Hishām ibn ʿUbayd Allāh al-Rāzī

Among those who learned from both of them was Hishām ibn ʿUbayd Allāh al-Rāzī, although he was weak in transmission. Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan died in his house in Rayy and was buried in their cemetery. I heard Shaykh Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Mūsā, God have mercy on him, report of Shaykh Abū Bakr al-Rāzī that he disliked having the Uṣūl read to him through Hishām's transmission because of its inconsistencies. He would direct that the Uṣūl be read through Abū Sulaymān's or Muḥammad ibn Samāʿa's transmission because of their soundness and the two men's precision.

Among those who learned from both of them was Hishām ibn ʿUbayd Allāh al-Rāzī, although he was weak in transmission. Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan died in his house in Rayy and was buried in their cemetery. I heard Shaykh Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Mūsā, God have mercy on him, report of Shaykh Abū Bakr al-Rāzī that he disliked having the Uṣūl read to him through Hishām's transmission because of its inconsistencies. He would direct that the Uṣūl be read through Abū Sulaymān's or Muḥammad ibn Samāʿa's transmission because of their soundness and the two men's precision.

Abū ʿUbayd Allāh Muḥammad ibn ʿImrān ibn Mūsā al-Marzubānī informed us: Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥakīmī related to us: Aḥmad ibn Zuhayr related to us: Sulaymān ibn Abī Shaykh related to us: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṣāliḥ ibn Muslim al-ʿIjlī related to us: A man in Syria said to al-Ḥakam ibn Hishām al-Thaqafī: “Tell me about Abū Ḥanīfa.” He replied: “He was among the most trustworthy people. Our ruler demanded that he take charge of the keys to his treasuries or be beaten on his back. He chose the ruler’s punishment over God’s punishment.” He said: “I have never seen anyone describe Abū Ḥanīfa as you have.” He replied: “By God, he was as I have told you.”

Abū ʿUbayd Allāh Muḥammad ibn ʿImrān ibn Mūsā al-Marzubānī informed us: Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥakīmī related to us: Aḥmad ibn Zuhayr related to us: Sulaymān ibn Abī Shaykh related to us: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṣāliḥ ibn Muslim al-ʿIjlī related to us: A man in Syria said to al-Ḥakam ibn Hishām al-Thaqafī: “Tell me about Abū Ḥanīfa.” He replied: “He was among the most trustworthy people. Our ruler demanded that he take charge of the keys to his treasuries or be beaten on his back. He chose their punishment over God’s punishment.” He said: “I have never seen anyone describe Abū Ḥanīfa as you have.” He replied: “By God, he was as I have told you.”

ʿUmar ibn Ibrāhīm and ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad informed us: Makram ibn Aḥmad related: ʿAbd al-Wahhāb ibn Muḥammad related: I was informed from ʿUbayd ibn Ismāʿīl: Al-Manṣūr summoned Abū Ḥanīfa, Sufyān al-Thawrī, and Sharīk. They were admitted, and he said: “I summoned you only for good.” He had already written three commissions. He told Sufyān: “Here is your commission for Basra’s judgeship. Take it and go there.” He told Sharīk: “Here is yours for Kufa; take it and proceed.” He told Abū Ḥanīfa: “Here is yours for my city and its surroundings; take it.” He told his chamberlain: “Send someone with them”—or words to that effect—“and give whoever refuses a hundred lashes.” Sharīk took his commission and proceeded. Sufyān told the attendant assigned to him: “I am just coming out,” entered his house, put the document in a wall recess, and fled to Yemen. It is said that Hishām ibn Yūsuf and ʿAbd al-Razzāq heard him there and that, out of fear, he related four thousand hadiths standing on his feet. Abū Ḥanīfa did not accept the commission. He received a hundred lashes, was imprisoned, and died in confinement. Thus ʿUbayd ibn Ismāʿīl related it to me. ʿAbd al-Wahhāb said: I heard Muḥammad ibn Shujāʿ say: I heard an elder called Abū Maʿshar relate this account. I asked al-Ḥasan ibn Abī Mālik, who said: “This is well known about him. We have always recalled and related it.” He said: Abū Ḥanīfa was brought to al-Manṣūr, who lodged him. Al-Ḥasan ibn ʿUmāra came and said: “Abū Ḥanīfa, today I need you and your judgment. A reward has been ordered for me”—he mentioned thousands of dirhams—“and I fear being killed if I refuse. Find a way for me to turn it away.” Ten thousand dirhams were also ordered for Abū Ḥanīfa, with al-Ḥasan ibn Qaḥṭaba responsible for paying them. When Abū Ḥanīfa realized they were being sent, he spoke to nobody that morning, as if unconscious. The money was brought that day by al-Ḥasan ibn Qaḥṭaba’s messenger. They told him: “He has not spoken a word today.” He asked: “What should I do?” They replied: “Do as you think best.” He placed it in my place of prayer in a corner of the house and departed. The purse remained there. When Abū Ḥanīfa died, his son Ḥammād was absent. He returned afterward, carried the purse to al-Ḥasan ibn Qaḥṭaba’s door, sought permission, and entered. He said: “I found in my father’s will: ‘When I have been buried, take the purse in the corner of the house to al-Ḥasan ibn Qaḥṭaba and say: Here is your deposit that was with us.’” The purse was brought in. Al-Ḥasan looked at it and said: “May God have mercy on your father. He guarded his religion jealously when many others readily surrendered theirs.” [The first-person ‘my place of prayer’ reflects an unexplained voice change in the source.]

