Sufyān ibn ʿUyayna

Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī ibn Sulaymān related to us. He said: I heard Abū ʿIṣma say: I heard Abū Sulaymān say: We were with Sufyān ibn ʿUyayna when his legal question came up in the gathering: a man is owed dinars by another man, payable at a specified time, and takes dirhams from him worth less than the dinars; or he is owed dirhams and takes dinars before the payment falls due. Ibn ʿUyayna said: “Abū Ḥanīfa, may God be pleased with him, saw no harm in it.”

Zakariyyā ibn Yaḥyā ibn Yūsuf related to us. He said: ʿAlī ibn Muḥallab, Abū al-Ḥasan al-Qaṣīr, related to us. He said: I heard Ṣafar ibn Ibrāhīm say: I was with al-Fuḍayl in Mecca when a letter reached me from Bukhara containing a question: a frog had fallen into thickened syrup and died. I asked al-Fuḍayl about it, and he said: “I do not know.” I said: “Whom should I ask?” He said: “[Ask] Yaḥyā ibn Sulaym, and tell me what he says.” I asked him, and he said: “I do not know.” I said to him: “Whom should I ask?” He said: “Ask Sufyān ibn ʿUyayna.” I went to him and found him praying, so I waited until he finished and asked him. He said: “I do not know.” A man came up to me and called me over. He said: “What are you asking about?” I said: “A question [arose], and I asked al-Fuḍayl. He did not know and directed me to Yaḥyā. I asked him, but he did not know. I also asked Ibn ʿUyayna, but he did not know.” He said to me: “Go to Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan, the man praying by the waterspout.” I went [to him] and found him praying. I waited, and he ended his prayer with the salutation. He said to me: “What do you want?” I said: “A frog fell into thickened syrup and died in it. May it be eaten?” He said: “That is its place.” I said: “How can a frog have a place in syrup?” He said to me: “What would you say if it fell into water?” I said: “There would be no harm.” He said: “It is the same in syrup, too.” I returned to al-Fuḍayl and told him. He marveled and shook his head.

Rubb is rendered “thickened syrup.” The brief reply “That is its place” is retained without supplying an explanation not stated in the text. Printed brackets are preserved.

Al-Ḥasan ibn Maʿrūf related to us. He said: Muḥammad ibn Muʿāwiya related to us. He said: Sufyān ibn ʿUyayna related to us. He said: Abū Ḥanīfa, may God be pleased with him, related to us, from Abān ibn Abī ʿAyyāsh, from Ibrāhīm, from ʿAlqama, may God have mercy on them, from ʿAbd Allāh, from his mother: She spent the night with the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, and saw him bow after the qunūt.

Muḥammad ibn Khuzayma ibn Muḥaysān al-Bukhārī related to us. He said: Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā ibn Abī ʿUmar al-ʿAdanī related to us. He said: Sufyān ibn ʿUyayna related to us. He said: al-Nuʿmān, Abū Ḥanīfa, may God be pleased with him, related to me, from a man, from Abū Hurayra, may God be pleased with him, who said: The Messenger of God, peace and blessings be upon him, said: When the star rises, the blight is lifted from every town.

The Arabic says “the star” without naming it. “Blight” renders العاهة; the text does not name a particular disease.

Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Hamdānī al-Kūfī related to us. He said: Aḥmad ibn Zuhayr related to us. He said: Ibrāhīm ibn Bashshār related to us. [He said:] Ibn ʿUyayna related to us. He said: One day I passed Abū Ḥanīfa, may God be pleased with him, while he was with his companions in the mosque. Their voices had grown loud, so I said: “Abū Ḥanīfa, this is the mosque; voices should not be raised here.” He said: “Leave them, for they do not gain understanding except in this way.”

Ismāʿīl ibn Bishr related to us. He said: Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Malik related to us. He said: Sufyān ibn ʿUyayna related to us. He said: I heard Abū Ḥanīfa, may God be pleased with him, being asked about a man who was owed a thousand dirhams by another man, payable at a set time, and said: “Pay me eight hundred now, and you may keep two hundred.” He said: “There is no harm in it.”

Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAlī al-Tirmidhī related to us. He said: Muslim ibn Hammām related to us. He said: ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī related to me. He said: Sufyān ibn ʿUyayna informed us. He said: al-Walīd related to us, from Abū Ḥanīfa, may God be pleased with him: He said that the grandfather does not draw the walāʾ to himself.

The legal term walāʾ is retained. The translation does not add conditions or a legal explanation absent from this short report.

Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq ibn ʿUthmān al-Simsār related to me. He said: Dāwūd ibn Mikhrāq al-Fāryābī related to us. He said: Saʿīd ibn Sālim al-Qaddāḥ related to us. [He said: Sufyān ibn ʿUyayna related to us. He said:] Abū Ḥanīfa, may God be pleased with him, used to complete sixty recitations of the Qurʾān every Ramadan: one complete recitation at night and one during the day.

Muḥammad ibn al-Qāsim al-Balkhī and al-Qāsim ibn ʿAbbād al-Tirmidhī related to us. They said: ʿAlī ibn Khashram related to us. He said: I heard Ibn ʿUyayna say: I have never seen anyone more scrupulous than Abū Ḥanīfa, may God be pleased with him.

Sulaymān ibn Dāwūd, Abū Saʿīd al-Harawī, related to us. He said: I heard Abū Yaʿqūb al-Marwazī, Yūsuf ibn al-Qāsim, say: I heard Ibn ʿUyayna say: In Abū Ḥanīfa’s time, may God be pleased with him, there was no man in Kufa better than him, more scrupulous, or more learned in jurisprudence.

