Biography of Imam Ibn Majah (Muhammad ibn Yazid)

In the "Mansur" of Ibn Tahir: "I heard Abou Ishaq, the sheikh of Islam, say: the 'Jami' of at-Tirmidhi is more beneficial than the book of al-Boukhari and Muslim, for no one draws profit from those two except the expert scholar, whereas everyone reaches the benefit of the 'Jami'."

Ghundar and others said: "Abou Isa died on the thirteenth of Rajab, in the year two hundred seventy-nine, in Tirmidh."

No. 133: Ibn Majah, Muhammad ibn Yazid.

The hafiz, the great master, the proof, the exegete, Abou Abdallah ibn Majah al-Qazwini, author of the "Sunan", of the "Chronicle" and of the "Quranic Commentary", hafiz of Qazwin in his era.

The birth and the teachers of Imam Ibn Majah

He was born in the year two hundred nine.

He heard from: Ali ibn Muhammad at-Tanafisi the hafiz, from whom he narrated the most; Jubara ibn al-Mughallis, who was among the oldest of his teachers; Mus'ab ibn Abdallah az-Zubayri; Suwayd ibn Sa'id; Abdallah Mu'awiya al-Jumahi; Muhammad ibn Rumh; Ibrahim ibn al-Mundhir al-Hizami; Muhammad ibn Abdallah ibn Numayr; Abou Bakr ibn Abi Chayba; Hicham ibn Ammar; Yazid ibn Abdallah al-Yamami; Abou Mus'ab az-Zuhri; Bichr ibn Mu'adh al-Aqadi; Houmayd ibn Mas'ada; Abou Houdayfa as-Sahmi; Dawoud ibn Ruchayd; Abou Kaythama; Abdallah ibn Zakwan the reciter; Abdallah ibn Amir ibn Barrad; Abou Said al-Achajj; Abd ar-Rahman ibn Ibrahim Douhaym; Abd as-Salam ibn Asim al-Hissanjani; Uthman ibn Abi Chayba; and a great many others mentioned in his "Sunan" and his other works.

The narrators of Imam Ibn Majah

Those who narrated from him: Muhammad ibn Isa al-Abhari, Abou at-Tayyib Ahmad ibn Rawh al-Baghdadi, Abou Umar Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Hakim al-Madini, Abou al-Hasan Ali ibn Ibrahim al-Qattan, Sulayman ibn Yazid al-Fami, and others.

The judge Abou Ya'la al-Khalili said: "His father, Yazid, was known as Majah, and he was a client (mawla) of Rabi'a."

Ibn Majah said: "I submitted this 'Sunan' to Abou Zur'a ar-Razi. He examined it and said: I think that if this book fell into the hands of the people, these collections, or most of them, would fall into disuse." Then he said: "There may be in it no more than thirty hadiths whose chain carries a weakness, or something of the sort."

I say: Ibn Majah was a critical and truthful hafiz, of broad knowledge. What lowered the rank of his "Sunan" is what the book contains of rejected hadiths (manakir) and the few fabricated ones. As for the statement of Abou Zur'a, if it is authentic, by the thirty hadiths he meant the rejected and discarded hadiths; as for the hadiths that cannot serve as proof, they are numerous, perhaps about a thousand.

Abou Ya'la al-Khalili said: "He is trustworthy, of great standing, unanimously accepted, his reports are invoked. He had knowledge of hadith and a retentive memory. He travelled to the two Iraks, Mecca, Syria, Egypt, and Rayy, in pursuit of the written collections of hadith."

The hafiz Muhammad ibn Tahir said: "I saw, in the city of Qazwin, the 'Chronicle' of Ibn Majah on the men and the cities, reaching down to his era, at the end of which was written, in the hand of his companion Ja'far ibn Idris: 'Abou Abdallah died on Monday and was buried on Tuesday, the eight days remaining of Ramadan. His brother Abou Bakr prayed over him, and the burial was handled by his two brothers Abou Bakr and Abou Abdallah, and his son Abdallah.'"

The death of Imam Ibn Majah

I say: he died in Ramadan of the year two hundred seventy-three.

It is said: of the year two hundred seventy-five.

The first version is the sounder one.

He lived sixty-four years.

The works of Imam Ibn Majah

We possess the transmission of his "Sunan" through an unbroken and elevated chain. His book contains hadiths that the hafiz Abou al-Hasan ibn al-Qattan judged defective.

His brother Abou Muhammad al-Hasan ibn Yazid ibn Majah al-Qazwini narrated in Baghdad around the year two hundred eighty, when he performed the pilgrimage, from Isma'il ibn Tawba al-Qazwini the hafiz.

The hafiz Abou Talib Ahmad ibn Nasr heard from him.

I heard the book of the "Sunan" of Ibn Majah in Baalbek, from the judge Taj ad-Din Abd al-Khaliq ibn Abd as-Salam, and I read by my own reading about the first third of the book.

The whole book was transmitted to me from the sheikh imam Mouwaffaq ad-Din Abdallah ibn Qudama, by audition, in the year six hundred eleven.

And I heard it in full in Aleppo from Abou Said Sounqur az-Zayni, from his audition of the sheikh Mouwaffaq ad-Din Abd al-Latif ibn Youssouf, from their joint audition of Abou Zur'a al-Maqdisi, from Muhammad ibn al-Husayn al-Muqawwimi, from al-Qasim ibn Abi al-Mundhir the preacher, from Abou al-Hasan al-Qattan, from him.

The number of the books composing the "Sunan" of Ibn Majah is thirty-two books.

Abou al-Hasan al-Qattan said: "The 'Sunan' contain one thousand five hundred chapters, and their total content is four thousand hadiths."

Through the mentioned chain going back to Ibn Majah, he said: Isma'il ibn Hafs reported to us: Abou Bakr ibn Ayyach reported to us: al-A'mach, from Abou Soufyan, from Jabir, from the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, who said: "When the dead one is placed in his grave, the sun is shown to him at its setting [...]"