ʿUmar ibn Ibrāhīm and ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad informed us: Makram ibn Aḥmad related: ʿAbd al-Wahhāb ibn Muḥammad related: I was informed from ʿUbayd ibn Ismāʿīl: Al-Manṣūr summoned Abū Ḥanīfa, Sufyān al-Thawrī, and Sharīk. They were admitted, and he said: “I summoned you only for good.” He had already written three commissions. He told Sufyān: “Here is your commission for Basra’s judgeship. Take it and go there.” He told Sharīk: “Here is yours for Kufa; take it and proceed.” He told Abū Ḥanīfa: “Here is yours for my city and its surroundings; take it.” He told his chamberlain: “Send someone with them”—or words to that effect—“and give whoever refuses a hundred lashes.” Sharīk took his commission and proceeded. Sufyān told the attendant assigned to him: “I am just coming out,” entered his house, put the document in a wall recess, and fled to Yemen. It is said that Hishām ibn Yūsuf and ʿAbd al-Razzāq heard him there and that, out of fear, he related four thousand hadiths standing on his feet. Abū Ḥanīfa did not accept the commission. He received a hundred lashes, was imprisoned, and died in confinement. Thus ʿUbayd ibn Ismāʿīl related it to me. ʿAbd al-Wahhāb said: I heard Muḥammad ibn Shujāʿ say: I heard an elder called Abū Maʿshar relate this account. I asked al-Ḥasan ibn Abī Mālik, who said: “This is well known about him. We have always recalled and related it.” He said: Abū Ḥanīfa was brought to al-Manṣūr, who lodged him. Al-Ḥasan ibn ʿUmāra came and said: “Abū Ḥanīfa, today I need you and your judgment. A reward has been ordered for me”—he mentioned thousands of dirhams—“and I fear being killed if I refuse. Find a way for me to turn it away.” Ten thousand dirhams were also ordered for Abū Ḥanīfa, with al-Ḥasan ibn Qaḥṭaba responsible for paying them. When Abū Ḥanīfa realized they were being sent, he spoke to nobody that morning, as if unconscious. The money was brought that day by al-Ḥasan ibn Qaḥṭaba’s messenger. They told him: “He has not spoken a word today.” He asked: “What should I do?” They replied: “Do as you think best.” He placed it in a corner of the house and departed. The purse remained there. When Abū Ḥanīfa died, his son Ḥammād was absent. He returned afterward, carried the purse to al-Ḥasan ibn Qaḥṭaba’s door, sought permission, and entered. He said: “I found in my father’s will: ‘When I have been buried, take the purse in the corner of the house to al-Ḥasan ibn Qaḥṭaba and say: Here is your deposit that was with us.’” The purse was brought in. Al-Ḥasan looked at it and said: “May God have mercy on your father. He guarded his religion jealously when many others readily surrendered theirs.”

