Abu Hatim Muhammad ibn Idris al-Razi

Abu Hatim Muhammad ibn Idris al-Razi (811–890) was a notable hadith scholar and Athari theologian born in Ray. He was the father of Ibn Abi Hatim.

Life

His full name was Abū Ḥātim Muḥammad ibn Idrīs ibn al-Mundhir ibn Dāwūd ibn Mihrān al-Rāzī al-Ḥanẓalī al-Ghaṭafānī. Some sources suggest that he was originally from Isfahan and was a mawla of the Ghatafan tribe. Other sources suggest that he acquired his nisba from a street of Ray called "Darb Ḥanẓalah". He died in the month of Sha’bân in the year 277H/890 CE.

Abū Ḥātim's teachers of Hadith

The better known narrators Abū Ḥātim narrated from:

• He narrated from many, such that al-Khalili said, “Abu Hatim al-Labban al-Ḥāfiẓ said to me, ‘I had gathered [those] who Abu Hatim ar-Razi narrated from; they reached close to 3,000.’”

The better known of these were:

• AbÅ« NuÊ¿aym al-Faḍl ibn Dukayn
• Zuhayr ibn Ê¿Abbād
• Yaḥyá ibn Bukayr
• Ê¿Ubayd Allāh ibn MÅ«sá
• Ādam ibn AbÄ« Iyās
• `Abd Allāh ibn Ṣāliḥ al-Ê¿IjlÄ«
• Ê¿Abd Allāh ibn Ṣāliḥ al-Kātib
• Muḥammad ibn Ê¿Abd Allāh al-AnṣārÄ«

Some of Abū Ḥātim's early students

The better known narrators who narrated from Abū Ḥātim:

• AbÅ« ZurÊ¿ah al-RāzÄ«
• YÅ«nus ibn Ê¿Abd al-AÊ¿lá
• AbÅ« Bakr ibn AbÄ« al-Dunyā
• MÅ«sá ibn Isḥāq al-AnṣārÄ«
• AbÅ« DāwÅ«d
• Al-Nasāʾī
• AbÅ« Ê¿Awānah al-IsfarāʾinÄ«
• AbÅ« al-Ḥasan al-Qaṭṭān
• AbÅ« Bishr al-DÅ«lābÄ«

Praise

The Scholars’ and Imams’ commendations of him:

• AbÅ« Zur’ah told AbÅ« Ḥātim, “I have not seen [anyone] more intent on seeking the hadîth than you.”
• YÅ«nus ibn Ê¿Abd al-AÊ¿lá said, “Abu Zur’ah and AbÅ« Hâtim are the two Imams of Khurasan.” He supplicated for them both and said, “Their continuance is an improvement for the Muslims.”
• Ê¿Abd al-Raḥmān ibn AbÄ« Ḥātim said, “I heard MÅ«sâ bin Is·hâq al-Qâdî saying, ‘I have not seen [anyone] who memorised more hadith than your father,’ and he had met AbÅ« Bakr Ibn Abi Shaybah, Ibn Numayr, Yahya ibn Ma'in, and Yahya al-Himmani.”
• Ahmad ibn Salamah an-NaisâbÅ«rî said, “I have not seen after Ishaq and Muhammad ibn Yahya [anyone] more preserving of the hadîth or more knowledgeable of its meanings than Abi Hatim ar-Razi.”
• Uthman ibn Khurrazad said, “The most preserving of those I saw are four: Muhammad ibn al-Minhal ad-Darir, Ibrâhîm ibn ‘Ar’arah, Abu Zur’ah ar-Razi, and Abu Hatim.”
• Al-Khalili said, AbÅ« Hâtim was a scholar of the Companions’ differences [of opinion] and the jurisprudence of the Followers and [those] after them. I heard my grandfather and a group [who] heard ‘Ali ibn Ibrahim al-Qattan saying, “I have not seen the like of Abu Hatim.” So we told him, “[But] you had seen Ibrâhîm al-Harbî and Isma’il al-Qadi.” He said, “I have not seen [anyone] more complete or more virtuous than Abu Hatim.”
• Abu al-Qasim al-Lalaka’i said, “AbÅ« Hâtim was an imam, a ḥāfiẓ, a verifier.”
• Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi said, “AbÅ« Hâtim was one of the credible, ḥāfiẓ imams.”
• Al-Dhahabi said, “He was among the oceans of knowledge. He travelled about the countries and excelled in the text and the chain [of transmission]. He gathered and compiled, disparaged and accredited, authenticated and deemed defective.” He said, “He was one of the notables and from the formidable imams of the People of the Relic … he was a neighbour in the arena of his comrade and relative, the ḥāfiẓ Abu Zur’ah.”

Jonathan A. C. Brown identifies him as one of the three most important hadith critics of his generation, alongside al-Bukhārī and Abū Zurʿah al-Rāzī (Hadith, 81).

References