Al-Shaʿbī and the Umayyad Connection 🧵

It is important when evaluating hadith narrators to study their links to rulers and question whether this affected what they chose to report or censor.
In the case of al-Shaʿbī, who is universally acclaimed by Sunnis as an impeachable narrator and scholar, he was first spotted by the infamous Umayyad governor for Iraq, al-Ḥajjāj (d. 95), who interviewed him:

Ḥajjāj: “Have you memorized the Qur’an?”
Shaʿbī: “Yes.”
Ḥajjāj: “Have you mastered calculating inheritance shares?”
Shaʿbī: “Yes.”
Ḥajjāj: “What is your position concerning [...] and […]?”
Shaʿbī: […]
Ḥajjāj: “You have hit the mark.”
Ḥajjāj: “Have you looked into the Arabic language?”
Shaʿbī: “Yes.”
Ḥajjāj: “Do you transmit poems?”
Shaʿbī: “I have looked into their meanings.”
Ḥajjāj: “Have you looked into arithmetic?”
Shaʿbī: “Yes.”
Ḥajjāj: “Do you transmit the maghāzī (campaigns) of the Messenger of Allah?”
Shaʿbī: “Yes.”
Ḥajjāj: “Narrate to me the story of Badr.”
Shaʿbī begins with the dream of ʿĀtika (i.e. the aunt of the Prophet) until the muʾadhdhin calls for ẓuhr.

An impressed Ḥajjāj appoints al-Shaʿbī to be an ʿarīf (overseer) over the Shaʿbīyīn, the mankib (superintendent) over the whole (tribe) of Hamdān, and sets his stipend with the nobility.

Notice how a part of the interview is censored. Shaʿbī states that al-Ḥajjāj questioned him concerning the creed of Abū Turāb, a pejorative name for ʿAlī. We don’t know what exactly al-Ḥajjāj asked and how exactly al-Shaʿbī responded but what we do know is that al-Ḥajjāj approved of the answer.

It was Umayyad policy to abuse ʿAlī and al-Ḥajjāj, in particular, was adamant in implementing this. There is no way that Shaʿbī would have been recruited if he did anything but look the other way when it came to this policy. Thus began al-Shaʿbī’s long career serving the Umayyads.
It is true that al-Shaʿbī later joined a rebellion against al-Ḥajjāj but the defeat of the rebels meant that he had to make a groveling apology to al-Ḥajjāj and was forgiven.
When the Umayyad Caliph Abd al-Malik b. Marwan (r. 65-86) wanted a tutor for his son, al-Ḥajjāj recommended al-Shaʿbī and he became part of the royal entourage.
Al-Shaʿbī would end his career as the official qāḍī (judge) of Kufa during the short-lived reign of ʿUmar b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz (r. 99-101), dying in office around the year 105.

Censoring the Sīra: The Case of the Altercation between ʿAmmār and a Companion 🧵

The earliest and most famous biography of the Prophet Muḥammad is the one authored by Ibn Isḥāq (d. 150) which survives in the recension of Ibn Hishām (d. 218). Ibn Hishām did not just transmit Ibn Isḥāq’s original work as received but edited it first.
Ibn Hishām gives numerous reasons to justify his decision, including censoring material “some of which is repulsive to narrate, and others which will offend some people if recounted”

Al-Bukhārī and Ḥadīth al-Ghadīr 🧵

Al-Bukhārī (d. 256) famously does not include ḥadīth al-ghadīr in his world-renowned Ṣaḥīḥ collection.
We do not have a statement by Bukhārī explaining his choice to leave out ḥadīth al-ghadīr, but ...
there is an important quote about the ḥadīth which Bukhārī transmits and which may provide us a window into his thinking.

