Biography of Abu Hurayrah

No. 126 : Abu Hurayrah ad-Dawsi, Abd ar-Rahman ibn Sakhr, may Allah be pleased with him.

The imam, the jurist, the mujtahid, the hafiz, companion of the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him : Abu Hurayrah ad-Dawsi, the Yemenite, the master of the most reliable memorizers.

His name is disputed in many sayings, the soundest of which is : Abd ar-Rahman ibn Sakhr.

It is said : ibn Ghanm.

It is said : his name was Abd Shams, and Abdallah.

It is said : Sakin.

It is said : Amir.

It is said : Burayr.

It is said : Abd ibn Ghanm.

It is said : Amr.

It is said : Sa'id.

The same divergence applies to his father's name.

Hisham ibn al-Kalbi said : he is Umayr ibn Amir ibn Dhi ash-Shara ibn Tarif ibn Ayyan ibn Abi Sa'b ibn Humayya ibn Sa'd ibn Tha'laba ibn Sulaym ibn Fahm ibn Ghanm ibn Daws ibn Udthan ibn Abdallah ibn Zahran ibn Ka'b ibn al-Harith ibn Ka'b ibn Abdallah ibn Malik ibn Nasr al-Azd.

Khalifa ibn Khayyat said exactly this in his genealogy, but he said : Attab in place of Ayyan, and Munabbih in place of Humayya.

It is said that in the Jahiliyya his name was Abd Shams, Abu al-Aswad ; the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, named him Abdallah and gave him the kunya of Abu Hurayrah (father of the kitten).

The best-known account : he received this kunya because of the young of a wild cat.

He said : I found her, took her into my sleeve, and was given the kunya for that.

At-Tabarani said : his mother, may Allah be pleased with her, was Maymuna bint Sabih.

He related from the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, abundant knowledge, pure and blessed, whose abundance none reached, as well as from Ubayy, Abu Bakr, Umar, Usama, Aisha, al-Fadl, Basra ibn Abi Basra, and Ka'b al-Ahbar.

The narrators of Abu Hurayrah

A great number of Companions and Successors narrated from him.

It is said that the number of his students reached eight hundred ; the author of "the Tahdhib" restricted himself to those whose narration of him appears in the books of the six imams, namely :

Ibrahim ibn Isma'il, Ibrahim ibn Abdallah ibn Hunayn, Ibrahim ibn Abdallah ibn Qarid az-Zuhri, and it is said : Abdallah ibn Ibrahim ; Ishaq, client of Za'ida ; al-Aswad ibn Hilal ; Agharr ibn Sulayk ; Agharr, that is Abu Muslim ; Anas ibn Hakim ; Anas ibn Malik ; Aws ibn Khalid.

Busr ibn Sa'id ; Bashir ibn Nahik ; Bashir ibn Ka'b ; Ba'ja ibn Abdallah al-Juhani ; Bukayr ibn Fayruz.

Thabit ibn Iyad ; Thabit ibn Qays az-Zuraqi ; Thawr ibn Ufayr.

Jabir ibn Abdallah ; Jabr ibn Ubayda ; Ja'far ibn Iyad ; Jumhan

al-Aslami ; and al-Jalllas.

Al-Harith ibn Mukhallad ; Hurayth ibn Qabisa ; al-Hasan al-Basri ; Husayn ibn al-Lajlaj, and it is said : Khalid, and it is said : Qa'qa' ; Husayn ibn Mus'ab ; Hafs ibn Asim ibn Umar ; Hafs ibn Abdallah ibn Anas ; al-Hakam ibn Mina' ; Hukaym ibn Sa'd ; Humayd ibn Abd ar-Rahman az-Zuhri ; Humayd ibn Abd ar-Rahman ; Humayd ibn Malik ; Hanthala ibn Ali ; Hayyan ibn Bustam, father of Sulaym.

Khalid ibn Abdallah ; Khalid ibn Ghillaq ; Khabbab, author of "the Maqsura" ; Khilllas ; Khaythama ibn Abd ar-Rahman.

Duhayl ibn Awf.

Rabi'a al-Jurashi ; Rumayh al-Judhami.

Zurara ibn Awfa ; Dhufar ibn Sa'sa'a, with divergence ; Ziyad ibn Thubayb ; Ziyad ibn Riyah ; Ziyad ibn Qays ; Ziyad the Ta'i ; Zayd ibn Aslam, relay transmitter ; Zayd ibn Abi Attab.

Salim al-Umari ; Salim ibn Abi al-Ja'd ; Salim Abu al-Ghayth ; Salim, client of the Nasriyyin ; Suhaym az-Zuhri ; Sa'd ibn Hisham ; Sa'id ibn al-Harith ; Sa'id ibn Abi al-Hasan ; Sa'id ibn Hayyan ; Sa'id al-Maqburi ; Sa'id ibn Sam'an ; Sa'id ibn Amr al-Ashdaq ; Sa'id ibn Marjana ; Sa'id ibn al-Musayyib ; Sa'id ibn Abi Hind ; Sa'id ibn Yasar ; Salman

Agharr ; Salama ibn al-Azraq ; Salama al-Laythi ; Sulayman ibn Habib al-Muharibi ; Sulayman ibn Sinan ; Sulayman ibn Yasar ; Sinan ibn Abi Sinan.

Chutayr, and it is said : Sumayr, ibn Nahar ; Chaddad Abu Ammar ; Churayh ibn Hani' ; Chufayy ibn Mati' ; Shaqiq ibn Salama ; Chahr ibn Hawshab.

Salih ibn Dirham ; Salih ibn Abi Salih ; Salih, client of at-Taw'ama ; Sa'sa'a ibn Malik ; Suhayb al-Utwari.

Ad-Dahhak ibn Churahbil ; ad-Dahhak ibn Abd ar-Rahman ibn Arzam ; Damdam ibn Jaws.

Tariq ibn Muhasin ; Tawus the Yemenite.

Amir ibn Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas ; Amir ibn Sa'd al-Bajali ; Amir ash-Sha'bi.

Abbad, brother of Sa'id al-Maqburi ; Abbas al-Jushami ; Abdallah ibn Tha'laba ibn Su'ayr ; Abu al-Walid Abdallah ibn al-Harith ; Abdallah ibn Rafi', client of Umm Salama ; Abu Salama Abdallah ibn Rafi' al-Hadrami ; Abdallah ibn Ribah al-Ansari ; Abdallah ibn Sa'd, client of Aisha ; Abdallah ibn Abi Sulayman ; Abdallah ibn Shaqiq ; Abdallah ibn Damra ; Ibn Abbas ; the son of the son of Umar, Ubaydallah, and it is said : Abdallah ; Abdallah ibn Abd ar-Rahman ad-Dawsi ; Abdallah ibn Utba

al-Hudhali ; Abdallah ibn Amr ibn Abd al-Qari ; Abdallah ibn Farrukh ; Abdallah ibn Yamin ; Abd al-Hamid ibn Salim ; Abd ar-Rahman ibn Adam ; Abd ar-Rahman ibn Udhayna ; Abd ar-Rahman ibn al-Harith ibn Hisham ; Abd ar-Rahman ibn Hujayra ; Abd ar-Rahman ibn Abi Hadrad ; Abd ar-Rahman ibn Khalid ibn Mayssara ; Abd ar-Rahman ibn Sa'd, client of al-Aswad ; Abd ar-Rahman ibn Sa'd al-Muq'ad ; Abd ar-Rahman ibn as-Samit ; Ibn al-Hadhadh ; Abd ar-Rahman ibn Abdallah ibn Ka'b ; Abd ar-Rahman ibn Abi Amra ; Abd ar-Rahman ibn Ghanm ; Abd ar-Rahman ibn Abi Karima, father of as-Sudi ; Abd ar-Rahman ibn Mihran, client of Abu Hurayrah ; Abd ar-Rahman ibn Abi Nu'm al-Bajali ; Abd ar-Rahman ibn Hurmuz al-A'raj ; Abd ar-Rahman ibn Ya'qub al-Huraqi ; Abd al-Aziz ibn Marwan ;

Abd al-Malik ibn Abi Bakr ibn Abd ar-Rahman, with divergence ; and Abd al-Malik ibn Yasar.

Ubaydallah ibn Abi Rafi' an-Nabawi ; Ubaydallah ibn Abdallah ibn Utba ; Ubaydallah ibn Abdallah ibn Muhab ; Ubayd ibn Hunayn ; Ubayd ibn Sulayman ; Ubayd ibn Abi Ubayd ; Ubayd ibn Umayr al-Laythi ; Ubayda ibn Sufyan.

Uthman ibn Abi Sawda ; Uthman ibn Chammach, with divergence ; Uthman ibn Abdallah ibn Muhab.

Ajlan, father of Muhammad ; Ajlan, client of al-Mushammi'.

Irak ibn Malik ; Urwa ibn az-Zubayr ; Urwa ibn Taym.

