Part of Ramadan events and lessons (series completed)
· Lesson 19 of 31
Ramadan events and lessons | Episode (19) | The death of Imam Al-Zuhri
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Transcript
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In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
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Abridgment of the book:
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"Ramadan:
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Events and Lessons."
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The Death of Imam al-Zuhri.
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The date:
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Tuesday night,
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the seventeenth night
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of Ramadan,
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in the year one hundred
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and twenty-four of the Hijrah.
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Indeed, the death of scholars
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who are firmly grounded, practicing, and sincere
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is counted within the Ummah
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as a monumental calamity
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and a tremendous loss.
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For these elite figures
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are the guiding stars for the seekers
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and the illuminating lights for travelers;
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they are like the sun to the world
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and like good health to the body.
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'Abdullah
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ibn Ahmad said:
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"I asked my father:
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'What kind of man was al-Shafi'i?
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For I often hear you
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supplicating for him.'
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He replied:
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'O my son,
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he was like the sun to the world
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and like good health to the people.
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Can there ever be
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a replacement for these two,
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or anything to compensate for them?'"
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And how could it not be a calamity,
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when in this life
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there are numerous intellectual dilemmas,
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countless complex issues
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and legal rulings,
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and diverse doubts
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and difficulties
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that require scholars
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who are firmly grounded?
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Yet such scholars are few among the people;
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so what happens when
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even some of this precious few pass away?
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People will remain in a state of goodness
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as long as there remain among them
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truthful scholars.
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But when they depart from them,
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ignorance and the ignorant multiply,
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evil increases,
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goodness diminishes,
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the ignorant come to lead the people,
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and they go astray and lead others astray.
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On the authority of 'Abdullah ibn 'Amr ibn al-'As,
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may Allah be pleased with them both,
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who said:
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"I heard the Messenger of Allah,
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peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, say:
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'Indeed, Allah does not take away
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knowledge by wrenching it away,
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snatching it from the servants;
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rather, He takes away
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knowledge by taking away the scholars.
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Then, when there remains
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no scholar,
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the people will take as leaders
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ignorant ones.
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They will deliver legal verdicts without knowledge,
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thus going astray and leading others astray.'"
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'Ali,
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may Allah be pleased with him, said:
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"The likeness of the jurists
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is that of hands:
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when a hand is severed,
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it never grows back."
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And he also said:
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"When a scholar dies,
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a breach is torn in Islam
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that cannot be closed
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except by a successor of his caliber."
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'Abdullah ibn Mas'ud,
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may Allah be pleased with him, said:
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"The death of a scholar is a breach
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in Islam
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that nothing can mend,
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so long as day and night alternate."
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And he also said:
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"Hold fast to knowledge
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before it is taken away,
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and its being taken away is the departure
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of its bearers."
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His name, lineage,
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and birth, may Allah have mercy on him:
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He is the eminent Tabi'i,
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Muhammad ibn Muslim ibn 'Ubaydullah
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ibn Shihab
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ibn 'Abdullah ibn al-Harith ibn Zuhrah
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ibn Kilab ibn Murrah
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ibn Ka'b
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ibn Lu'ayy ibn Ghalib,
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the leading imam and distinguished authority,
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the foremost hadith master of his era,
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Abu Bakr al-Qurashi,
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the hadith master, the jurist,
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al-Zuhri al-Madani,
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who later settled in the Levant,
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one of the foremost
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prominent imams.
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He was trustworthy, possessed of vast
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knowledge and narrations,
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and a comprehensive jurist.
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He was born in the Prophetic city of Medina
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in the year
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58 AH.
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His apprenticeship
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and pursuit of knowledge, may Allah
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have mercy on him:
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Imam al-Zuhri was born in the city
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of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him,
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and raised there
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at a time when scholars were abundant,
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including the remaining
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Companions
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and the senior Tabi'un.
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That scholarly environment served
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as a powerful impetus
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that inspired him to seek knowledge.
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So he set out drinking deeply from its pure fountains
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and drawing from its rich springs.
