Al-Hakim, Muhammad ibn `Abd Allah ibn Muhammad ibn Hamduyah, Abu `Abd
Allah al-Dabbi al-Tamhani al-Naysaburi al-Shafi`i, also known as Ibn al-Bayyi` (d. 405).
The imam, hadith master, expert in hadith criticism, and shaykh
of hadith masters. He took hadith from about two thousand authorities in
Khurasan, Iraq, Transoxiana and elsewhere. Among the most prominent of the masters who
narrated hadith from him are his own shaykh al-Daraqutni - who declared him
stronger in hadith than Ibn Mandah, - al-Bayhaqi, al-Qushayri, and others. Abu
Hazim said that al-Hakim was peerless in his time in Khurasan, the Hijaz, al-Sham, Iraq,
Rayy, Tabaristan, and Transoxiana. His fame became widespread with lightning speed in his
own lifetime. Al-Dhahabi said: "I saw an incredible thing, which is that the muhaddith
of al-Andalus Abu `Umar al-Talamanki copied al-Hakim's book "`Ulum al-Hadith"
("The Sciences of Hadith") in the year 389 from a shaykh
which he named, from another narrator, from al-Hakim." Al-Hakim belongs to the second
generation of the Ash`ari school, having taken al-Ash`ari's doctrine at the hands of his
students, among them Abu Sahl al-Su`luki. He took tasawwuf from Abu `Amr ibn
Nujayd, Abu al-Hasan al-Bushanji, Abu Sa`id Ahmad ibn Ya`qub al-Thaqafi, Abu Nasr
al-Saffar, Abu Qasim al-Razi, Ja`far ibn Nusayr, Abu `Amr al-Zujaji, Ja`far ibn Ibrahim
al-Hadhdha', and Abu `Uthman al-Maghribi.
Al-Hakim said: "I drank water from Zamzam and asked Allah for
excellence in writing books." He authored: "al-Sahihan"
("The Two Books of Saheeh Hadiths"), "al-`Ilal"
("The Defects of A Hadith"), "al-Amali"
("The Dictations"), "Fawa'id al-Nusakh" ("Benefits
of the Copies"), "Fawa'id al-Khurasaniyyin" ("Benefits
of the People of Khurasan"), "Amali al-`Ashiyyat" ("Night
Dictations"), "al-Talkhis" ("The Summary"),
"al-Abwab" ("The Chapters"), "Tarajim
al-Shuyukh" ("Biographies of the Shaykhs"), "Ma`rifa
Anwa` `Ulum al-Hadith" ("Knowledge of the Different Types of the Hadith
Sciences"), "Tarikh `Ulama' Ahl Naysabur" ("History
of the Scholars of Naysabur"), "Muzakki al-Akhbar"
("Purified Reports"), "al-Madkhal ila `Ilm al-Sahih"
("Introduction to the Science of Sound Reports"), "al-Iklil fi
Dala'il al-Nubuwwa" ("The Diadem: The Signs of Prophethood"),
"al-Mustadrak `ala al-Sahihayn" ("Supplement for What is
Missing From Bukhari and Muslim"), "Ma Tafarrada bi Ikhrajihi Kull
Wahidin min al-Imamayn" ("Reports Found Only in Bukhari or Only in
Muslim"), "Fada'il al-Shafi`i" ("The Immense
Merits of al-Shafi`i"), "Tarajim al-Musnad `ala Shart al-Sahihayn"
("The Reports of Ahmad's Musnad Which Match the Criteria of the Two Books
of Sahih"), etc.
It is narrated that a man of letters named Abu al-Fadl al-Hamadhani
came to Naysabur where he acquired a following and was named Badee` al-Zaman
("Wonder of the Age"), whereupon he became self-infatuated. If he heard someone
recite a hundred verses of poetry but once, he was able to recite them back from memory,
starting from the end and back to the beginning. One day he criticized someone for saying:
"So-and-so the memorizer of hadith." He said: "Memorizing hadith!
Is it worthy of mention?" When he heard of this, al-Hakim sent him a book of hadith
and challenged him to memorize it in a week. Al-Hamadhani returned the book to him and
said: "Who can memorize this? 'Muhammad son of So-and-So and Ja`far son of So-and-So
reported from So-and-So' - It is filled with all sorts of different names and terms!"
Al-Hakim said: "Therefore know yourself, and understand that to memorize such as this
is beyond your sphere."
Al-Hakim's "Mustadrak" was criticized by the hadith
scholars due to the number of mistakes and inaccuracies found in it. Al-Sakhawi in "al-Tawbikh"
and others mention that he declares many forged reports to be rigorously authentic, not to
mention weak ones, instead of clinging to his own expressed precondition that only reports
with chains of the rank of Bukhari's and Muslim's would be retained. Al-Dhahabi went to
excess in regretting that al-Hakim had compiled the "Mustadrak" in
the first place. However, the hadith expert Dr. Nur al-Din `Itr of Damascus pointed
out that al-Hakim compiled it in his old age, intending to revise it, which he did not do
beyond the first volume. This is proved by the fact that al-Hakim's mistakes are
imperceptible in the first volume of the "Mustadrak," as confirmed
by al-Dhahabi's own minimal corrections.
Another latent criticism is al-Hakim's alleged Shi`ism.