Ata ibn Abi Rabah ; Ata ibn Abi al-Qama ; Ata ibn Abi Muslim the Khorasanian, who did not reach him ; Ata ibn Mina ; Ata ibn Yazid ; Ata ibn Yasar ; Ata, client of Ibn Abi Ahmad ; Ata, client of Umm Subayya ; Ata the dyer, if that is correct.

Ikrima ibn Khalid, though I do not think he reached him ; Ikrima al-Abbasi ; Alqama ibn Wail ; Ali ibn al-Husayn ; Ulayy ibn Ribah ; Ali ibn Chammakh, if that is correct.

Ammar ibn Abi Ammar, client of the Banu Hashim ; Umara, and it is said : Amr, ibn Ukeyma al-Laythi ; Umar ibn al-Hakam ibn Thawban ; Umar ibn al-Hakam ibn Rafi' ;

Umar ibn Khalda, judge of Medina ; Amr ibn Dinar ; Amr ibn Abi Sufyan ; Amr ibn Sulaym az-Zuraqi ; Amr ibn Asim ibn Sufyan ibn Abdallah ath-Thaqafi ; Amr ibn Umayr ; Amr ibn Quhayd ; Amr ibn Maymun al-Awdi ; Umayr ibn al-Aswad al-Ansi ; Umayr ibn Hani al-Ansi ; Anbasa ibn Sa'id ibn al-As.

Awf ibn al-Harith, nursed by Aisha ; al-Ala ibn Ziyad al-Adawi ; Isa ibn Talha.

Al-Qasim ibn Muhammad ; Qabisa ibn Dhu'ayb ; Qassama ibn Zuhayr ; al-Qa'qa ibn Hakim, who did not meet him ; Qays ibn Abi Hazim.

Kathir ibn Murra ; Ka'b the Medinan ; Kulayb ibn Chihab ; Kumayl ibn Ziyad ; Kinana, client of Safiyya.

Malik ibn Abi Amir al-Asbahi ; Mujahid.

Al-Muharri, son of Abu Hurayrah ; Muhammad ibn Iyas ibn al-Bukayr ; Muhammad ibn Thabit ; Muhammad ibn Ziyad ; Muhammad ibn Sirin ; Muhammad ibn Churahbil ; Muhammad ibn Abi Aisha ; Muhammad ibn Abbad ibn Ja'far ; Muhammad ibn Abd ar-Rahman ibn Thawban ; Muhammad ibn Abd ar-Rahman ibn Abi Dhubab ; Muhammad ibn Ammar al-Qarad ; Muhammad ibn Amr ibn Ata, with divergence ; Muhammad ibn Umayr ; Muhammad ibn Qays ibn Makhrama ; Muhammad ibn Ka'b al-Quradhi ; Muhammad ibn Muslim az-Zuhri, who did not reach him ; Muhammad ibn al-Munkadir.

Marwan ibn al-Hakam ; Muharrib ibn Huzn ; al-Muttalib ibn Abdallah ibn Hantab ; al-Mutawwis, and it is said : Abu al-Mutawwis ; Ma'bad ibn Abdallah ibn Hisham, father of Zuhra ; al-Mughira ibn Abi Burda ; Mak'hul, who did not see him ; al-Mundhir Abu Nadra al-Abdi ; Musa ibn Talha ; Musa ibn Wardan ; Musa ibn Yasar ; Maymun ibn Mihran ; Mina, client of Abd ar-Rahman ibn Awf.

Nafi ibn Jubayr ; Nafi ibn Abbas, client of Abu Qatada ; Nafi ibn Abi Nafi, client of Abi Ahmad ; Nafi al-Umari ; an-Nadr ibn Sufyan ; Nu'aym al-Mujammir ; Hammam ibn Munabbih ; Hilal ibn Abi Hilal ; al-Haytham ibn Abi Sinan.

Wathila ibn al-Asqa ; al-Walid ibn Ribah.

Yahya ibn Ja'da ; Yahya ibn al-Asamm ; Yahya ibn Abi Salih ; Yahya ibn an-Nadr al-Ansari ; Yahya ibn Ya'mar ; Yazid ibn Ruman, who did not reach him ; Yazid ibn Abdallah ibn ash-Shikhhir ; Yazid ibn Abdallah ibn Qusayt ; Yazid ibn Abd ar-Rahman al-Awdi, father of Idris ; Yazid ibn Hurmuz ; Yazid, client of al-Munba'ith ; Yala ibn Uqba ; Yala ibn Murra ; Yusuf ibn Mahak.

Abu Idris al-Khawlani ; Abu Ishaq, client of the Banu Hashim ; Abu Umama ibn Sahl ; Abu Ayyub al-Maraghi.

Abu Bakr ibn Sulayman ibn Abi Hathma ; Abu Bakr ibn Abd ar-Rahman ; Abu Tayma al-Hujaymi ; Abu Thawr al-Azdi.

Abu Ja'far the Medinan ; if he is al-Baqir, he is a relay transmitter ; Abu al-Jawza ar-Raba'i ; Abu Hazim al-Ashja'i ; Abu al-Hakam al-Bajali ; Abu al-Hakam, client of the Banu Layth ; Abu Humayd, and it is said : he is Abd ar-Rahman ibn Sa'd al-Muq'ad ; Abu Hayy the muezzin ; Abu Khalid al-Bajali, father of Isma'il ; Abu Khalid al-Walibi ; Abu Khalid, client of the family of Ja'da.

Abu Rafi' the goldsmith ; Abu ar-Rabi the Medinan ; Abu Razin al-Asadi ; Abu Zura al-Bajali ; Abu Zayd.

Abu as-Sa'ib, client of Hisham ibn Zuhra ; Abu Sa'd al-Khayr, of Homs, and it is said : Abu Sa'id ; Abu Sa'id ibn Abi al-Mu'alla ; Abu Sa'id al-Azdi ; Abu Sa'id al-Maqburi ; Abu Sa'id, client of Ibn Amir ; Abu Sufyan

client of Ibn Abi Ahmad ; Abu Salama ibn Abd ar-Rahman ; Abu as-Sulayl al-Qaysi ; Abu ash-Cha'tha al-Muharibi.

Abu Salih al-Ash'ari ; Abu Salih al-Hanafi ; Abu Salih al-Khawzi ; Abu Salih as-Samman ; Abu Salih, client of Duba'a ; Abu as-Salt ; Abu ad-Dahhak.

Abu al-Ala ar-Riyahi ; Abu Abdallah ad-Dawsi ; Abu Abdallah al-Qarad ; Abu Abdallah, client of the Jundabiyyin ; Abu Abd al-Aziz ; Abu Abd al-Malik, client of Umm Miskin ; Abu Ubayd, client of Ibn Azhar ; Abu Uthman the cloth-merchant ; Abu Uthman an-Nahdi ; Abu Uthman at-Tunbudhi ; Abu Uthman, another one ; Abu Alqama, client of the Banu Hashim ; Abu Amr al-Ghudani ; Abu Ghatfan al-Murri.

Abu Qilaba al-Jarmi, relay transmitter ; Abu Kibach al-Ayshi ; Abu Kathir as-Suhaymi.

Abu al-Mutawakkil an-Naji ; Abu Mudalla, client of Aisha ; Abu Murra, client of Aqil ; Abu Maryam al-Ansari ; Abu Muzahim, Medinan ; Abu Muzarrid ; Abu al-Muhazzim al-Basri ; Abu Maymuna, Medinan.

Abu Hashim ad-Dawsi ; Abu al-Walid, client of Amr ibn Hurayth ; Abu Yahya, client of the family of Ja'da ; Abu Yahya al-Aslami, who is Abu Yunus, client of Abu Hurayrah.

Ibn Hasana al-Juhani ; Ibn Silan ; Ibn Mukarriz, Syrian ; Ibn Wathima an-Nasri.

Karima bint al-Hashas ; Umm ad-Darda the younger.

Al-Bukhari said : eight hundred persons or more narrated from him.

The Islam of Abu Hurayrah

Another said : his arrival and his Islam took place at the beginning of the year seven, the year of Khaybar.

Al-Waqidi said : he resided at Dhu al-Hulayfa, where he owned a house ; he gave it as alms to his clients, who sold it to Amr ibn Mirba.

Abd ar-Rahman ibn Lubayna said : I saw Abu Hurayrah, a brown-skinned man, very broad between the shoulders, with two spaced front teeth, with two braids.

Ibn Sirin said : Abu Hurayrah was white-skinned, soft-bodied, with a reddish beard.

He also related hadiths in Damascus.

Thus narrated : Muhammad ibn Kathir, from al-Awza'i, from Isma'il ibn Abdallah, from Karima bint al-Hashas, who said :

I heard Abu Hurayrah, in the house of Umm ad-Darda, say : "Three things belong to unbelief : the wailing mourners, the tearing of the garment, and the attack upon lineage."