My father, may God be pleased with him, and another person related to me. They said: Saʿīd ibn Masʿūd al-Marwazī related to us. He said: I heard Abū Zayd, the specialist in legal documents, relate from ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī, from Ibn ʿUyayna: He said: Abū Ḥanīfa, may God be pleased with him, used to complete the Qurʾān sixty times in Ramadan: once at night and once during the day.

ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUbayd Allāh related to us. He said: I heard Ḥāmid ibn Aḥmad ibn Ḥammād, known as al-Makkī al-Sakhtiyānī, say: I heard Sufyān ibn ʿUyayna say: The first person to have me sit to relate hadith was Abū Ḥanīfa, may God be pleased with him. They asked me about the reports of ʿAmr ibn Dīnār, and I related his reports to them: eight hundred reports.

ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUbayd Allāh related to us. He said: I heard Khalaf al-Samarqandī say: Suwayd ibn Saʿīd al-Anbārī related to us. He said: I heard Ibn ʿUyayna say: The first person to have me sit to relate hadith was Abū Ḥanīfa, may God be pleased with him. Abū Ḥanīfa gathered with the senior shaykhs, who asked me about the reports of ʿAmr ibn Dīnār, and I related them. Abū Ḥanīfa, may God be pleased with him, said: “This man is among the most knowledgeable people concerning the reports of ʿAmr ibn Dīnār.”

I heard Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Bazzāz say: I heard Yaʿqūb ibn Isḥāq al-Ṣaghānī say: I heard ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-Ghaffār say: I heard Ibn ʿUyayna say: May God have mercy on Abū Ḥanīfa! He was indeed among those devoted to prayer.

Al-ʿAbbās ibn Ḥamza al-Naysābūrī related to us. He said: I heard ʿAlī ibn Salama al-Labaqī say: I heard Ibn ʿUyayna say: May God have mercy on Abū Ḥanīfa, for he was among those devoted to prayer.

Khalaf ibn ʿĀmir related to us: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad related to us: Sufyān ibn ʿUyayna related to us, from Musāwir al-Warrāq, who said: I composed a poem about the people of opinion, including this verse: ‘Before today we enjoyed latitude in religion, until we were afflicted with the people of analogies.’ This reached Abū Ḥanīfa, and he was upset with me. I then praised him in another poem: ‘When people one day challenge us by analogy with an unusual, novel legal question, we bring them a firm, accurate analogy in Abū Ḥanīfa’s manner. When the jurist hears it, he comprehends it and records it in ink upon a sheet.’ This reached him and pleased him. We were invited to a wedding, and there was Abū Ḥanīfa sitting at the head of the gathering. When he saw me, he said, ‘Welcome, welcome! Here, here—come up!’ He brought me forward and seated me beside him.

ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUbayd Allāh related to us: Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Muslim al-Ṭarsūsī related to us: Ḥāmid ibn Yaḥyā al-Balkhī related to us: Sufyān ibn ʿUyayna related to us: When Musāwir al-Warrāq heard the clamor and shouting of Abū Ḥanīfa’s companions, he began reciting: ‘Before today we enjoyed latitude in religion, until we were afflicted with the people of analogies: people who, when they gather, shout like foxes crying among the tombs.’ This reached Abū Ḥanīfa and his companions and distressed them. He then composed verses to appease them: ‘When people one day challenge us by analogy with an unusual, novel legal question, we bring them a firm, accurate analogy in Abū Ḥanīfa’s manner. When the jurist hears it, he comprehends it and records it in ink upon a sheet.’ This reached Abū Ḥanīfa—may God have mercy on him—and he was pleased with him. Musāwir said: We were invited to a banquet in Kufa on a very hot day. I entered and could not find a place for my feet because of the crowd. Abū Ḥanīfa was at the head of the room. When he saw me, he said, ‘Musāwir, come to me! Musāwir, come to me!’ I came over and found a spacious, cool place. I sat down and thought to myself, ‘My verses have benefited me today.’

ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUbayd Allāh related to us: Shayba ibn Hishām Abū Saʿīd related to us, from ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Shaqīq, who said: Ibn ʿUyayna said: I entered upon Abū Ḥanīfa while Musāwir the poet was with him. He spoke, mentioning the three verses we have already cited.

The Arabic refers back to the verses rather than repeating them; the translation preserves that abbreviation.

Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAmrūs ibn Muḥammad al-Hamadhānī related to us: al-ʿAbbās ibn Yazīd al-Baḥrānī related to us: Sufyān ibn ʿUyayna related to us: I was with Abū Ḥanīfa, and Musāwir al-Warrāq was with us. He began reciting to him: ‘When people one day challenge us by analogy with an unusual, novel legal question, we bring them a firm, accurate analogy in Abū Ḥanīfa’s manner, through reports that reached him from eminent men of the past, with chains of transmission and well known. He thus clarified for people difficult cases that had been left unresolved.’ He said: When we left Abū Ḥanīfa—may God be pleased with him—he kept Musāwir behind. Musāwir came to me a day later, expressing gratitude to Abū Ḥanīfa—may God have mercy on him—and said, ‘He gave me three hundred dirhams.’ He continued praising him in his poems until he died.

Aḥmad ibn Abī Ṣāliḥ related to us: Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq al-Ṣaghānī related to me: ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī related to me: Sufyān ibn ʿUyayna related to us: Musāwir the poet entered upon Abū Ḥanīfa—may God be pleased with him—with verses praising him in order to appease him. Word had reached him that Musāwir had composed offensive verses against him. He recited—and he mentioned the three verses that we have cited more than once, so we will not repeat them. This pleased Abū Ḥanīfa—may God have mercy on him—and he gave him a gift. Musāwir thereafter attended his gathering constantly, never leaving it.