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He was aided
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in carrying this knowledge
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by what Allah Almighty had endowed him with:
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a formidable photographic memory
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and a brilliant, sharp intellect.
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Indeed, it was related of him
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that he memorized the Qur'an
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in approximately
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eighty days.
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It was by Allah's divine facilitation for him
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that he met several Companions
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and heard directly from them,
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though they were few,
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among them Ibn 'Umar,
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Jabir ibn 'Abdullah,
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al-Miswar ibn Makhramah,
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and 'Abdullah ibn Ja'far,
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may Allah be pleased with them.
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However, the bulk of his sustained study
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was under the senior Tabi'un,
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such as Sa'id ibn al-Musayyib;
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indeed, he studied in his circle
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for eight years,
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his knee pressed
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against his knee.
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Ibn Shihab endured great hardship
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in the pursuit of acquiring knowledge,
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persevering patiently until
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he attained all he aspired to.
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He exhibited consummate etiquette
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toward his teachers,
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patiently enduring the sternness of some among them.
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Al-Layth ibn Sa'd
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once remarked to al-Zuhri:
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"Would that you imparted your knowledge
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only to those whom you hope will benefit!"
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He replied:
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"By Allah, no one has disseminated
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knowledge as widely as I have,
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nor has anyone borne patience for it as I have.
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We used to
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sit with Ibn al-Musayyib,
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and not a single one of us
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dared to ask him anything
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unless he initiated
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the discourse himself, or a man arrived
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to ask him about an issue
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that had befallen him."
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His extraordinary memory, may Allah have mercy on him:
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Imam al-Zuhri,
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may Allah have mercy on him,
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was a veritable sign among the signs of Allah
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in his memorization
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and a rare genius
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in retaining information.
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He was truly a blessing
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among the blessings of Allah upon this Ummah
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in preserving the hadith
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of its Messenger, peace be upon him.
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For indeed,
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he was renowned for his precision, retentive mastery,
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and flawless citation of texts.
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Consequently,
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his students and those who transmitted
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from him grew vast in number.
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Anyone who reads his biographical entry in the biographical dictionaries
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of hadith transmitters will behold
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the vast number of narrators
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who received from him the hadith
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of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him.
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Nor was
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al-Zuhri merely memorizing hadith
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and matters of knowledge by rote
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alone;
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rather, he combined
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retention, deep comprehension, and exceptional
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listening.
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To recount the blessings of Allah,
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he would speak about himself
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and what Allah had bestowed upon him of retentive
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memory, saying:
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"I never entrusted my heart with
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anything that I subsequently forgot."
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He also said:
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"I never asked anyone to repeat a hadith
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ever,
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nor did I ever doubt a single hadith
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except for one;
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so I asked my companion,
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and it was exactly as
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I had memorized it."
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It seems that al-Zuhri's retentive power
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became widely celebrated,
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so much so that his contemporary
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imams praised him for it.
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'Umar ibn 'Abd
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al-'Aziz said: "No one ever related
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hadith in the manner of
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al-Zuhri."
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And 'Amr ibn Dinar said:
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"I have never seen anyone
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more precise in quoting hadith verbatim than al-Zuhri."
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When doubts crossed
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the minds of some regarding his mastery
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and memorization, he was subjected to
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a test to verify
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the strength of his memory, for which he was renowned
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among the people—
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just as happened to Imam al-Bukhari
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with the scholars of Baghdad.
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It is mentioned that
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Hisham ibn 'Abd al-Malik
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asked al-Zuhri to write down
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for his sons some of his hadiths,
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so he dictated to his scribe
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four hundred hadiths.
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Then he went out to the scholars of
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hadith and narrated them
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to them. Later on,
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Hisham said to al-Zuhri:
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"That manuscript
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has been lost." Al-Zuhri replied:
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"Do not worry."
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He then dictated to them
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those very hadiths again.
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Hisham then produced the first
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manuscript, and behold:
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he had not missed a single letter!
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Indeed, Hisham
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had only intended to test his memory.