Muhammad ibn Amr reported, from Abu Salama, from Abu Hurayrah, Abd Shams, a hadith strengthened by Ibn Khuzayma, who said : this indicates that his name was Abd Shams.

This chain is finer than the hadith of Sufyan ibn Husayn, from az-Zuhri ; unless he had two names before.

Umar ibn Ali said : Sufyan ibn Husayn told us, from az-Zuhri, from al-Muharri, who said :

my father used to say : his name was Abd Amr ibn Abd Ghanm.

Ad-Dhuhli said : this is the narration that, in my view, most touches the heart ; an-Nasa'i relied upon it.

Abu Isma'il the tutor reported, from al-A'mash, from Abu Salih, from Abu Hurayrah : his name was Abd ar-Rahman ibn Sakhr.

Abu Ma'shar Najih reported, from Muhammad ibn Qays, who said :

Abu Hurayrah used to say : "Give me not the kunya of Abu Hurayrah : the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, gave me the kunya of Abu Hirr (father of the tomcat), and he said : 'May your mother lose you, O Abu Hirr !' The male is better than the female."

Kathir ibn Zayd reported, from al-Walid ibn Ribah :

that Abu Hurayrah used to say : the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, used to call me Abu Hirr.

Ruh ibn Ubada said : Usama ibn Zayd told us, from Abdallah ibn Rafi' : I said to Abu

Hurayrah : "Why were you given the kunya of Abu Hurayrah ?"

He said : "Do you not fear me ?"

I said : "Indeed, I fear you."

He said : "I used to pasture my family's sheep, and I had a little kitten with which I played ; I was given the kunya for her."

Abdallah ibn Uthman ibn Khuthaym said, from Abd ar-Rahman ibn Lubayna at-Ta'ifi :

that Abu Hurayrah described himself to me and said : he was a brown-skinned man, broad-shouldered, with two spaced front teeth, with two braids.

Qurra ibn Khalid said : I said to Ibn Sirin : "Was Abu Hurayrah rough ?"

He said : "No : he was soft, white-skinned, with a reddish beard, and he dyed himself."

Abu al-Ala reported, from Abu Hurayrah :

the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, said to me : "Of whom are you ?"

I said : "Of the Daws."

He said : "I never thought there was among the Daws a man in whom there was good."

Abu Hurayrah said : I attended Khaybar.

Such is the narration of Ibn al-Musayyib.

Qays ibn Abi Hazim reported from him : I came on the day of Khaybar, after they had finished the fighting.

Ad-Darawardhi said : Khuthaym ibn Irak told us, from his father, from Abu Hurayrah, who said :

the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, set out for Khaybar, and I had arrived in Medina as an emigrant. I prayed the morning prayer behind Siba ibn Arfuta, whom he had left in charge ; he recited, in the first prostration, Surah Maryam, and in the second : "Woe to the defrauders".

I said : "Woe to my father ! There was scarcely a man in the land of the Daws but he had two measures : one for himself, and another with which he cheated the people."

Ibn Abi Khalid said : Qays told us that Abu Hurayrah said to us : I accompanied the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, three years.

Humayd ibn Abd ar-Rahman al-Himyari, for his part, said : he accompanied him four years.

This is the soundest account : from the conquest of Khaybar to his death there passed four years and nights.

Abu Hurayrah knew hunger and need, and he kept close to the mosque.

When he emigrated, he had with him a slave, who fled from him.

Ibn Sirin said that Abu Hurayrah said : I saw myself fainting between the grave and the pulpit, from hunger, until people said : he is mad.

Hisham reports, from Muhammad, who said :

we were with Abu Hurayrah ; he scratched himself, wiped his hand on his cloak, and said : "Praise be to Allah : Abu Hurayrah scratches himself in linen ! I saw myself fainting, between the dwelling of Aisha and the pulpit, overcome by hunger. A man would pass by, sit upon my chest ; I would lift my head and say : what you see is not what you think : it is only hunger."

I say : whoever saw him deemed him possessed and sat upon him to cure him, or something like that.

Ata ibn as-Sa'ib reported, from Amir, from Abu Hurayrah, who said :

I was at the Suffa ; the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, sent us dates, ajwa. From hunger we would pair them two by two, and when one of us paired two, he would say to his companion : I have paired two, so pair you also.

Umar ibn Dhar said : Mujahid told us, from Abu Hurayrah, who said :

by Allah, I would collapse upon the ground from hunger, I would press a stone against my belly from hunger. I sat by their road ; Abu Bakr passed, and I asked him about a verse of the Book of Allah : I asked him only that he might stop with me ; he passed without doing so. Umar passed, and the same ; until the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, passed : he recognized the hunger upon my face and said : "Abu Hurayrah !"

I said : "Here I am, O Messenger of Allah."

He entered the house with me and found some curdled milk in a cup. He said : "Whence comes this to you ?"

It was said : "So-and-so sent it for you."

He said : "O Abu Hurayrah, go to the people of the Suffa and call them."

Now the people of the Suffa were the guests of Islam, having neither family nor wealth : when alms came to the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, he sent it to them and received nothing of it ; and when a gift came to him, he received a part of it and shared it with them.

His sending me displeased me ; I said :

I was hoping to drink a draught of this milk and gain strength by it ; what has this milk to do with the people of the Suffa ! But there was no escape from obeying Allah and His messenger. So I went to them, and they came toward me answering.

When they were seated, he said : "Take, O Abu Hurayrah, and give them."

I gave a man to drink until he was quenched, until I had gone round all of them ; then I handed the cup to the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him : he lifted his head toward me, smiling, and said : "It remains, I and you."

I said : "You have spoken truly, O Messenger of Allah."

He said : "Then drink."

I drank ; he said : "Drink."

I drank, and he kept saying : "Drink", and I drank, until I said : "By Him who sent you with the truth, I find it no passage."

He took it, then, and drank of the remainder.

Al-Qa'nabi said : Muhammad ibn Hilal told us, from his father, from Abu Hurayrah, who said :

one day I went out of my house to the mosque and found a group. They said : "What brings you out ?"

I said : "Hunger."

They said : "And us : by Allah, nothing brings us out but hunger."

We rose and entered upon the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, who said : "What brings you at this hour ?"

We informed him ; he called for a platter containing dates, gave each of us two dates, and said : "Eat these two dates and drink water after them : they will suffice you this day."

I ate one date and hid the other. He said : "O Abu Hurayrah, why did you set it aside ?"

I said : "For my mother."

He said : "Eat it : we shall give you two for her."

Ikrima ibn Ammar said : Abu Kathir as-Suhaymi told us, and his name is Yazid ibn Abd ar-Rahman ; Abu Hurayrah told me :

by Allah, Allah created no believer who heard of me but he loved me.

I said : "Whence your certainty of that ?"

He said : "My mother was a polytheist, and I called her to Islam ; she resisted me. One day I called her, and she said of the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, what I hated. I came to the Messenger of Allah weeping, informed him, and asked him to pray for her."

He said : "O Allah, guide the mother of Abu Hurayrah."

I went out joyful, to bring her the good news ; I came and found the door closed ; I heard the sound of water, and she heard my presence. She said :

"Stay where you are." Then she opened, wearing her gown, having made haste with her veil, and she said : "I bear witness that there is no deity but Allah, and that Muhammad is His servant and His messenger."

He said : I returned to the Messenger of Allah weeping for joy as I had wept for sorrow ; I informed him and said : "Pray Allah to make me, with my mother, beloved of His believing servants."

He said : "O Allah, make beloved this servant of Yours and his mother to Your believing servants, and make them beloved to them both."

Its chain is fine.

Al-Jurayri reported, from Abu Nadra, from at-Tufawi, who said :

I stayed with Abu Hurayrah in Medina six months : I never saw, among the companions of the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, a man who joked more, nor

one readier to honor a guest than Abu Hurayrah.

One day I entered upon him : he was on his bed, with a bag containing date pits, or pebbles, at the bottom of which was a black pouch ; he glorified Allah and cast the pits into it ; when he had finished, he threw the bag into it ; it held it all, then handed it to him, and he would begin again.

It is said that the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, appointed al-Ala ibn al-Hadrami to command and sent Abu Hurayrah with him as muezzin.

The memory of Abu Hurayrah

The extraordinary memory of Abu Hurayrah is among the wonders of prophethood.

Muhammad ibn al-Muthanna az-Zaman said : Abu Bakr al-Hanafi told us ; Abdallah ibn Abi Yahya told us : I heard Sa'id ibn Abi Hind, from Abu Hurayrah :

the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, said : "Will you not ask me of this booty which your companions ask of me ?"

I said : "I ask you to teach me what Allah has taught you."

He drew off then a cloak that was on my back, spread it between him and me, so that I could see the ants crawling upon it ; he narrated hadiths to me until I had taken in his account ; then he said : "Gather it, and fold it back to you."