Bukhārī quotes the early Kufan tābiʿī Abū Ḥaṣīn ʿUthmān b. ʿĀṣim al-Asadī (d. bet. 127-130) as saying:

Umayyads cursing ʿAlī: The Testimony of al-Awzāʿī 🧵

There exists some evidence to indicate that the Umayyads continued to officially sanction the practice of cursing ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib even as late as the second century. This thread will document one such piece of evidence ... In an auto-biographical note, the Syrian Imam al-Awzāʿī (b. 88; d. 157), recounts how as an orphan he was taken in by a benefactor who brought him up and managed to enroll him in the Umayyad dīwān al-rasāʾil (department of letters) where he began his career as a scribe.

The Imamate and Salvation 🧵

While Patricia Crone (d. 2015) is mostly remembered for the notorious “thought experiment” that was Hagarism which she later moved away from, there is much in her scholarship that has withstood the test of time better, especially her excavation, together with the late Martin Hinds, of the true significance of imāma in early Islam.

One Ḥarf or Seven? A Minority Tradition 🧵

It is astounding to note that all the different schools within Islam accept the “canonical” narrative of the Qur’an being revealed in seven aḥruf or “versions” with the sole exception of a minority tradition preserved by Twelvers ... In a report, the early Medinan scholar and Imam, Muḥammad al-Bāqir (d. 114), is quoted as saying:
“The Qur’an is one and was sent down from the One (i.e. Allah). All differences originate from the transmitters”

Why Fast *6* days after Ramaḍān? 🧵

The rationale behind fasting exactly *6* days after Ramaḍān is taken from the verse: “Whoever comes with one good shall receive tenfold” (6:160). Since 1 good deed has the reward of 10, the reward of fasting for 1 month of Ramaḍān (30 days) will be equivalent to fasting for 10 months (300 days), adding 6 days to this will cover the remaining 2 months (60 days). 360 is the number of days in the traditional Arabic year.

Fasting 6 Days in Shawwāl: A Sunna or Not? 🧵

It is surprising to encounter Mālik b. Anas (d. 179) discouraging the fast of the 6 days in Shawwāl. He is quoted in his Muwaṭṭaʾ as saying that he “had not seen anyone among the people of knowledge and fiqh fasting them” ... In fact, Mālik says that the scholars considered it makrūh, fearing that it would become a bidʿa (innovation) and that the ignorant “would join to Ramaḍān what does not belong to it” if they saw the scholars practising that.

The Last Quarter Moon: An Authentic Sign for Identifying Laylat al-Qadr 🧵

In an authentic Sunni report, the Prophet states that he: “Looked at the moon in the morning after laylat al-qadr and saw that it resembled a bowl split in half” Shuʿayb al-Arnaʾūṭ, the well-known annotator of Musnad Aḥmad, grades this report as Ṣaḥīḥ.

A Precious Relic: ʿAlī’s Bloodied Shirt🧵

One of the more fascinating reports found in the Shīʿī corpus is the one in which a companion of Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq gets to see the actual bloodied qamīṣ or shirt which ʿAlī was wearing when he was struck down on that fateful night ... The companion in question, Ḥasan al-Ṣayqal, narrates how al-Ṣādiq once asked him: “Do you want me to show you the shirt of ʿAlī in which he was struck and show you his blood?”

Who among the Shia would refuse such an offer?

“Reviewing Hadith against the Qur’an”: A Disputed Principle in Early Islam 🧵

When Shāfiʿī (d. 204) quotes numerous Prophetic reports to support his position in a debate with Shaybānī (d. 179), the latter rejects all of the reports citing a Hadith which has the Prophet state: “Whatever comes to you on my authority then review it against the Qur’an, so if it agrees with it (i.e. the Qur’an) then I said it, and if it opposes it than I never said it”

The Original Adhān🧵

The Kufan Zaydi Hadith master, Sharīf Abū ʿAbdillāh al-Shajarī (d. 445), authored a fascinating work containing 192 reports going back to the Prophet, different companions, and a wide range of authorities among the Āl al-Bayt in an attempt to demonstrate ... ... that the phrase ḥayya ʿalā khayr al-ʿamal was part of the original Adhān.