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And because
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Imam al-Zuhri held this sublime
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rank in memorization,
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the Commander of the Believers,
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'Umar ibn 'Abd al-'Aziz (may Allah have mercy on him), commissioned him
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with the official compilation of hadith.
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Al-Zuhri said:
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"'Umar ibn 'Abd
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al-'Aziz commanded us to compile the Sunan,
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so we wrote them down notebook
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by notebook;
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then he dispatched to every land under
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his authority a notebook."
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Al-'Iraqi said:
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"The first to compile
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hadith was Ibn Shihab
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al-Zuhri, at the turn of
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the second century,
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[commissioned by] 'Umar ibn 'Abd al-'Aziz,
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who dispatched it to every
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land under his
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authority."
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For this reason, al-Suyuti says
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in his Alfiyyah:
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"The first compiler of hadith
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and athar
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was Ibn Shihab, commissioned by
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'Umar." His broad learning,
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may Allah have mercy on him:
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Ibn Shihab (may Allah have mercy on him) attained
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immense knowledge
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through the extraordinary memory Allah granted him,
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his brilliant intellect,
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and his great eagerness
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to hear from the masters,
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sit with them, and receive knowledge from them.
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As a result, he became
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exceptionally well-read,
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possessing vast material
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and encyclopedic knowledge.
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This was recognized in him
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by anyone who questioned him, sat with him,
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or sought knowledge under him.
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His erudition was not confined
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to a single aspect
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of knowledge;
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rather, his scholarship was multifaceted.
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Al-Layth said:
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"I have never seen a scholar
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more comprehensive than Ibn Shihab.
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If you heard him narrate
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regarding encouragement and deterrence,
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you would say he excels
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in nothing else;
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if he spoke of the Prophets
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and the People of the Book,
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you would say he excels only in this;
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if he spoke
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of the Bedouins and genealogies,
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you would say he excels
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only in this;
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and if he spoke of the Qur'an and the Sunnah,
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his discourse was
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marvelous and all-encompassing."
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Yet, despite this vast
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knowledge,
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he was remarkably humble,
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acknowledging the merit of others.
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Hence, he said:
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"I used to think that I
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had acquired a great deal of knowledge,
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until I sat with 'Ubaydullah
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ibn 'Abdullah ibn 'Utbah;
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then it felt as if I
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were merely in one small mountain pass among many."
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Furthermore,
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al-Zuhri (may Allah have mercy on him) was an expert
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in pedagogical psychology:
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he knew when knowledge reaches the soul
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and takes root, and when the soul turns away
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from it. For this reason,
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he gave advice to scholars.
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It is reported on the authority of Hammad
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ibn Zayd that he said:
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"Al-Zuhri would teach hadith,
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and then say:
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'Bring forth some of your poetry
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and casual conversation,
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for the ear is prone to weariness,
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and the soul craves a refreshing change.'"
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And on the authority of Ma'mar,
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from al-Zuhri, who said:
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"Whenever a gathering lasts too long,
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Satan claims
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a share in it."
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Because of this profound scholarly mastery possessed by
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Ibn Shihab, 'Umar
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ibn 'Abd al-'Aziz urged the people
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to learn from him, saying:
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"You must adhere to this
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Ibn Shihab,
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for you will not meet anyone
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more knowledgeable of the past Sunnah than him."
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His death,
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may Allah have mercy on him:
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Imam al-Zuhri passed away
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on the night of Tuesday,
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seventeen nights
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having passed of Ramadan,
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in the year one hundred and twenty-four
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of the Hijrah.
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He owned an estate in Shaghb,
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which marks the furthest border of the Hijaz
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and the beginning of Palestine.
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He went there,
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fell ill there,
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and died there,
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and his grave is located there.
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He had instructed to be buried there
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right by the roadside
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so that passersby would pray for him.
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Al-Awza'i once stood
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one day
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beside his grave and said:
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"O grave!
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How much knowledge
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and forbearance do you contain!
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O grave!
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How much knowledge
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and nobility do you contain!"
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Verses and Rulings;
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Ramadan:
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Events
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and Lessons.