I rose in the morning not letting slip one letter of what he had narrated to me.

Ibn Chihab reported, from Sa'id and Abu Salama, that Abu Hurayrah said :

"You say that Abu Hurayrah relates many hadiths from the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, and you say : why do the Muhajirun and the Ansar not relate as he does ? My brothers the Muhajirun were taken up with their dealings in the markets, and my brothers among the Ansar were taken up with the management of their wealth ; I was a poor man, one of the poor of the Suffa : I kept close to the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, to fill my belly ; I was present when they were absent, and I retained when they forgot. The Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, said one day, in a hadith he was relating : none spreads out his garment until I have finished all my saying, then folds it back to him, but he retains what I say."

So I spread a cloak over me ; when he had finished his saying, I folded it against my chest, and I forgot nothing of that saying of the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him.

Az-Zuhri reported likewise, from al-A'raj, from Abu Hurayrah, who said :

you claim that I relate much from the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him ; Allah is the guarantor of what is promised : I was a poor man, I kept company with the Messenger of Allah to fill my belly. One day he related a hadith to us and said : "Whosoever spreads out his garment until I finish my saying, then folds it back to him, will forget nothing of what he heard from me, ever."

So I did : by Him who sent him with the truth, I forgot nothing of what I heard from him.

And these two hadiths are authentic and well-preserved.

I read before Ibn Asakir, from Abu Ruh : Muhammad ibn Isma'il informed us ; Abu Mudar Muhallam ibn Isma'il informed us ; al-Khalil ibn Ahmad informed us ; as-Sarraj told us ; Qutayba told us ; Abd al-Aziz ibn Muhammad told us, from Amr ibn Abi Amr, from al-Maqburi, from Abu Hurayrah :

I said : "O Messenger of Allah, who is the most fortunate of men through your intercession ?"

He said : "I thought, O Abu Hurayrah, that none would ask me this hadith before you, for the eagerness I see in you for hadith : the most fortunate of men through my intercession on the Day of Judgment is he who shall say : there is no deity but Allah, sincerely, from his inner self."

Abu al-Ahwass reported, from Zayd the blind man, from Abu as-Siddiq, from Abu Sa'id al-Khudri :

the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, said : "Abu Hurayrah is a vessel of knowledge."

Ibn Abi Dhi'b reported, from al-Maqburi, from Abu Hurayrah, who said :

I retained from the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, two vessels : one of them I have spread abroad among the people ; as for the other, were I to spread it, this gullet would be cut.

Al-A'mash reported, from Abu Salih, who said :

Abu Hurayrah was among the Companions the one who retained best.

Muhammad ibn Rashid reported, from Mak'hul, who said :

Abu Hurayrah used to say : many a vessel, with Abu Hurayrah, that he has not opened : meaning, of knowledge.

I say : this indicates the lawfulness of concealing certain hadiths that would stir fitna in the foundations or the branches, or in praise and blame ; but a hadith touching the lawful or the unlawful may by no means be concealed : it is of the proofs and the guidance.

In "the Sahih of al-Bukhari" is the saying of the imam Ali, may Allah be pleased with him :

"Relate to the people what they know, and leave what they reject : would you love that Allah and His messenger be declared liars ?"

Likewise, had Abu Hurayrah spread

that vessel, he would have been hurt, nay slain ; but it happens that the scholar's exertion leads him to spread such a hadith to revive the sunna : he shall have what he intended, and he shall have reward, even if he erred in his exertion.

Awf the Bedouin reported, from Sa'id ibn Abi al-Hasan, who said :

none of the companions of the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, related more hadiths from the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, than Abu Hurayrah. Marwan, when he governed Medina, wished to write down all his hadiths ; he refused and said : "Relate as we related."

When he refused him, Marwan made as if to let it go, and seated for him a skillful scribe, then summoned him. Abu Hurayrah began narrating to him, and the scribe wrote, until all his hadiths were exhausted.

Marwan then said : "You know that we have written all your hadiths."

He said : "Have you done it ?"

He said : "Yes."

He said : "Then read them to me."

They read them, and Abu Hurayrah said : "You have indeed memorized them ; if you obey me, erase them."

He said : he erased them.

Hudha ibn Khalifa heard it from him.

Hammad ibn Zayd said : Amr ibn Ubayd al-Ansari told me ; Abu az-Zu'ayza'a, the scribe of Marwan, told me :

that Marwan sent for Abu Hurayrah and began questioning him, having seated me behind the bed, writing ; when a year had passed, he summoned him and seated him behind the curtain, and questioned him about that notebook : he added nothing, subtracted nothing, brought nothing forward and put nothing back.

I say : so let memory be !

Ash-Shafi'i said : Abu Hurayrah is the best memorizer of the hadith-narrators of his age.

Al-Walid said : Sa'id ibn Abd al-Aziz told us, from Mak'hul, who said :

the people appointed to meet one night in one of the domes of Mu'awiya ; they gathered there, and Abu Hurayrah rose among them, narrating to them the hadiths of the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, until morning.

Kahmas ibn al-Hasan reported, from Abdallah ibn Shaqiq, who said :

Abu Hurayrah said : "I know no companion of the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, who retains his hadiths better than I."

Sufyan ibn Uyayna reported, from Amr, from Wahb ibn Munabbih, from his brother Hammam : I heard Abu Hurayrah say :

no companion of the Messenger of Allah related more hadiths from him than I, except Abdallah ibn Amr : he used to write, and I did not write.

At-Tayalisi said : Imran al-Qattan told us, from Bakr ibn Abdallah, from Abu Rafi, from Abu Hurayrah : he met Ka'b and began narrating to him and questioning him.

Ka'b said : "I never saw anyone who had not read the Torah know better what is in it than Abu Hurayrah."

Hammad ibn Chu'ayb reported, from Isma'il ibn Umayya, from Muhammad ibn Qays ibn Makhrama :

that a man came to Zayd ibn Thabit and asked him about a matter.

Zayd said : "Go to Abu Hurayrah : while he, so-and-so and I were in the mosque invoking, the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, came out to us, sat down, and said : 'Return to what you were doing.'"

Zayd said : I and my companion invoked, the Messenger of Allah saying amine ; then Abu Hurayrah invoked and said : "O Allah, I ask You what he asked You, and I ask You knowledge that is not forgotten."

The Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, said : "Amine."

We said : "And we too ask Allah for knowledge that is not forgotten."

He said : "The Dawsite has outdone you both in it."

Al-Hakim reported it in "his Mustadrak".

But Hammad is a weak narrator.

Sa'id ibn Abd al-Aziz reported, from Isma'il ibn Abdallah, from as-Sa'ib ibn Yazid, hearing Umar say to Abu Hurayrah :

"You shall leave off relating the hadiths of the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him,

or I shall send you back to the land of the Daws."

And he said to Ka'b : "You shall leave off relating hadiths, or I shall send you back to the land of the apes."

Yahya ibn Ayyub reported, from Ibn Ajlan :

that Abu Hurayrah used to say : I relate hadiths which, had I uttered them in the time of Umar, he would have flayed my head.

I say : such was Umar, may Allah be pleased with him : he used to say : "Shorten the hadiths from the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him."

He held back more than one Companion from spreading hadith, and such is the doctrine of Umar and others.

Before Allah, consider : if the multiplying of hadiths in the age of Umar exposed one to being barred from it, though those men were truthful, equitable, and without chains of transmission, nay they were young men whose chains were not yet grown, what do you think of the multiplying, in our time, of narrating the strange and monstrous reports, with the length of chains and the abundance of illusion and error ? It is fitting that we hold the people back from it. Would that they confined themselves to narrating the strange and the weak ! Nay, by Allah, they narrate the forged hadiths, the fables, the impossible, in the foundations, the branches, the eschatological wars and asceticism : we ask Allah for preservation.

Whosoever narrates that knowing its nullity, deceiving the believers, such a one wrongs his own soul, criminal against the sunnas and the athars ; he shall be summoned to repent ; if he turns back and refrains, well and good ; otherwise he is a transgressor. The sin suffices him who narrates all he hears without knowing ; if he knows not, let him act devoutly and seek the help of one who will help him purify what he narrates : we ask Allah for preservation. The tribulation has spread wide and heedlessness has embraced all : people have entered upon the transmitters toward whom the Muslims incline ; no blame then upon the jurists and the theologians.

Muhammad ibn Yahya ad-Dhuhli said : Muhammad ibn Isa told us ; Yazid ibn Yusuf informed us, from Salih ibn Abi al-Akhdar, from az-Zuhri, from Abu Salama, from Abu Hurayrah, who said :

we could not say "the Messenger of Allah said" until Umar was taken :

we feared the whip.

Khalid ibn Abdallah said : Yahya ibn Ubaydallah told us, from his father, from Abu Hurayrah, who said :

my hadith reached Umar : he sent for me and said : "Were you with us the day we were with the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, in the house of so-and-so ?"

