Imam Muslim 10/12/15 Maaki Masjid

Biography His Title and Name Imam Ḏhahabi mentions that he is:   “the great imam the hafiz the proof  the truthful Abu’l Husayn Muslim ibn Hajjaj ibn Muslim ibn Ward ibn Kushadh al Qushayri al Naysaburi”. He was ascribed to Banu Qushayr

Wala Banu Qushayr was one of the know tribes of the Arabs who later settled in the Persian lands, and we find in the biographical works that Imam Muslim was a Mawla to this tribe. The meaning of this could be any of three: ·        It could mean that there was allegiance to the Banu Qushayr – Wala ·        Or that one of Imam Muslims ancestors accepted Islam at the hands of Banū Qushayr ·        Or that in the ancestral line an individual had become a freed slave and thus still had allegiance to Banu Qushayr.  

Birth . He was born in 204H However on closer examination of the text of Siyar a’lam an-nubala one is left with the impression that there was some doubt with regards to the exact birth of Imam Muslim. There are four opinions- that being he was born either in 201/202/203/204 H. There seems to be consensus on the fact that the Imam was born after 200H

Teachers In the three works namely the Siyar, Tadhkirat al Huffāẓ and Thadhib al Kamal we find pages dedicated to the teachers and students of Imam Muslim, mainly in list form His most celebrated teachers include Bukhari, Ahmad bin Hanbal and Yayha bin Ma’een

Hijaz Maakah ·        He heard from Imam Qanabi- the famous narrator of the Muwatta, and one of the greatest teachers of Imam Muslim ·        Saeed bin Mansur   Madinah ·        Abi Musab al Zhuri ·        Ismaeel bin abi Uwais

Iraq Basra · He also heard from Qanabi when he resided in Basra ·        Naysaburi ·        Isaac bin Rahawayh Kufa ·        Ahmad bin Yunus ·        Umar bin Hafs bin Giyaath ·        Saaed bin Muhammad bin Saeed al jazmi

Students His students are numerous but the most celebrated include Abu Hatim Razi, Abu Esa at Tirmidhi and Ibn Khuzaymah. An interesting point that seems to be highlighted by both Imam Dhahabi and Imam Mizzi in their respective works is that Imam Tirmidhi only narrated one hadith from Imam Muslim in his Jami. This is particularly interesting considering the praise that Imam Tirmidhi has for Bukhari and vice versa, and this is born out in the fact that Tirmidhi in his Jami narrates from Bukhari 114 times.

Fiqh There seems to be some discussion and indeed some disagreement about the fiqh of Muslim and particularly with which school of fiqh he followed. Allamah Mubarakfuri in his introduction to the commentary of Tirmidhi has summarize it well by explaining that scholars like Bukhari, Muslim , Tirmidhi, Nasai and Ibn Majah did not follow one of the 4 schools of jurisprudence , instead they were regarded as ‘followers of the sunnah… and those that acted upon it’, they were mujthid imams.

Position in Hadith He was regarded as a master of the principles of the science, described as being Thiqah from the many huffaz of hadith such as Hatim al Razi and Khatib Bhagdhai , who regarded him as one of the leading imams from the huffaz of hadith. Dhaahbi records in his Siyaar the saying of ibn Bashaar who regarded Muslim not only as he leading imam of hadith but also an imam of the entire deen.

Death He died in the month of Rajab in the year 261 H with five days remaining in the month in Nisahpur. Shaykh Eithiopi records the incident surrounding the death of Muslim with a chain of narration to Khatib Baghdadi. He records that Muslim had been in a discussion with regards to hadith in a gathering but he was not aware of the hadith mentioned, so he confined himself to his house and gave instructions not to be disturbed. He spent the night search for he hadith and continued to eat dates in the process until the morning at which point the dates had finished- but he had found the hadith. Baghdadi mentions from a Ziyaad Thiqh narration that he became ill from that and died.

Meaning of Ziyaad Thiqaah Usool Hadith Interesting that Dhahbai in his Siyaar does not record this at all .We do find it in works such as Thahdib Kamal. One can argue it is far-fetched to attribute a direct cause to Muslim death from simply eating dates!  It seems to be clear that soon after he became ill and this illness resulted in him passing onto the next life.

The Saheeh The book is popularly known as Saheeh Muslim, however according to the Firhist of Ishbili (d 575H ) the saheeh’s full and proper name is:[1] Al Musnad Al saheeh al Muktasar min Sunnani bi naql al adl an adl an rasulallah

The Muqqidimah Imam Muslim himself described the reason of compilation in the foreword of the book namely that student (s) wished to acquire the teachings of hadith regarding the fundamentals of religion, practices, reward and punishment etc- so they expressed his desire to Imam Muslim and requested him to compile a book that contains all these things without repetitions. Also it is clear that, Imam Muslim was grieved at seeing people and especially those who claimed to be scholars not differentiating between true/ false traditions and weak narrations. So, Imam Muslim started this work and completed it in a span of fifteen years[2]. It is mention in Siyar that Muslim said his Musnad saheeh has been compiled from a selection of 300000 hadith, after taking into account the repeat narrations the book itself has 3000 hadith.

Summarising the Muqqidimah Reason for compilation Narrating from trustworthy narrators Lying against the messenger of Allah Prohibition of narrating everything that one hears Isnaad and principles of Jarh and Tadeel Mu’an’an hadith and status

The Rank of the Saheeh Muslims Saheeh is considered in rank the most authentic book of hadith after Bukhari’s saheeh. However as Ibn salah points out in his Muqqidimah some scholars of the Magrib regarded Muslims Saheeh as being higher in rank than even Bukhari’s  Saheeh. Often we find quoted the statement of Hakim Nisaburi: “There is no book on earth sounder than the book of Muslim b Hajjaj”.

Features of the Saheeh 1 Mentions hadith in the appropriate place,  and at the same time brings hadith with different chains of the same hadith, and the different wordings that occur. Thus it is easy to find in one place different chains and wordings of one hadith. 2 Muslim differentiates between narrations with the terminology hadathana and akhbarana indicating his particular attention and accuracy in reporting the hadith. 3 he is particular in drawing attention to differences in the wording of hadith- being precise with the wording of the hadith 4 he exercises caution with regards to the narrators sometimes he did not hear the name of the narrators and their lineages from his teachers, he thus explains this and highlights this –so it is clear that this extra information is an addition from himself. 5 he has sufficed with marfu hadith, with maquf hadith being rare

Principles in hadith Mutabaah narrations Vs Shaahid Ziyaad Thiqaah. Different wordings of hadith Lafzi vs Manawi Hadith as individual bits of data Hadith as data representing the Sunnah Other forms of evidence that represent the Sunnah