Rabīʿa ibn Abī ʿAbd al-Raḥmān

Muḥammad ibn Naṣr ibn Sulaymān al-Harawī related to us. He said: Yaḥyā ibn al-Mughīra al-Madīnī related to us. He said: Muṭarrif ibn ʿAbd Allāh related to us. He said: Mālik ibn Anas was asked: “What did you think of Abū Ḥanīfa?” He said: “I saw him speaking with Rabīʿa and bringing him around to his own view more than once. I saw that, were he to say of a wooden pillar, ‘This is gold,’ he would support it with arguments that would make you imagine it was gold.”

Jīhān ibn Abī al-Ḥasan al-Farghānī related to us. He said: Bishr ibn Yaḥyā related to us. He said: I heard Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan say: I heard Abū Yūsuf, may God have mercy on them both, say: When Rabīʿa ibn Abī ʿAbd al-Raḥmān came to Kufa, I prepared a question for him on which Abū Ḥanīfa and Ibn Abī Laylā differed. I said to myself: “I will ask him. If he answers according to Abū Ḥanīfa’s view, may God have mercy on him, I will debate him according to Ibn Abī Laylā’s school. If he answers according to Ibn Abī Laylā’s view, may God have mercy on him, I will debate him according to Abū Ḥanīfa’s school, may God have mercy on him.” I wanted him to be asked in Abū Ḥanīfa’s presence, may God have mercy on him, so I waited for an occasion when the two met. I asked Rabīʿa: “What do you say about an enslaved man jointly owned by two people, when one of them frees his share and is well-off?” He said: “No part of the enslaved man becomes free.” He answered neither according to Abū Ḥanīfa’s view nor according to Ibn Abī Laylā’s, and what I had prepared fell apart. Abū Ḥanīfa realized this and began to smile. I said to Rabīʿa: “Why does the enslaved man not become free?” He said: “Because it harms his partner. The Prophet, peace be upon him, said: ‘There is neither harm nor reciprocal harm in Islam.’” Abū Ḥanīfa said to him: “If it is as you say, the harm falls on the person freeing him, rather than his partner.” He said: “How?” He said: “Because his partner can seek compensation from him for what leaves his ownership, while the person freeing him is prevented from freeing his slave and disposing of his property. The harm to him is greater than that to his partner.” Rabīʿa was unable to reply and fell silent.

Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Kūfī informed us: Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā al-Ḥāzimī related to us: Ḥusayn ibn Saʿīd al-Lakhmī related to me, from his father, from Zakariyyā ibn Abī al-ʿAtīk, who said: Rabīʿa ibn Abī ʿAbd al-Raḥmān came to Kufa while Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd al-Anṣārī was there. Abū Ḥanīfa—may God have mercy on him—had visited Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd with his companions, and Yaḥyā related reports to them. The first he related was, ‘Actions are according to intention.’ Abū Ḥanīfa—may God be pleased with him—said, ‘We have not heard this.’ They returned to him; he related reports, and they asked him questions. He withheld no report from them. Rabīʿa then arrived in these circumstances. The Kufans visited him and said, ‘Relate reports to us.’ He said, ‘I did not come to transmit reports.’ They said, ‘Then we will ask you questions.’ He said, ‘I will not answer you.’ One of them asked, ‘Did you hear Anas—may God be pleased with him—mention some description of the Messenger of God—God bless him and grant him peace?’ He said, ‘Yes, I heard it from Anas.’ They said, ‘Then dictate it to us.’ [He said], ‘Is my saying “yes” to you not sufficient?’ He did not dictate it to them.

Qabīṣa related to us, [from] Zakariyyā ibn Yaḥyā; and Zakariyyā wrote to me. He said: Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ziyād al-Baghdādī wrote. He said: Muḥammad ibn Khulayd al-Baṣrī related to us. He said: Abū ʿAbd Allāh Ṣakhr ibn ʿUthmān related to us, from Sufyān al-Thawrī, from Abū Ḥanīfa, may God have mercy on him, from al-Haytham, from Anas ibn Mālik; and Rabīʿa ibn Abī ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, from Anas ibn Mālik; and ʿUthmān ibn Zāʾida, from al-Zubayr ibn ʿAdī, from ʿAlī, may God be pleased with him: The Messenger of God, peace and blessings be upon him, died at the age of sixty-three; Abū Bakr died at the age of sixty-three; and ʿUmar died at the age of sixty-three.

This is the second occurrence of 153. The chain’s conjunctions and printed bracket are retained without inserting missing transmission links.