I said : "Yes ; and you know well why you ask me."

He said : "And why do I ask you ?"

I said : "The Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, said that day : whosoever deliberately holds me a liar shall take his seat in the Fire."

He said : "Then no : go and relate."

Yahya is a weak narrator.

Abd al-Wahid ibn Ziyad and others said : Asim ibn Kulayb told us ; my father told me : he heard Abu Hurayrah, who began his hadith by saying :

the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, said : "Whosoever deliberately holds me a liar shall take his seat in the Fire."

Al-Mughira reported, from ash-Sha'bi, who said : Abu Hurayrah related a hadith, and Sa'd contradicted him : an exchange of words arose between them until the doors shook.

Hushaym reported, from Yala ibn Ata, from al-Walid ibn Abd ar-Rahman, from Ibn Umar :

that he said : "O Abu Hurayrah, you were the most assiduous of us upon the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, and the most knowing

of his hadith."

Nafi reported : I was with Ibn Umar at the funeral of Abu Hurayrah ; he kept invoking mercy upon him, saying : he was of those who retained the hadith of the Messenger of Allah for the Muslims.

In its chain is al-Waqidi.

Muhammad ibn Kunasa al-Asadi reported, from Ishaq ibn Sa'id, from his father, who said :

Abu Hurayrah entered upon Aisha, and she said to him : "O Abu Hurayrah, you have related much from the Messenger of Allah."

He said : "Yes, O my mother : by Allah, neither the mirror, nor the kohl, nor the oil kept me from him."

She said : "Perhaps."

Bachr ibn al-Walid reported it, from Ishaq, with these words :

"but I see that it kept you busy, you."

"of what you have stored abundantly of my hadiths."

She said : "Perhaps."

When they wished to bury al-Hasan in the Prophet's chamber, a dispute arose.

Muhammad ibn Sa'd said : Muhammad ibn Umar informed us ; Kathir ibn Zayd told us, from al-Walid ibn Ribah : I heard Abu Hurayrah say to Marwan :

"By Allah, you are no guardian, and the guardian is another : leave him" : he meant the moment they wished to bury al-Hasan with the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him. "But you meddle in what does not concern you : you wish thereby only to please him who is absent from you", meaning Mu'awiya.

Marwan turned upon him in anger and said : "O Abu Hurayrah, the people say you related many hadiths from the Messenger of Allah, though you came only a short while before his death."

He said : "I came, by Allah, while the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, was at Khaybar ; I was then past thirty years ; I remained with him until he died : I went round with him in the dwellings of his wives, served him, campaigned, made pilgrimage with him and prayed behind him ; and I was, by Allah, the man most knowing of his hadith."

Ibn Ishaq reported, from Muhammad ibn Ibrahim, from Abu Anas Malik ibn Abi Amir, who said :

a man came to Talha ibn Ubaydallah and said :

"O Abu Muhammad, what do you say of this Yemenite, meaning Abu Hurayrah : does he know the hadith of the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, better than you ? We hear from him things we do not hear from you ; or does he ascribe to the Messenger of Allah what he did not say ?"

He said : "As for his having heard what we did not hear, I do not doubt it : I shall tell you of that. We had houses, sheep and work : we would come to the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, at the two ends of the day, while he was a poor man, a guest at the door of the Messenger of Allah, his hand in the hand of destiny. I do not doubt that he heard what we did not hear ; and you will find in him no man of good who ascribes to the Messenger of Allah what he did not say."

Chu'ba reported, from Ash'ath ibn Sulaym, from his father, who said :

I came to Medina : behold Abu Ayyub narrating, from Abu Hurayrah, from the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him.

I said : "And you, a companion of the Messenger of Allah !"

He said : "He did hear ; and to narrate from him, on the authority of the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, is dearer to me than to narrate from the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him."

Bukayr ibn al-Ashajj reported, from Busr ibn Sa'id, who said :

"Fear Allah, and be on your guard concerning hadith : by Allah, we used to sit with Abu Hurayrah : he would relate from the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, and relate to us from Ka'b ; then he would rise, and I would hear some of those with us placing the hadith of the Messenger of Allah upon Ka'b, and the hadith of Ka'b upon the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him."

Ibn Sa'd said : Muhammad ibn Umar told us ; Abd al-Hamid ibn Ja'far told us, from his father, from Ziyad ibn Mina, who said :

Ibn Abbas, Ibn Umar, Abu Sa'id,

Abu Hurayrah and Jabir, with their likes, gave fatwas in Medina and related the hadiths of the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, from the death of Uthman until they themselves died.

He said : the fatwa returned to these five.

Ash-Shafi'i said : Malik informed us, from Yahya ibn Sa'id, from Bukayr ibn al-Ashajj, from Mu'awiya ibn Abi Ayyach al-Ansari :

that he was sitting with Ibn az-Zubayr when Muhammad ibn Iyas ibn al-Bukayr came and put the question of a man who had repudiated three times before consummation ; he sent him to Abu Hurayrah and Ibn Abbas, who were with Aisha. The man went and questioned them.

Ibn Abbas said to Abu Hurayrah : "Give the ruling, O Abu Hurayrah : a perplexing question has come to you."

He said : "The first repudiation makes her manifest, and the third makes her unlawful."

Ibn Abbas said the like.

Abu Hurayrah would sit beside the chamber of Aisha and narrate ; then he would say : "O mistress of the chamber, do you disapprove of anything I say ?"

When she had finished her prayer, she did not disapprove of what he had related, but said :

"The Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, did not deliver hadith in one stretch as you do."

Likewise it was said to Ibn Umar : "Do you disapprove of anything Abu Hurayrah relates ?"

He said : "No ; but he had the boldness, and we were faint of heart."

Abu Hurayrah said : "What is my fault, if I retained and they forgot ?"

Yazid ibn Harun said : I heard Chu'ba say : Abu Hurayrah practiced tadlis.

I say : the tadlis of the Companions is frequent, and there is no fault in it : their tadlis is from a master greater than they, and all the Companions are equitable witnesses.

Sharik reported, from al-Mughira, from Ibrahim, who said : our companions avoided some of the hadiths of Abu Hurayrah.

Husayn ibn Ayyach reported, from al-A'mash, from Ibrahim, the like of it.

Ath-Thawri reported, from Mansur, from Ibrahim, who said :

they took from the hadiths of Abu Hurayrah only what concerned Paradise or the Fire.

I say : that is nothing : the Muslims, anciently and recently, have argued from his hadiths, for his memory, his majesty, his mastery and his understanding ; and behold, a man like Ibn Abbas took his example from him and said : "Give the ruling, O Abu Hurayrah."

The soundest hadiths are those which come from az-Zuhri, from Sa'id ibn al-Musayyib, from Abu Hurayrah.

And those which come from Abu az-Zinad, from al-A'raj, from Abu Hurayrah.

And those which come from Ibn Awn and Ayyub, from Muhammad ibn Sirin, from Abu Hurayrah.

Where is the like of Abu Hurayrah in his memory and the breadth of his knowledge ?

Hammad ibn Zayd reported, from Abbas al-Jurayri : I heard Abu Uthman an-Nahdi, who said :

I enjoyed the hospitality of Abu Hurayrah for seven days : he, his wife and his servant kept the night in three watches : one prayed, then woke the next, who prayed, then woke the third.

I said : "O Abu Hurayrah, how do you fast ?"

He said : "I fast three days at the beginning of the month."

Ibn Sa'd said : Yahya ibn Abbad told us ; Hammad ibn Salama told us, from Hisham

ibn Sa'id ibn Zayd al-Ansari, from Churahbil :

that Abu Hurayrah fasted Monday and Thursday.

Abd al-Aziz ibn al-Mukhtar reported, from Khalid, from Ikrima :

that Abu Hurayrah glorified Allah twelve thousand times every day, saying : I glorify in proportion to my blood-price.

Abd al-Warith reported it, from Khalid.

Ahmad ibn Hibatallah informed us ; al-Mu'ayyad at-Tusi informed us ; Hibatallah as-Sindi informed us ; Sa'id ibn Muhammad informed us ; Zahir ibn Ahmad informed us ; Abu Ishaq al-Hashimi informed us ; Abu Mus'ab az-Zuhri informed us ; Malik told us, from Muhammad ibn Amr ibn Halhala, from Humayd ibn Malik ibn Khuthaym, who said :

I was sitting with Abu Hurayrah on his land at al-Aqiq ; some people came and camped with him.

Humayd said : he said to me : "Go to my mother and say : your son conveys you the salam and says : give us something to eat."

He said : she set three flatloaves in the dish, with a little oil and salt, laid it upon my head, and I carried it to them.

When I set it between their hands, Abu Hurayrah proclaimed the greatness of Allah and said : "Praise be to Allah who has filled us with bread, when our food was only the two black ones : the date and water."

