The Legacy of Imam Al-Daraqutni: The Master of Hadith Sciences

“And among people and moving creatures and grazing livestock are various colors similarly. Only those fear Allāh,

from among His servants, who have knowledge. Indeed, Allāh is Exalted in Might and Forgiving.” (Quran 35:28)

Peace, mercy, and blessings of Allah be upon you.

“In the name of Allāh, the Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful.”

“[All] praise is [due] to Allāh, Lord of the worlds -” (Quran 1:1-2)

And peace and blessings upon the Messenger of Allah.

Welcome, my brothers and sisters, to a new episode

with another personality from the figures of knowledge,

from the scholars who left behind a great legacy.

And it is our duty to introduce

people to these brilliant, giant, and exemplary scholars who

had a long-standing service to Islam, Muslims, knowledge, and scholars.

Our talk today will revolve around one of the verifying scholars

in knowledge, the hafidh, the jurist, the linguist, and the reciter,

the critical, trustworthy, and profound authority, foremost in the science of Hadith,

and in its defects (ilal); indeed, it may be said that to him culminated,

the knowledge of athar, hadith defects, narrators' names and their conditions,

along with truthfulness, trustworthiness, uprightness, and soundness of belief.

This Imam is al-Daraqutni,

al-Daraqutni, al-Daraqutni —

he is of course Abu al-Hasan 'Ali ibn 'Umar ibn Ahmad ibn Mahdi al-Baghdadi al-Daraqutni,

Al-Daraqutni, this title by which this brilliant Imam is known,

is in reference to Dar al-Qutn,

which is a neighborhood in Baghdad called Dar al-Qutn, so he was attributed to it.

He—may Allah have mercy on him—was born in this neighborhood

in the year 306 of the Hijrah of the Beloved ﷺ.

He grew up (RH) with a love for knowledge.

And this is natural, especially since Baghdad at that time

was the capital of knowledge and the incubator of scholars,

and the scholarly movement in it was active.

Therefore, you find that most scholars who live...

...in such environments excel early on.

For this reason, he grew up in a household of knowledge;

his father was among those who wrote Hadith.

And of course, the signs of al-Daraqutni when he was young

indicated his advancement and genius.

and that he had a future—namely, the birth of a scholar among scholars.

Therefore, his father was keen from his childhood

that he accompany the scholars, frequent their circles, and move between their gatherings.

Abu al-Fath Yusuf ibn Umar al-Qawwas says:

"We used to pass by Abu al-Qasim al-Baghawi."

Listen to this story. He says,

Abu al-Fath Yusuf ibn Umar al-Qawwas:

"We used to pass by Abu al-Qasim al-Baghawi,"

the well-known Imam. He says:

"and al-Daraqutni was a boy walking behind us, holding a loaf of bread topped with kamakh."

"So we entered upon Abu Mani' and prevented him"—

meaning, from entering with us.

We entered upon Abu Mani', who was of course one of the major scholars.

He says: "When we entered upon Abu Mani'—"

we prevented al-Daraqutni because he was young.

He says: "So he sat at the door crying."

Look — notice the eagerness of al-Daraqutni at such an early age.

Al-Daraqutni was intelligent, gifted, sharp, and bright.

He once sat in the gathering of Ismail al-Saghfar,

while he was dictating hadith to the people.

Al-Daraqutni was copying in a hadith booklet,

when one of the hadith scholars said to him during the session:

"Your listening is not valid while you are copying."

Your hearing from the sheikh is not valid while you are writing.

Al-Daraqutni said: "My comprehension of the dictation

is better and sharper than yours."

Then that man said to him:

"Do you recall how many hadith he has dictated?"

He said: "He has dictated eighteen hadith so far,

and the first is narrated from so-and-so, from so-and-so,"

then he recited all of them with their chains and wordings, missing nothing.

Allahu Akbar.

This indicates his sharpness and intelligence.

Al-Daraqutni (RH) learned from a large number of scholars,

whether in Baghdad, Kufa, Basra, or Wasit as well.

He traveled in pursuit of knowledge

late, approximately in middle age.

He went to Egypt and the Levant, and met a large number of scholars.

For example, he met Ibn Durayd,

and Ibn Nayruz, and Ali ibn Abdillah ibn Mubashshir,

and Muhammad ibn al-Qasim al-Muharibi, for example.

He also met Az-Ziyad an-Naysaburi,

Badr ibn al-Haytham al-Qadi, and Ahmad ibn al-Qasim al-Fara'idi.

