Ali ibn Umar al-Daraqutni (; 918âÂÂ995 CE / 306âÂÂ385 AH), was a Sunni Muslim scholar and traditionist best known for compiling the hadith collection Sunan al-Daraqutni. He is commonly celebrated in Sunni tradition with titles such as "Imam" and "Amir al-Mu'minin fi al-Hadith".
Al-Daraqutni was born in c. 918 CE/306 AH in the Dar al-Qutn () quarter of Baghdad, whence he got his nisba.
Al-Daraqutni grew up in a house of knowledge and virtue, as his father was one of the trustworthy Hadith transmitters, and he watched him in his youth frequenting the circles of knowledge and hearing, memorizing his audios and narrations, and spending the clouds of his day learning and studying. His studies were initially largely restricted to his native Iraq, where he frequented Wasit, Basra and Kufa. Later in life, he travelled to Syria and Egypt and while in the latter, he enjoyed the patronage of the Ikhishid vizier Jafar bin al-Fadl for assisting him with compiling his own hadith collection.
His teachers in this period include
His students included the hadith scholars:
He died in 995 CE/385 AH and was buried in the Bab al-Dayr cemetery in Baghdad, near the grave of Maruf Karkhi.
A staunch Shafi'i, al-Daraqutni was wary of relying on reason and even rejected well-known hadiths that praised it. Nevertheless, he showed some appreciation for kalÃÂm. He is said to have told Abu Dharr al-Harawi that Abu Bakr al-Baqillani (d. 403/1013), an early Ash'ari authority, that âÂÂThis is the ImÃÂm of the Muslims, the defender of the religion, the supporter of the Sunnah, and the suppressor of the Mu'tazila.â Despite his personal dislike for speculative theology, al-Daraqutni authored a rebuttal against the Mu'tazila and likely recognized its usefulness when confronting rationalist opponents.
If Baghdad's public milieu had been more supportive of middle-of-the-road traditionalism, Al-Daraqutni, a Shafi'te inhabitant, would have rejected the anthropomorphic account as unreliable. However, the Hanbali extremists who controlled Baghdad made it nearly difficult to reject the anthropomorphic version. The poem gives precise instructions to the Muhaddithun, who were perplexed when they came across these two distinct, if not contradictory, writings, in addition to the implicit preference for the mild version over the anthropomorphic one. Al-Daraqutni bluntly described the most crucial aspect of the Ash'arite method of transmission in this short poem: a systematic insistence on a strict transmission procedure in which the text was communicated verbatim without any verbal or gestural embellishments. Al-Daraqutni undoubtedly saw this stringent procedure as a defence against anthropomorphism. In other words, Hanbalite violence forced Baghdad's middle-of-the-road traditionalists to accept the anthropomorphic version in the tenth century.
According to Ibn al-Jawzi's book entitled Mirat al Zamanwzi, Al-Daraqutni considered Ibn Qutayba to be one of the innovators whose beliefs leaned towards anthropomorphism attributing direction, shape and image to God. He also claimed that Ibn Qutayba showed enmity towards Ahl al-Bayt. Al-Daraqutni wrote a treatise against Muÿtazilite Amr ibn Ubayd on the subject of anthropomorphic narrations in relation to God's attributes and defending the ambiguous texts by providing evidence for its authenticity.
Several of al-Daraqutni's extant works have been published:
Al-Daraqutni wrote a series of commentaries, addendums and analyses of narrations contained within Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim.
In his Kitab al-tatabbu, al-Daraqutni reviews 217 narrations within the two collections which he deems to be flawed using both isnad and matn criticism. Reasons given include the isnad not meeting the requirements for inclusion in the collections, and the commentary of the hadith's transmitters being inadvertently merged with its matn. Jonathan A. C. Brown cautions that the work is an adjustment to the two collections rather than an attack on their overall integrity.