And the people tasted nothing else of food.

When they had gone, he said : "O nephew, be good to your sheep : wipe the dust from them, make their resting-place pleasant, and pray in their enclosure : they are among the beasts of Paradise. By Him in whose hand my soul is, a time is coming upon the people when the flock of sheep will be dearer to its owner than the house of Marwan."

Al-Bukhari reported it in "the Book of Manners", from Ibn Abi Uways, from Malik.

And an-Nasa'i accredited Humayd.

Hushaym reported, from Yala ibn Ata, from Maymun ibn Mayssara, who said :

Abu Hurayrah had two exclamations every day : at the beginning of the day and at its end ; he would say : "The night has gone and the day has come ; and the family of Pharaoh was exposed to the Fire" : none heard it but he sought refuge with Allah from the Fire.

Ja'far ibn Burqan said : al-Walid ibn Zawran told us ; Abd al-Wahhab the Medinan told me, who said :

it reached me that a man entered upon Mu'awiya and said : "I passed by Medina : Abu Hurayrah was sitting in the mosque, around him a circle to whom he was narrating. He said : my intimate friend, Abu al-Qasim, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, related to me" ; then he wiped his eyes and wept, then resumed : "related to me my intimate friend, the Prophet of Allah, Abu al-Qasim, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him" ; then he wiped his eyes, wept, and rose.

Ibn Lahi'a reported, from Abu Yunus, from Abu Hurayrah :

that he led the people in prayer one day ; when he had saluted, he raised his voice and said : "Praise be to Allah who made religion a pillar, and made Abu Hurayrah an imam, when he was hired by the daughter of Ghazwan to fill his belly and carry his feet."

Ibn Ulayya reported, from al-Jurayri, from Muharrib ibn Huzn, who said :

I was riding by night when a man proclaimed the greatness of Allah ; I caught up with my mount and said : "Who is this ?"

It was said : "Abu Hurayrah."

I said : "What is this takbir ?"

He said : "Thanksgiving."

I said : "For what ?"

He said : "I was hired by Busra bint Ghazwan, for my heels and my belly : when they rode, I led them, and when they alighted, I served them. Allah gave her to me in marriage : she is my wife."

Ma'mar reported, from Ayyub, from Muhammad :

The governorship of Abu Hurayrah

that Umar appointed Abu Hurayrah over the Bahrain ; he came back with ten thousand (dirhams), and Umar said to him : "You have set apart these riches, O enemy of Allah and enemy of His Book !"

Abu Hurayrah said : "I answered : I am not the enemy of Allah nor the enemy of His Book, but the enemy of whoso takes them for enemies."

He said : "Whence, then, do they come to you ?"

I said : "Horses that have bred, the revenue of my clients, and gifts that followed one another."

They examined, and found it as he said.

Afterwards, Umar summoned him to appoint him : he refused.

He said : "You shrink from the charge, when Yusuf, better than you, sought it !"

He said : "Yusuf was a prophet, son of a prophet, son of a prophet ; and I am Abu Hurayrah, son of Umayma ; and I fear three things and two."

He said : "Why did you not say five ?"

He said : "I fear to speak without knowledge, to judge without forbearance, that my back be struck, that my wealth be torn away, and that my honor be insulted."

Sa'd ibn as-Salt reported it, from Yahya ibn al-Ala, from Ayyub, continuously up to Abu Hurayrah.

Ibrahim ibn Yusuf informed us ; Ibn Rawaha informed us ; as-Silafi informed us ; Ibn al-Busri informed us ; Abdallah ibn Yahya informed us ; Isma'il as-Saffar informed us ; ar-Ramadi told us ; Abd ar-Razzaq told us ; Ma'mar informed us, from Muhammad ibn Ziyad, who said : Mu'awiya used to send Abu Hurayrah to govern Medina ; when he became angry with him, he sent Marwan and deposed him.

He said : Marwan was before long deposed, and Abu Hurayrah sent back. He said to a black slave boy :

"Stand at the door : bar none, except Marwan."

The slave boy did so ; the people entered, and Marwan was barred. Then came his turn, and he entered ; he said : "We were veiled from you."

Abu Hurayrah said : "The one with most right not to disapprove of that is you."

The hafiz Abu al-Qasim reported it in "his Tarikh", from as-Silafi, by way of license.

I say : Abu Hurayrah had a fair character ; it also happened that he deputized for Marwan in Medina.

Hammad ibn Salama reported, from Thabit, from Abu Rafi, who said :

Marwan would sometimes make Abu Hurayrah his deputy over Medina : he would ride a donkey that had a foal, with a wisp of fiber upon his head ; he would ride along, meet a man, and say : "Make way ! The emir has come."

He would sometimes come upon the boys playing at night the game of the Arabs : they would not notice until he had thrown himself among them and struck with his feet ; the boys would startle and scatter. And he would sometimes invite me to his supper, saying : "Leave the stew for the emir."

I would wait : and behold, it was a broth of oil.

Amr ibn al-Harith reported, from Yazid ibn Ziyad al-Quradhi ; Tha'laba ibn Abi Malik al-Quradhi told me, who said :

Abu Hurayrah passed through the market carrying a bundle of firewood, while he was at that time the deputy of Marwan ; he would say : "Make room for the emir."

Yahya ibn Sa'id reported, from Ibn al-Musayyib, who said :

when Mu'awiya gave to Abu Hurayrah, he kept silent ; and when he withheld from him, he spoke.

Hisham ibn Urwa reported, from a man, from Abu Hurayrah, who said :

"A dirham that came from this" : and he was wiping the sweat from his brow ; "I would rather give in alms than a hundred thousand, and a hundred thousand, and a hundred thousand, drawn from the wealth of so-and-so."

Hazm al-Quta'i said : I heard al-Hasan say :

when a funeral passed by Abu Hurayrah, he would say : "Go forth in the morning : we are of those who will go forth ; return at evening : we are of those who will return."

Yunus reported, from Ibn Chihab, from Ibn al-Musayyib, from Abu Hurayrah : and he mentions the hadith of the spreading out of his garment.

He said : after that day I forgot nothing of what was related to me.

Abu Hilal reported, from al-Hasan : Abu Hurayrah said :

"Were I to relate to you all that is in my bag, you would pelt me with dung."

Al-Hasan then said : "He spoke truth : by Allah, had he told them that the House of Allah would be demolished or burned, they would not have believed him."

Al-Fadl ibn al-Ala said : Isma'il ibn Umayya related to me ; Muhammad ibn Qays ibn Makhrama informed me :

that a man came to Zayd ibn Thabit and asked him about a matter. Zayd said : "Go to Abu Hurayrah : while he, so-and-so and I were in the mosque, invoking and mentioning our Lord, the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, came out to us and sat beside us : we fell silent."

He said : "Return to what you were at."

I and my companion invoked before Abu Hurayrah, the Messenger of Allah saying amine ; then Abu Hurayrah invoked and said :

"O Allah, I ask You what these two companions of mine asked, and I ask You knowledge that is not forgotten."

The Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, said : "Amine."

We said : "O Messenger of Allah, and we too ask Allah for knowledge that is not forgotten."

He said : "The Dawsite lad has outdone you both."

Al-Fadl ibn al-Ala reported it alone ; he is a trustworthy narrator.

Hushaym reported, from Yala ibn Ata, from al-Walid ibn Abd ar-Rahman, from Ibn Umar :

that he passed by Abu Hurayrah while he was narrating :

that the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, said : "Whosoever attends a funeral shall have a qirat."

Ibn Umar said : "See what you relate from the Messenger of Allah."

Abu Hurayrah rose, took him by the hand, brought him to Aisha, and said to her : "I conjure you by Allah : did you hear the Messenger of Allah say : whosoever attends a funeral shall have a qirat, and the rest of the hadith ?"

She said : "O Allah, yes."

Abu Hurayrah said : "Neither the planting of the wadis, nor the dealings in the markets kept me from the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him ; I asked of the Messenger of Allah only a word he might teach me, or a morsel he might feed me."

Ibn Umar said : "You were the most assiduous upon the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, and the most knowing of his hadith."

His narrators are trustworthy.

Ibn Abi az-Zinad reported, from his father, from Muhammad ibn Umara ibn Amr ibn Hazm :

that he sat in a circle where Abu Hurayrah was, with some dozen sheikhs among the companions of the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him. Abu Hurayrah began relating to them a hadith from the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him : one of them did not recognize it ; then they would return to it and one would recognize it ; then he would relate them the hadith, one did not recognize it, then recognized it : and he did so many times over.

He said : I knew that day that he was the man who retained best what the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, said.

Al-Bukhari reported it in "his Tarikh".

Hammam ibn Yahya said : Ishaq ibn Abdallah ibn Abi Talha told us :

that Umar said to Abu Hurayrah : "How did you find the command ?"