He also met Abu Talib al-Hafiz.

He also met the Hafiz, Abu Muhammad al-Hasan

ibn Ahmad ibn Salih al-Madani al-Subai'i al-Halabi.

He was a precise Hafiz who traveled the world collecting Hadith.

And he was strict in narration — this Hafiz was strict in narration,

and al-Daraqutni

Due to his intense eagerness to learn from him, as he was difficult to narrate from, he would sit before him

like a child sitting before his teacher, out of awe of him.

This reflects the humility of scholars and students of knowledge,

even though al-Daraqutni was at an advanced age, yet he sat in such a posture.

And this is truly part of the etiquette of a student of knowledge: to show respect to his sheikh.

Of course, al-Daraqutni's students are countless, except to Allah ﷻ, but among the most famous of them are Muhammad bin al-Hasan al-Shaybani,

and also Sa'sa'ah bin Sallam, and the famous Abu Mu'awiyah al-Darir,

and al-Hakim al-Naysaburi, Abu Hamid al-Isfarayini,

Tammam al-Razi, Abu Bakr al-Barqani, Abu Dharr al-Harawi,

and also Abu Muhammad al-Khallal,

as well as the well-known Qadi Abu al-Tayyib al-Tabari al-Shafi'i.

And Abu Bakr ibn Bishran, and Abu Muhammad al-Jawhari,

and a large number; indeed, it is very difficult,

as is the rule, for me to count

the number of his students, due to the fame of this scholar

and the many who sought him out and sat before him.

Al-Daraqutni (RH) is widely accepted among the scholars,

for he is one of the trustworthy authorities and major imams.

Scholars praise and commend him.

Al-Hakim al-Naysaburi (RH) says:

"Al-Daraqutni never saw anyone like himself."

Allahu Akbar! He says: "Al-Daraqutni never saw anyone like himself."

Ibn al-Jawzi says of Al-Daraqutni:

"Along with his knowledge of Hadith, he possessed

knowledge of Quranic recitations, grammar, fiqh, and poetry, alongside leadership and integrity."

Al-Hafiz Al-Daraqutni (RH) held a sound creed,

Therefore, Ibn al-Jawzi praised him by saying: "And soundness of creed."

He followed the creed of the righteous predecessors (RA).

Al-Hafiz Ibn Kathir al-Dimashqi (RH) says, writing about al-Daraqutni: "The great Hafiz,

the master of this craft, before and after him until our time.

He heard much, compiled, authored, excelled, and benefited others,

and excelled in analysis, defect identification, criticism, and creed.

He was unique in his era and peerless,

and the Imam of his time in the names of narrators, the science of defects,

disparagement and declaration of trustworthiness, compilation, vast narration, and deep knowledge."

As for 'Abd al-Ghani ibn Sa'id al-Darir, he says about al-Daraqutni:

"No one spoke about Hadiths like 'Ali ibn al-Madini in his time,

and Musa ibn Harun in his time, and al-Daraqutni in his time."

Al-Sulami says: "I heard Al-Daraqutni say:

'There is nothing more hated to me than Kalam (theology).'"

Meaning the science of Kalam, which caused harm and brought no benefit.

He says: "There is nothing more hated, more hated to me than Kalam."

Abu Abd al-Rahman al-Sulami also says, in what Al-Hakim narrated from him:

"I swear by Allah that our Sheikh Al-Daraqutni did not...

...leave anyone like him on the face of the earth in the knowledge of the Hadith of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ."

Al-Daraqutni speaks and mentions a story, saying:

"The minister Ja'far ibn al-Fadl came to us in Aleppo,

The people went out to meet him, and I was among them.

He recognized that I was one of the Hadith scholars,

so he said: 'Do you know a Hadith with a chain of four Companions (RA), each narrating from the other?' I said: 'Yes,

the Hadith of Al-Sa'ib ibn Yazid,

from Huwaytib ibn Abd al-Uzza, from Abdullah ibn al-Sa'di,

from Umar ibn al-Khattab (RA) regarding workers,'

so he recognized the correctness of my statement and honored me."

Al-Hafidh Adh-Dhahabi (RH), the historian of Islam, said:

"If the book 'Al-Ilal' was dictated by Ad-Daraqutni from memory,

then this is a momentous matter,

by which Ad-Daraqutni is judged the greatest memorizer in the world.

"And if he dictated some of it from memory, then this is possible.

