Abu Hatim Muhammad ibn Idris al-Razi

Abu Hatim, Muhammad ibn Idris al-Razi (811–890) was a notable hadith scholar born in Ray. He is the father of Ibn Abi Hatim.^[1]

Life

His full name is Abu Hatim Muhammad bin Idris bin al-Mundhir bin Dawud bin Mahran ar-Razi al-Handhali al-Ghatafani. Some sources suggest that he was originally from Isfahan and was a mawla of the Ghatafan tribe. Other sources suggest that he acquired his nisbat from a region of Ray called "Darb Handhala". He died on the month of Sha’bân in the year 277H.

His teachers of Hadith

The better known [narrators] he narrated from:

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

From the better known of them are:

• Abu Nu’aim al-Fadl bin Dukain
• Zuhair bin ‘Abbad
• Yahya bin Bukair
• ‘Ubaidullah bin Musa
• Adam bin Abi Iyas
• Thabit bin Muhammad az-Zahid
• ‘Abdullah bin Salih al-’Ijli
• ‘Abdullah bin Sâlih al-Kâtib
• Muhammad bin ‘Abdillah al-Ansârî
• Qabîsah

Some of his early students

The better known narrators [who narrated] from him:

• Abū Zur’ah ar-Razî
• Yūnus bin ‘Abdil-A’la
• Abu Bakr bin Abid-Dunya
• Musa bin Ishaq al-Ansari
• Abu Dawood
• Al-Nasa'i
• Abu ‘Awanah al-Isfara’ini
• Abul-Hasan al-Qattân
• Abū Bishr ad-Dūlâbî

Praise

The Scholars’ and Imams’ commendation of him:

• Abū Zur’ah told Abi Hatim, “I have not seen [anyone] more intent on seeking the hadîth than you.”
• Yūnus bin ‘Abdil-A’la said, “Abu Zur’ah and Abū Hâtim are the two Imams of Khurasan.” He supplicated for them both and said, “Their continuance is an improvement for the Muslims.”
• Abdur-Rahman bin Abi Hatim said, “I heard Mūsâ bin Is·hâq al-Qâdî saying, ‘I have not seen [anyone] more preserving than your father,’ and he had met Abū Bakr Ibn Abi Shaibah, Ibn Numair, Yahya ibn Ma'in, and Yahya al-Himmani.”
• Ahmad bin Salamah an-Naisâbūrî said, “I have not seen after Ishaq and Muhammad bin Yahya [anyone] more preserving of the hadîth or more knowledgeable of its meanings than Abi Hatim ar-Razi.”
• Uthman bin Khurrazadh said, “The most preserving of those I saw are four: Muhammad bin al-Minhal ad-Darir, Ibrâhîm bin ‘Ar’arah, Abu Zur’ah ar Razi, and Abu Hatim.”
• al-Khalili said, Abū 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 bin Ibrahim al-Qattan saying, “I have not seen the like of Abi 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 Abi Hatim.”
• Abul-Qasim al-Lalika’i said, “Abū Hâtim was an imam, a hâfidh, a verifier.”
• Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi said, “Abū Hâtim was one of the credible, hâfidh imams.”
• Al-Dhahabi said, “He was from 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, Hâfidh Abu Zur’ah.”

References

1. Dickinson, Eerik (2001). The development of early Sunnite hadīth criticism: the Taqdima of Ibn Abī Ḥātim al-Rāzī (240/854-327/938). BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-11805-8.