He said : "You sent me unwilling, and deposed me though

I desired it.

He brought him four hundred thousand from the Bahrain. He said : "What have you brought for yourself ?"

He said : "Twenty thousand."

He said : "Whence did you obtain them ?"

He said : "I traded."

He said : "See the share of your head and your provision : take it, and place the rest in the treasury."

Abu Hurayrah would recite the basmala aloud in his prayer.

The hafiz Abu Sa'd as-Sam'ani said : I heard Abu al-Ma'mmar al-Mubarrak ibn Ahmad ; I heard Abu al-Qasim Yusuf ibn Ali az-Zanjani the jurist ; I heard the jurist Abu Ishaq al-Fayruzabadi ; I heard the qadi Abu at-Tayyib say :

we were in the study circle of the mosque al-Mansur when a Khorasanian youth came and put the question of the woman irrevocably repudiated (al-musarrata), demanding the proof, until he rested upon the hadith of Abu Hurayrah reported concerning it.

It was said to him, and he was a Hanafite : "The hadith of Abu Hurayrah is not admissible."

He had not finished his speech when a great viper fell upon him from the ceiling of the mosque : the people leapt aside, and the youth fled, pursued by it.

It was said to him : "Repent, repent !"

He said : "I repent."

The viper vanished, and no trace of it was seen.

Its chain is made of imams.

Abu Hurayrah is the utmost limit in retaining what he heard from the Messenger, peace be upon him, and delivering it letter by letter : he delivered the hadith of the irrevocably repudiated woman in its very words ; it is therefore incumbent upon us to act by it, and it is a foundation in itself.

The fatwas of Abu Hurayrah

Abu Hurayrah governed the Bahrain for Umar, and gave there a fatwa concerning the woman repudiated once, then married to another ; after consummation the latter repudiated her ; the first married her again : do there remain with him two repudiations, according to the view of Umar, other Companions, Malik, ash-Shafi'i, and the well-known report of Ahmad ; or is that repudiation annulled, so that there remain with her three ?

According to the view of Ibn Abbas, Ibn Umar, Abu Hanifa, and a narration from Umar, who hold that the consummation of the second husband annuls what is short of three, as his consummation annulled to her the three.

The first view rests on this : that the consummation of the second husband is only the term of the prohibition established by the three repudiations : it is that which is raised ; as for the woman repudiated short of three, she has not been forbidden : the consummation therefore removes nothing from her. Such is the fatwa of Abu Hurayrah.

Umar said to him : "Had you given another fatwa, I would have hurt you with a blow."

Likewise Abu Hurayrah gave fatwas in the fine points of questions, with a man like Ibn Abbas ; and the Companions, and those after them, acted upon the hadith of Abu Hurayrah in many questions that run counter to analogy, as they all acted upon his hadith :

from the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, who said : "A woman shall not be married together with her paternal aunt, nor together with her maternal aunt."

Abu Hanifa, ash-Shafi'i, and others besides them acted upon his hadith : "Whosoever eats forgetfully must complete his fast", whereas analogy, with Abu Hanifa, would have it that he breaks the fast : he left analogy for the report of Abu Hurayrah.

Behold Malik, who acted upon the hadith of Abu Hurayrah concerning the washing of the vessel seven times if a dog has licked it, though his analogy would have it not washed, it being pure in his view.

Nay, Abu Hanifa left analogy for what is short of the hadith of Abu Hurayrah, in the question of the laugh, for that relay report.

Abu Hurayrah was sure of memory : we know of no error by him in a hadith.

Bayyi ibn Makhlad said : Abu Kamil told us ; Abd al-Warith told us : I heard Muhammad ibn al-Munkadir narrate from Abu Hurayrah, who said :

"If one of you is sitting in the sun and the shade slips from him, let him change his seat."

Bayyi said : Talut ibn Abbad told us ; Abu Hilal told us ; Ibn Sirin told us, from Abu Hurayrah :

the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, said : "Were ten rabbis of the Jews to believe in me, every Jew upon the earth would believe in me."

Isma'il ibn Abi Khalid reported, from Qays, from Abu Hurayrah, who said :

when I came to the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, I declaimed upon the road :

"O night of long duration and fatigue / though it came from the land of unbelief, it delivered me."

He said : a slave of mine had fled ; when I arrived and pledged allegiance, the lad appeared. The Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, said : "This is your slave, O Abu Hurayrah ?"

I said : "He is free for the face of Allah : I had freed him."

Ayyub reported, from Ibn Sirin :

that Abu Hurayrah said to his daughter : "Wear not gold : I fear for you the flame."

Az-Zuhri reported, from Salim : he heard Abu Hurayrah say :

"Men in ihram asked me concerning non-consecrated ones who had sent them game : I ordered them to eat it ; then I met Umar ibn al-Khattab and informed him. He said : had you given them another fatwa, I would have hurt you."

Zayd ibn al-Hubab reported, from Abd al-Wahid ibn Musa ; Nu'aym ibn al-Muharrir ibn Abi Hurayrah informed us, from his grandfather :

that he had a cord with two thousand knots : he slept not until he had gone through it in glorification.

Chabbaba ibn Sawwar said : Asim ibn Muhammad told us, from his father :

I saw Abu Hurayrah go out on Friday, seize standing the two pomegranates of the pulpit, and say :

"Abu al-Qasim, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, the truthful and confirmed, related to me" ; and he went on narrating until he heard the opening of the door of the maqsura for the going out of the imams : then he sat.

Ahmad ibn Ishaq informed me ; al-Fath ibn Abd as-Salam informed us ; Muhammad ibn Ali, Muhammad ibn Ahmad and Muhammad ibn Umar the qadi informed us, and said :

Abu Ja'far ibn al-Muslima informed us ; Ubaydallah ibn Abd ar-Rahman informed us ; Ja'far ibn Muhammad al-Firyabi informed us ; Qutayba ibn Sa'id told us ; Ibn Lahi'a told us, from Abu Yunus,

from Abu Hurayrah, may Allah be pleased with him :

that the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, said : "Woe to the Arabs, of an evil that draws near : trials like patches of the dark night ; a man will be a believer in their morning and an unbeliever by their evening : he will sell his religion for a trifle of the world. The one of them who holds fast to his religion is like the one grasping a brand of thorn, or a live coal : the one who holds fast."

This Abu Yunus has for name Sulaym ibn Jubayr ; he is among the clients of Abu Hurayrah, a truthful narrator ; and this is the highest chain we have of Abu Hurayrah.

Ahmad ibn Salam and al-Khidr ibn Hammawayh informed us, by way of license, from Abu al-Faraj ibn Kulayb ; Ibn Bayan informed us ; Muhammad ibn Makhlad informed us ; Isma'il as-Saffar informed us ; al-Hasan ibn Arafa told us ; Ammar ibn Muhammad told us, from as-Salt ibn Quwayd the Hanafite : I heard Abu Hurayrah say :

the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, said : "The Hour shall not rise until the horned sheep has butted the leopard."

This as-Salt : an-Nasa'i gave him the kunya Abu al-Ahmar and said : I know not how he is.

Then he mentioned to him this hadith and said : Ahmad ibn Ali, meaning al-Marwazi, reported it : Abdallah ibn Awn al-Kharraz told us, from Ammar.

I say : Ali ibn Thabit al-Jazari also narrates from him.

And some say : as-Salt, from Abu al-Ahmar, from Abu Hurayrah.

Yahya ibn Ma'in said : as-Salt ibn Quwayd narrates from Abu Hurayrah ; Ammar ibn Muhammad and Ali ibn Thabit al-Jazari related him to me from him.

The death of Abu Hurayrah

Ibn al-Mubarak reported, from Wuhayb ibn al-Ward, from Salm ibn Bachir :

that Abu Hurayrah wept in his illness. It was said : "What makes you weep ?"

He said : "I weep not for this world of yours, but for the length of my journey, the scantiness of my provision, and that I find myself at the evening of life upon an ascent whose descent leads to Paradise or the Fire, and I know not which of the two I shall be taken to."

Malik reported, from al-Maqburi, who said :

Marwan entered upon Abu Hurayrah in his complaint and said : "May Allah heal you, O Abu Hurayrah."

He said : "O Allah, I love meeting You : love my meeting."

He said : Marwan had not yet reached the people of the quarter of al-Qata when Abu Hurayrah died.

Al-Waqidi said : Thabit ibn Qays told us, from Thabit ibn Mischal, who said : al-Walid wrote to Mu'awiya the death of Abu Hurayrah, who wrote back to him :

"See whom he has left, give them ten thousand dirhams, and treat them kindly : he was of those who aided Uthman, and he was with him in the house."

Umayr ibn Hani al-Ansi said : Abu Hurayrah used to say : "O Allah, let not the year sixty overtake me."

He died in that very year, or one year before it.