The Number of Units in the Prophet’s Tahajjud:
A Study of the Sunni and Shia Hadith Corpus 🧵

How many units of voluntary prayer would the Prophet offer by night? The famous narrator Zurāra b. Aʿyan (d. c. 148) quotes al-Bāqir (d. 114) as saying:
The Messenger of Allah would pray 13 units at night whether he was on a journey or not, this included the witr and the 2 units [sunna] of fajr

The Prohibition of Scaleless Fish in the Earliest Written Record of Hadith (The Ṣaḥīfa of ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib) 🧵

The only Madhhab to consider scaleless fish ‘prohibited’ is the Twelver Imāmiyya. This is in accordance to what they narrate from their Imams. Consider the following example:
A narrator called Ḥammād b. ʿUthmān (d. 190) asks Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq (d. 148), “What kind of fish can be eaten?” He responds, “That which has scales”

The Consequences of ‘Mild’ Shīʿism: The Case of Wakīʿ b. al-Jarrāḥ 🧵

The Kufan Hadith master, Wakīʿ b. al-Jarrāḥ (d. 197), came to be ranked among the greats in the Sunni canon. Acclaimed for his unmatched piety, prodigious memory, and copious transmission, there was only ... the small matter of his Shīʿism that could have potentially dented his reputation.

The Authenticity of Attributions to the Imams in the Shīʿī Hadith Corpus: A Case Study 🧵

There are thousands of reports attributed to the Imams, mainly al-Bāqir and al-Ṣādiq, in the Shīʿī Hadith corpus, and it is only someone unserious or fatally biased who would deem ... all these to be a product of cross-generational mass fabrication.

The Night of al-Juhanī 🧵

ʿAbdallāh b. Unays al-Juhanī was a companion of the prophet who lived far away in the desert surrounding Medina and could not normally pray behind the prophet in his Masjid ... ʿAbd al-Razzāq al-Ṣanʿānī (d. 211) reports via his chain that al-Juhanī came and beseeched the prophet to inform him the exact night of Laylat al-Qadr so that he could make extra effort and not miss the opportunity to worship with him on this most auspicious night of the year.

Which Night is Laylat al-Qadr? 🧵

ʿAbd al-Razzāq al-Ṣanʿānī reports in his Muṣannaf from Jaʿfar b. Muḥammad al-Ṣādiq from his father that ʿAlī used to seek Laylat al-Qadr on the 19th, 21st and 23rd of the month of Ramaḍān. This is corroborated in Twelver Shīʿī Hadith sources wherein al-Ṣādiq is quoted as specifying the same three nights as possible candidates.

Mālik b. Anas’s Attitude towards ʿAlī 🧵

We begin by noting that Mālik’s paternal grandfather was especially close to ʿUthmān such that he is said to be one of only four people who managed to procure ʿUthmān’s body which had been abandoned and bury it secretly by night. As for Mālik himself, it is recorded that he deemed ʿAlī’s departure from Medina and his relocation to Kufa in order to fight his opponents a ‘mistake’.

Ibn Jurayj’s Hidden Source on Mutʿa 🧵

When a companion called Ismāʿīl b. al-Faḍl al-Hāshimī asks Jaʿfar b. Muḥammad al-Ṣādiq (d. 148) about Mutʿa (temporary marriage) the latter instructs him to seek out Ibn Jurayj (d. 150) because ‘he has knowledge about it’. Ismāʿīl does seek out Ibn Jurayj and the latter dictates to him a number of Hadith affirming Mutʿa’s permissibility before providing specific rulings on how it is to be performed, for e.g. there is no restriction to the number of partners who can be contracted at the same time.

What is meant by Seven Aḥruf? 🧵

The Seven Aḥruf reports assert that the Qur’an was revealed per Seven Aḥruf.
What these Seven Aḥruf are exactly caused intense debate. For e.g. Ibn Ḥibbān (d. 354) lists not less than 35 opinions put forward to explain it! But most of these opinions are inter-changeable and many of them can be easily discarded with the least bit of thought.
I believe that the matter has been unnecessarily obfuscated.