A man once gave him a gift, so he dictated to him from memory seventeen Hadiths, all of whose texts were:

'If a noble person of a people comes to you, honor him.'"

Abu Abdurrahman As-Sulami said, as narrated from him by Al-Hakim:

"I swear by Allah that our Sheikh Ad-Daraqutni left no one like him on the face of the earth

in the knowledge of the Hadith of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ,

as well as the Companions and their followers."

As for Ibn Khallikan, the well-known historian, he says:

"He traveled to the land of Egypt,

and the minister Abu Al-Fadl Ja'far ibn Hinzabah, the minister of Kafur Al-Ikhshidi, honored him,

and he, along with Al-Hafiz Abdul Ghani, helped him complete his Musnad,

and Al-Daraqutni obtained a great deal of wealth from him.

Al-Azhari says regarding Al-Daraqutni's journey to seek knowledge:

"When Al-Daraqutni entered Egypt, there was an Alawi Sheikh from the city of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ

named Muslim ibn Ubaydullah.

He had the Book of Lineage from Al-Khidr ibn Dawud, from Al-Zubayr ibn Bakkar.

This Muslim ibn Ubaydullah was one of those known for eloquence and natural mastery of Arabic.

The people asked Al-Daraqutni to read the Book of Lineage to him, wishing to hear his recitation,

and he obliged. After the recitation, Al-Mu'ayti, the man of letters, said to him:

'O Abu al-Hasan, you are bolder than one who enters a lion's den, reading such a book with all the poetry it contains,'

and literature, yet no grammatical error or mispronunciation is found against you,

given that you are a man from the people of Hadith.' And he was amazed by him.

Of course, Al-Daraqutni (RH), along with this fragrant biography

and this widespread reach and wealth of knowledge, especially in Hadith science,

wrote many books. For example,

his books—glory be to Allah ﷻ—are all beneficial,

with very little in them that could be criticized.

For example, he has the book of Sunnah known as 'Sunan al-Daraqutni'.

Also, the book 'Al-Ilal al-Waridah fi al-Ahadith al-Nabawiyyah'.

Also, 'Al-Mujtaba min al-Sunan al-Ma'thurah'.

Also, 'Al-Mukhtalif wa al-Mu'talif fi Asma' al-Rijal'.

The book 'Al-Afrad', and 'Su'alat al-Hakim', a major work in al-jarh wa al-ta'dil.

Al-Daraqutni (RH) has many contributions,

He has critiques that reached —

— the study of Sahih al-Imam al-Bukhari and Sahih al-Imam Muslim,

and his critiques of al-Bukhari number approximately fourteen hadiths, I believe.

The truth is with al-Bukhari,

but he is a scholar — when he speaks,

it is not like an ignorant person who

cannot tell one thing from another.

He critiques Sahih al-Imam al-Bukhari or Sahih al-Imam Muslim — no, this is a scholar

who possesses — he is a repository of knowledge

with scholarly principles, and he addressed some of what is in Sahih al-Bukhari,

and critiqued it, but the truth is with al-Bukhari, as the verifying scholars have said.

Likewise with Sahih al-Imam Muslim. This indicates the breadth of his knowledge and

his deep-rootedness in knowledge, may Allah ﷻ have mercy on him and forgive him.

Al-Daraqutni (RH) passed away in the year three hundred and eighty-five

three hundred and eighty-five, after the Hijrah of the Prophet ﷺ.

after a life full of diligence and eagerness to acquire and spread knowledge.

At the time of his death he had reached seventy-seven years of age, may Allah ﷻ have mercy on him.

Therefore, Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi said: "Abu Nasr ibn Makula narrated to me,"

saying: 'I saw in a dream as if I was asking about Al-Daraqutni's state in the Hereafter,'

and it was said to me: 'That one is called the Imam in Paradise.'

May Allah have mercy on Al-Daraqutni and forgive him.

I have mentioned a brief overview and made a quick, brief tour

of the life of this Imam to present him to you, so that

you may read more extensively about this giant among the giants of knowledge, and look into his biography.

He has sayings and wisdom that are recorded and written in the books of biographies.

I ask Allah ﷻ to forgive him and have mercy on him,

and to gather us with him in the company of the Prophet ﷺ,

and with the Prophet ﷺ and his noble companions in the Gardens of Bliss.

With another giant figure from among the giants of the people of knowledge,

I will meet you again soon, insha'Allah. Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.