Al-Waqidi said : he resided at Dhu al-Hulayfa and owned in Medina a house which he gave in alms to his clients ; he died in the year fifty-nine, at seventy-eight years ; and he is the one who prayed over Aisha in Ramadan of the year fifty-eight.

He said : he is the one who prayed over Umm Salama in Chawwal of the year fifty-nine.

I say : the sound account is contrary to this.

Sufyan ibn Uyayna reported, from Hisham ibn Urwa :

that Aisha and Abu Hurayrah died in the year fifty-seven, two years before the death of Mu'awiya.

Followed him : Yahya ibn Bukayr, Ibn al-Madini, Khalifa, al-Madini, and al-Falllas.

Abu Ma'shar, Damra, Abd ar-Rahman ibn Maghra, al-Haytham, and others said : the year fifty-eight.

Ibn Ishaq, Abu Amr ad-Darir, Abu Ubayd, and Muhammad ibn Abdallah ibn Numayr said : the year fifty-nine, like al-Waqidi.

It is said : the emir al-Walid ibn Utba prayed over Abu Hurayrah, after the asr ; Ibn Umar and Abu Sa'id followed him to the grave, and he was buried at al-Baqi.

I have mentioned him in "the Tabaqat of the Reciters", and that he recited the Quran before Ubayy ibn Ka'b.

Took from him : al-A'raj, Abu Ja'far, and a group.

I have mentioned him in "the Memorial of the Huffaz" : he is a head in the Quran, in the sunna, and in jurisprudence.

Abu al-Qasim an-Nahhas said : I heard Abu Bakr ibn Abi Dawud say :

"I saw in a dream, while I was in Sijistan compiling the hadiths of Abu Hurayrah, Abu Hurayrah with a full beard, brown, wearing thick garments ; I said to him : I love you."

He said : "I am the first companion of hadith there was in the world."

In "the Kunya" of Abi Ahmad : Abu Bukayr Ibrahim reports, from a man :

that Abu Hurayrah, may Allah be pleased with him, when a man wearied him with his presence, would say : "O Allah, forgive him, and relieve us of him."

Bachr ibn al-Mufadhdhal reported this, from Muhammad, the companion of the cauldron, from Abu Bukayr : Ibn Sirin said :

Abu Hurayrah scratched himself, wearing a linen garment, and said : "Well, well ! Abu Hurayrah scratches himself in linen ! I saw myself fainting between the pulpit of the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, and the chamber of Aisha, and a man would come, deeming me mad."

Chu'ba reported, from Muhammad ibn Ziyad : I saw upon Abu Hurayrah a cloak of brocade.

Abu Hurayrah said : "I grew up an orphan, and I emigrated poor."

Qays ibn ar-Rabi reported, from Abu Hussayn, from Khabbab ibn Urwa : I saw Abu Hurayrah with a black turban.

In "the Sunan of an-Nasa'i" : Abu Hurayrah prayed for himself : "O Allah, I ask You knowledge that is not forgotten."

The Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, said : "Amine."

Ad-Dani said : Abu Hurayrah had the Quran recited before Ubayy ibn Ka'b.

Recited before him : al-A'raj.

Sulayman ibn Muslim ibn Jammaz said : I heard Abu Ja'far relate to us the recitation

of Abu Hurayrah in : {When the sun shall be folded up}, where he pronounced kuwwirat with a slight guttural, as one does in elegy.

Ma'mar reported, from Ayyub, from Muhammad :

that Abu Hurayrah said to his daughter : "Wear not gold : I fear for you the flame."

This is authentic from Abu Hurayrah ; it seems he was inclined to forbid gold to women as well, or that, when a woman struts in the wearing of gold and glories in it, it becomes forbidden, as with him who trails his garment out of vanity.

Mu'adh ibn Muhammad ibn Mu'adh ibn Ubayy reported, from his father, from his grandfather, from Ubayy ibn Ka'b, who said :

Abu Hurayrah was constant upon the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, questioning him about things we did not question him about.

Ibn Umar also said : "O Abu Hurayrah, you were the most assiduous upon the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, and the most knowing of his hadith."

Ibn Hazm said in "the Book of al-Ihkam on the Foundations of Rulings" : the intermediaries, for what is reported of them as fatwas, are :

Uthman, Abu Hurayrah, Abdallah ibn Amr ibn al-As, Umm Salama, Anas, Abu Sa'id, Abu Musa, Abdallah ibn az-Zubayr, Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas, Salman, Jabir, Mu'adh, and Abu Bakr as-Siddiq.

They are thirteen only ; the fatwas of each of them can be gathered into a small volume.

There are added to them : az-Zubayr, Talha, Abd ar-Rahman, Imran ibn Husayn, Abu Bakr ath-Thaqafi, Ubada ibn as-Samit, and Mu'awiya.

The rest of the Companions were sparing in fatwas : of some only one question, or two questions, is related.

Ibn Hazm then enumerates a number of Companions, among them : Abu Ubayda, Abu ad-Darda, Abu Dhar, Jarir, and Hassan.

The traveling-provision of Abu Hurayrah :

Hammad ibn Zayd said : al-Muhajjir, client of the family of Abu Bukra, told us, from Abu al-Ala, from Abu Hurayrah, who said :

I came to the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, with some dates, and said : "Invoke blessing upon them, O Messenger of Allah."

He took them, invoked blessing upon them, then said : "Take them, put them in your provision-bag ; when you wish to take of them, put in your hand, take, and scatter them not."

He said : I carried of those dates such and such loads in the path of Allah ; we ate and we fed others ; and the bag hung at my side, never leaving my side. When Uthman was slain, it ceased.

At-Tirmidhi said : hasan, gharib.

Isma'il ibn Abd ar-Rahman informed us ; Abu Muhammad ibn Qudama informed us ; Abu al-Fadl at-Tusi, Chuhda and Tajni al-Wahbaniyya informed us, and said :

Tirad informed us

az-Zaynabi ; Hilal al-Haffar informed us ; Ibn Ayyach told us ; Hafs ibn Amr told us ; Sahl ibn Ziyad Abu Ziyad told us ; Ayyub as-Sakhtiyani told us, from Muhammad, from Abu Hurayrah, who said :

the Messenger of Allah, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him, was on a campaign : lack of food struck them. He said : "O Abu Hurayrah, have you anything ?"

I said : "Some dates in my provision-bag."

He said : "Bring it."

I brought the bag ; he said : "Bring a cloth."

I brought the cloth ; he spread it, put in his hand, and took hold of the dates : behold, twenty-one dates.

He then said : "In the name of Allah."

He began setting down each date, naming it, until he came to the last date ; he said over it the same, gathered them, then said : "Call so-and-so and his companions."

They ate until satisfied, and went out.

Then he said : "Call so-and-so and his companions."

They ate, were satisfied, and went out.

Then he said : "Call so-and-so and his companions."

They ate, were satisfied, and went out, and some dates remained.

He said to me : "Sit."

I sat, ate, and some dates remained ; he took them, put them back in the bag, and said : "O Abu Hurayrah, when you wish for anything, put in your hand and take : cast not over, lest it be cast over you."

He said : I never wished for a date but I put in my hand ; I drew from it fifty loads in the path of Allah, the Mighty and Majestic ; it hung behind my saddle, and it ceased in the time of Uthman ibn Affan.

This is a strange hadith.

Sahl alone reported it ; he is sound, Allah willing ; it is in "the Amali of Ibn Cham'un", from Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Salm, from Hafs ar-Rabali.

His Musnad numbers : five thousand three hundred seventy-four hadiths.

The agreed-upon, in al-Bukhari and Muslim, of them number : three hundred twenty-six.

Al-Bukhari has alone : ninety-three hadiths ; and Muslim : ninety-eight hadiths.

At the end of the third volume of the original we relied upon, in its exact wording, stands :

"Here ends the third volume of the Book 'Sir A'lam an-Nubala', by the sheikh, the imam, the critic, the eminent, the sheikh of the traditionalists, Chams ad-Din, Abu Abdallah Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Uthman adh-Dhahabi : may Allah prolong his life and make the Muslims profit by his blessing."

Following it in the fourth volume : the tarjama of Abu Bukra ath-Thaqafi, client of the Prophet, peace and the salutation of Allah be upon him.

The copying was finished on the night of Friday, at the beginning of the blessed month of Chaban, in the year seven hundred thirty-nine.

"Praise be to Allah alone ; and His prayers be upon our master Muhammad, his family and his companions ; may He salute them with a pure salutation."

"The writing shall remain after me in the book / and the hand shall wither in the dust :

O that he who reads my book / invoke for me deliverance from the reckoning."

"I copied this blessed copy from a copy in the hand of the author, the sheikh, the unique imam, the proof, the imam of the traditionalists, the historian of Islam, Chams ad-Din, Abu Abdallah Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Uthman adh-Dhahabi : may Allah extend his span and make the Muslims profit by his blessing, through Muhammad, his family and his descendants."