and His pleasure and mercy upon him; and may He grant us benefit from his knowledge and his blessings; He is responsive.

Al-Ṣaymarī brought forth from al-Marzubānī, from Abū Bakr (ibn Durayd), from Saʿīd al-Sukrī, who said: ʿAbd al-Mubārak ibn al-Yazīdī recited to me, narrating from his father, that he heard him recite, in mourning over Imām Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan and al-Kisāʾī:

Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr mentions the like of this in al-Intiqāʾ, attributing to al-Rashīd that he himself recited:

these verses; perhaps al-Rashīd took up the lines of al-Yazīdī. This is the close of what we wished to mention in this brief summary. May Allāh send blessings upon our master Muḥammad, his family and his Companions, with abundant peace; and our final prayer is: al-ḥamdu lillāhi rabb al-ʿālamīn.

Completed by the hand of the poor servant of Allāh ﷻ, Muḥammad Zāhid ibn al-Ḥasan al-Kawtharī; may He pardon them both, on the afternoon of Thursday, the 9th of the blessed Ṣafar, of the year 1355 [AH].

Bibliography

Primary source

• al-Kawtharī, Muḥammad Zāhid. Bulūgh al-Amānī fī Sīrat Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan al-Shaybānī. Maktabat al-Azhariyyah li-l-Turāth: Alexandria, 1418 AH / 1998 CE.

Works cited

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Editions cited from manuscript collections at al-Ẓāhiriyyah, Damascus; Maktabat al-Azhariyyah, Cairo; Maktabat al-Fātiḥ and other Istanbul libraries; al-Aṣfiyyah and Dāʾirat al-Maʿārif, Hyderabad Deccan; and Dār al-Kutub al-Miṣriyyah, Cairo.

Footnotes

1. Imām al-Bukhārī took the fiqh of Abū Ḥanīfah from him, so did Sufyān al-Thawrī. ↩

2. Through him the Kutub al-Sittah were spread. ↩

3. One of the four Imāms of the madhāhib. ↩

4. Imām al-Mujtahid al-Kabīr. ↩

5. He narrates the Jāmiʿ al-Kabīr and Jāmiʿ al-Ṣaghīr from Imām Muḥammad (Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ). ↩

6. Muftī of Baghdād. ↩

7. Scribe of the Mālikī madhhab. ↩

8. Teacher of Ibn Jarīr. ↩

9. Imām of jarḥ and taʿdīl. ↩

10. Rāwī of the Muwaṭṭaʾ from Imām Muḥammad. ↩

11. Rāwī of the Kaysāniyyāt from Imām Muḥammad. ↩

12. Rāwī of the Jurjāniyyāt from Imām Muḥammad. ↩

13. Rāwī of al-Siyar al-Kabīr from Imām Muḥammad. ↩

14. Rāwī of the Nawādir from Imām Muḥammad. ↩

15. From the teachers of al-Bukhārī in Shām. ↩

16. Rāwī of the Ḥujjaj ʿalā Ahl al-Madīnah from Imām Muḥammad, the author of al-Ḥujaj al-Kabīr and Kitāb al-Ḥujaj al-Ṣaghīr, and Kitāb ʿalā al-Marīsī wa-l-Shāfiʿī fī Shurūṭ Qabūl al-Akhbār. ↩

17. Author of Kitāb al-ʿIlal. ↩

18. Dār al-Quṭnī has written regarding the different versions of the Muwaṭṭaʾ and those narrations which are found in all, and those which differ. ↩

19. Such as ʿAbd al-Malik bin Ḥabīb, Muḥammad bin Aḥmad bin ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-ʿUtbī, the author of al-ʿUtbiyyah, which mentions the views of Imām Mālik narrated through his students, and others. ↩

20. Ibn al-Qāsim accompanied Imām Mālik for approximately twenty years, and is from amongst the more distinguished companions of Imām Mālik. ↩

21. Imām Ṭaḥāwī mentions that it was his Kitāb al-Siyar. ↩