Al-Dhahabi in one place names him "one of the oceans of knowledge although a little
bit Shi`i" (`ala tashayyu`in qaleelin feeh), in another "al-Hakim
the Shi`i," and in another "a famous Shi`i" (shee`iyyun
mashhur). Al-Subki rejects the label of Shi`i as baseless since, among other
proofs, Ibn `Asakir includes al-Hakim among the Ash`aris, who consider the Shi`is
innovators. Yet this label is still branded as a blemish today at the hands of those who
oppose his positions if they weaken theirs, and those who oppose him for being a follower
of al-Ash`ari, or for being a Sufi. As for what al-Dhahabi said about al-Hakim, we
must place it in the same category as what he said about the "Mustadrak."
The first hadith of the Prophet (saw) al-Hakim narrated
in his "Ma`rifa `Ulum al-Hadith" is: "May Allah make radiant
the face of one who heard one of my sayings and then carried it to others. It may be that
one carries understanding without being a person of understanding; it may be that one
carries understanding to someone who possesses more understanding than he."
On the 3rd of Safar 405, al-Hakim went into the bath, came out after
bathing, said "Ah" and died wearing but a waistcloth before he had time to put
on a shirt. Al-Hasan ibn Ash`ath al-Qurashi said: "I saw al-Hakim in my dream riding
a horse in a handsome appearance and saying: 'Salvation.' I asked him: 'O al-Hakim! In
what?' He replied: 'In writing hadith.'"
Al-Darani, `Ali ibn Dawud, Abu al-Hasan al-Muqri' al-Dimashqi (d. 402).
When the imam of the Great Damascus Mosque died, the people of Damascus came in
throngs to Daraya to ask for `Ali ibn Dawud to be their imam but were faced by the
people of Daraya in arms. The latter said: "We shall never let you take our imam!"
But they were persuaded by Muhammad ibn Abi Nasr's argument: "Are you not pleased
that it be said in every country that the people of Damascus came in need of the imam
of the people of Daraya?" Then `Ali ibn Dawud said: "Can one such as myself be
suitable for the Great Mosque of Damascus, when my father was a Christian then converted,
and I have no Muslim ancestor?" Then he rode to Damascus on his mule. He accepted no
compensation for his imamate nor his teaching, and he would make his own bread from
wheat which he brought from his village and had ground with his own hand. He was
confronted by some Hashwiyya in Damascus, whereupon he wrote al-Baqillani in
Baghdad for assistance, and the latter sent him his student al-Husayn ibn Hatim al-Adhri.
After this, the people of Damascus would never leave `Ali ibn Dawud's gatherings except
with the words "One, One!" on their lips.
Al-Baqillani, Muhammad ibn al-Tayyib ibn Muhammad ibn Ja`far, Shaykh
al-Islam, al-Qadi Abu Bakr ibn al-Baqillani al-Basri al-Baghdadi al-Maliki al-Ash`ari
(d. 403), eulogized by al-Dhahabi as "the erudite imam, peerless of the mutakallimeen,
and foremost of the scholars of usul, author of many books, the exemplar of
perspicuity and intelligence." Al-Qadi `Iyad said: "He is known as the
‘Sword of the Sunna (Sayf al-Sunna)’ and the ‘Spokesman of
the Community (Lisan al-Umma),’ a mutakallim who spoke the language of
the hadith scholars, adhering to the doctrine of Abu al-Hasan al-Ash`ari, and the
apex of Maliki scholars in his time. His gathering in al-Basra was huge."
Al-Baqillani took al-Ash`ari's teachings from Ibn Mujahid. He used to
say: "I consider the best part of me the time when I fully understand al-Ash`ari's
discourse." He used al-Ash`ari's method to challenge and refute the Rafida, Mu`tazila,
Khawarij, Jahmiyya, Karramiyya, Mushabbiha, and Hashwiyya.
Abu al-Qasim ibn Burhan al-Nahawi said: "Whoever hears al-Qadi Abu Bakr debate, will
never again feel pleasure at hearing another mutakallim, faqeeh, or
orator." He took the Maliki school from Abu Bakr al-Abhari.
Al-Khatib narrated that al-Baqillani's nightly devotion consisted in
forty rak`a whether at home or while travelling, after which he wrote thirty-five
pages of text which, after the fajr prayer, he would pass on to others to read
outloud for proofreading and editing.
At the time the Caliph `Adud al-Dawla sent al-Baqillani as an
envoy to the Emperor of the Eastern Romans, he was asked to enter through a low door to
see the Emperor and realized that this was done by design so as to make him enter on his
knees; whereupon he entered on his knees but with his back turned, and approached the
Emperor backside-first. In the course of this visit, he asked a Church dignitary:
"How are your wife and children?" Hearing this, the emperor said: "Lo! Do
you, the spokesman of Islam, not know that a monk exempts himself of such
things?" Al-Baqillani replied: "You exempt a monk from such things, but you do
not exempt the Lord of the Worlds from having a mate and child?"
Al-Baqillani is the paragon of the fundamental unity of Islamic
schools and love for the sake of Allah among scholars that hold different views. He was
the arbitrator between the Sufis of the University of Qayrawan and Ibn Abi Zayd
al-Maliki when the latter denied that Allah could be seen in this world. He was profoundly
admired by the Hanbalis of Baghdad although he was the chief authority of the Ash`ari
school in his time. When he died the shaykh of Hanbalis and his close friend
of seven years, Abu al-Fadl al-Tamimi, came barefoot to his funeral with others of his
school, and ordered a herald to open the procession shouting: "This is the Aider of
the Sunna and the Religion! This is the Imam of Muslims! This is the
defender of the Shari`a! This is the one who authored 70,000 folios!" He was
buried near the grave of Ahmad ibn Hanbal, and his grave is a place of visitation, seeking
blessings (tabarruk), and praying for rain (istisqa').
:: Ibn Asakir - translated by Dr. Gabriel F. Haddad ::
Version Imprimable