He said: Abū al-Walīd al-Ṭayālisī related to me: That day I entered with the scholars of legal reasoning. The first person from whom Abū Yūsuf transmitted was al-Ḥasan ibn Ṣāliḥ ibn Ḥayy. It seemed that something occurred to him: he turned to the people and said, “By God, my fear for a man concerning anything is never as great as my fear for him concerning what he says about al-Ḥasan ibn Ṣāliḥ.” He seemed to be alluding to Shuʿba. I stood up and said, “May God never see me in a gathering where Abū Bisṭām is disparaged,” and left. When I reached the road, I reflected: “This is the minister and Chief Judge. What does he care whether I leave him or sit with him?” I returned and entered. When Abū Yūsuf finished dictating, it seemed he had no concern but me. He already knew me because I had been with him in Baghdad. He told me, “Hishām, by God I intended nothing but good toward Abū Bisṭām, but I have never seen anyone like al-Ḥasan ibn Ṣāliḥ.”

He said: Abū al-Walīd al-Ṭayālisī related to me: That day I entered with the scholars of legal reasoning. The first person from whom Abū Yūsuf transmitted was al-Ḥasan ibn Ṣāliḥ ibn Ḥayy. It seemed that something occurred to him: he turned to the people and said, “By God, my fear for a man concerning anything is never as great as my fear for him concerning what he says about al-Ḥasan ibn Ṣāliḥ.” He seemed to be alluding to Shuʿba. I stood up and said, “May God never see me in a gathering where Abū Bisṭām is disparaged,” and left. When I reached the road, I reflected: “This is the minister and Chief Judge. What does he care whether I leave him or sit with him?” I returned and entered. When Abū Yūsuf finished dictating, it seemed he had no concern but me. He already knew me because I had been with him in Baghdad. He told me, “Hishām, by God I intended nothing but good toward Abū Bisṭām, but I have never seen anyone like al-Ḥasan ibn Ṣāliḥ.”

ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad al-Ḥulwānī informed us: Makram ibn Aḥmad related: Abū Jaʿfar Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Salama al-Ṭaḥāwī related in a letter to me: Jabrūn ibn ʿĪsā ibn Yazīd related: Ayyūb al-ʿIrāqī Abū Hishām related: Muḥammad ibn Rashīd, companion of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Qāsim, related to me, from Yūsuf ibn ʿAmr, from Ibn al-Darāwardī: I saw Mālik and Abū Ḥanīfa in God’s Messenger’s mosque, peace and blessings upon him, after the evening prayer, discussing and studying together. Whenever either reached the position he adopted and practised, one refrained from pressing the other, without harshness or declaring either mistaken, until they prayed the morning prayer in that very gathering.

ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad al-Ḥulwānī informed us: Makram ibn Aḥmad related: Abū Jaʿfar Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Salama al-Ṭaḥāwī related in a letter to me: Jabrūn ibn ʿĪsā ibn Yazīd related: Ayyūb al-ʿIrāqī Abū Hishām related: Muḥammad ibn Rashīd, companion of ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Qāsim, related to me, from Yūsuf ibn ʿAmr, from Ibn al-Darāwardī: I saw Mālik and Abū Ḥanīfa in God’s Messenger’s mosque, peace and blessings upon him, after the evening prayer, discussing and studying together. Whenever either reached the position he adopted and practised, one refrained from pressing the other, without harshness or declaring either mistaken, until they prayed the morning prayer in that very gathering.

Abū ʿUbayd Allāh al-Marzubānī informed us: Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Durayd informed us: Al-Sakan ibn Saʿīd informed us, from his father, from Hishām ibn Muḥammad al-Kalbī: Ibn Abī Kathīr, a client of the Banū al-Ḥārith ibn Kaʿb from Basra, said in an elegy for Judge Abū Yūsuf: “May a resounding mass of clouds water the grave where Yaʿqūb became decay’s captive. / He worked subtle analogy for us, so wine became lawful after its former disgrace. / Had the fates not aimed at him, and death not hurried him away from perfume, / He would have worked reasoning in analogy until finding anything forbidden became hard for doubters.” [The phrase about perfume is reproduced as transmitted; its intended wording is uncertain.]

Abū ʿUbayd Allāh al-Marzubānī informed us: Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Durayd informed us: Al-Sakan ibn Saʿīd informed us, from his father, from Hishām ibn Muḥammad al-Kalbī: Ibn Abī Kathīr, a client of the Banū al-Ḥārith ibn Kaʿb from Basra, said in an elegy for Judge Abū Yūsuf: “May a resounding mass of clouds water the grave where Yaʿqūb became decay’s captive. / He worked subtle analogy for us, so wine became lawful after its former disgrace. / Had the fates not aimed at him, and death not hurried him away from breaking the fast, / He would have worked reasoning in analogy until finding anything forbidden became hard for doubters.”