إجازة الشيخ أحمد بن محمد بن أحمد لبن بقراءة الإمام عاصم

موضوع: Imam At-Tirmidhi الثلاثاء 13 مارس 2018, 9:02 am

Imam At-Tirmidhi
His name is Muhammad ibn `Eisa ibn Sawrah ibn Musa ibn Ad-Dahhak At-Tirmidhi Al-Bughi As-Sulami, from the well-known Arab tribe of Sulaim ibn Mansur. He is the compiler of the well-known book of Hadith “Jami` At-Tirmidhi” which is distinguished by At-Tirmidhi’s unique approach of the classification and verification of hadiths.

Imam At-Tirmidhi is one of the outstanding scholars of Hadith who spent their lives in narrating and verifying the hadiths of the Prophet (peace be upon him). `Amr ibn `Alak said, “When Muham¬mad ibn Isma`il Al-Bukhari died, he did not leave behind anyone in Khurasan like Abu `Eisa (At-Tirmidhi), in terms of knowledge and God-fearing.”

At-Tirmidhi’s Birth and Early Life
Abu `Eisa was born in the beginning of 209 AH in Tirmidh. His grandfather was from Marw. Scholars differed whether he was born blind or not but the correct view is that he was not born so but he lost his eyesight in his old age because of his abundant study of Hadith.

Ibn Kathir said,

“It appears from the state of At-Tirmidhi that blindness happened to him after he travelled, heard (hadiths), wrote, argued and compiled (Hadith books).”

Abu `Eisa was exceptionally distinguished by his matchless capaci¬ty of memorizing hadiths. Ibn Al-`Imad Al-Hanbali said, “He (At-Tirmidhi) ex-celled all his peers, and was a prodigy in memorization and proficiency.”

Imam At-Tirmidhi devoted his whole life for learning and studying Hadith. He travelled a lot and learned under the greatest scholars of Hadith, such as Imam Al-Bukhari who left a great effect upon our scholar Abu `Eisa At-Tirmidhi.

At-Tirmidhi’s Pursuit of Knowledge
Imam At-Tirmidhi was bent on learning hadith. He travelled to numerous places and narrated hadiths from many persons. He travelled to Al-Hijaz, Basra, Kufah, Baghdad, Ar-Rayy and Khurasan.

Al-Hafiz Al-Mizzi said,

“He toured the cities and heard from a great number of people from Khurasan, Iraq, Al-Hijaz and other plac-es.” It is narrated that he took Hadith from more than 200 narrators of Hadith.

The numerous journeys of Imam At-Tirmidhi helped him get high Isnad (chain of narrators). He took hadiths from some of the teachers of both Imam Al-Bukhari and Muslim, the teachers of Imam Al-Bukhari that Muslim did not narrate from, and the teachers of Imam Muslim that Imam Al-Bukhari did not narrate from.

Not only that, he narrated Hadith from 42 narrators that the five Imams of Hadith (Al-Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Dawud, An-Nasa’i and Ibn Majah) did not narrate from. Also, he nar¬rated hadiths along with five scholars of Hadith (Al-Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Dawud, An-Nasa’i and Ibn Majah) from the same 9 narrators of Hadith.

Hadith was not the sole knowledge that Imam At-Tirmidh acquired; he was an en-cyclopedic scholar. He was versed in other branches of knowledge, such as Fiqh, Islamic History, Arabic language and other sciences.

He was renowned for his ex-cellent understanding and deduction of the Fiqh rulings from hadiths. The great scholar Abu Al-Hasan An-Nadawi said, “He (At-Tirmidhi) was the first to broach what is called nowadays “Comparative Fiqh” and he had a great merit that the Mus-lim community has to admit. His efforts saved a lot of the Islamic heritage of the schools of Fiqh from loss.”

At-Tirmidhi’s Sheikhs and Students
Among his well-known teachers were Ibrahim ibn Isma`il ibn Ya-hia, Abu Is-haq At-Tabari, Ibrahim ibn Hatim Al-Harawi, Ibrahim ibn Harun Al-Balkhi, Ibrahim ibn Ya`qub Al-Jawjajani, Muhammad ibn Bashshar ibn Bindar, Muhammad ibn Al-Muthanna, Qutaybah ibn Sa`id Al-Baghlani, `Ali ibn Hajar Al-Mirwazi, Muhammad ibn Isma`il Al-Bukhari, Muslim ibn Al-Hajjaj An-Naysaburi, Ahmad ibn Mani` Al-Baghawi, Mahmud ibn Ghaylan Al-Mirwazi, Abdullah ibn `Ab-dur-Rahman Ad-Darimi, Is-haq ibn Rahawih and many others.

A great deal of Hadith narrators learned at the hands of Imam At-Tir-midhi and took Hadith from him, including Abu Al-`Abbas Muham¬mad ibn Ahmad Al-Mahbubi Al-Mirwazi, Abu Sa`id Ash-Shashi, Abu Dharr Muhammad ibn Ibrahim At-Tirmidhi, Abu Muhammad Al- Hasan Al-Qattan, Abu Hamid Ahmad ibn `Abdullah Al-Mirwazi, Abu Bakr Ahmad ibn `Aamer As-Samarqandi, Ahmad ibn Yusuf An-Nasafi, Al-Hasan ibn Yusuf Al-Farabri, Ar-Rabi` ibn Hayyan Al-Bahili and many others.23

At-Tirmidhi’s Writings
- Al-Jami` Al-Mukhtasar min As-Sunan `an Rasulillah, known as “Jami` At-Tir¬midhi)
- Al-`Ilal As-Sughra
- Az-Zuhd
- Al-`Ilal Al-Kubra
- Ash-Shama’il An-Nabawiyyah wa Al-Fa-da’il Al-Mustafawiyyah
- Al-Asmaa’ wa Al-Kuna
- Kitab At-Tarikh

Scholars’ Praise of At-Tirmidhi
- Abu Sa`d Al-Idrisi said,
“Muhammad ibn `Eisa At-Tirmidhi, the blind memorizer of hadith, is one of the leading scholars of the knowledge of Hadith. He compiled the book Al-Jami`, At-Tawarikh and Al-`Ilal in a proficient and scientific way. He was an example of the memorization of hadith.”

- As-Sama`ani said,
“There is no dispute that he (At-Tirmidhi) was the Imam of his age.” Also, he said, “He was one of the leading Imams of hadith.”

- Ibn Al-Athir Al-Jazari said,
“He was one of the prominent memorizing scholars of hadith. Also, he was well-informed of Fiqh.”

- Abu Al-Fida’ said,
“He was a leading memorizer of hadith, and he was blind. He was one of the well-known proficient scholars of hadith.”

- Ibn Kathir said
regarding At-Tirmidhi, “He was one of the Imams of this matter (Hadith) at his time.”

- Al-Hafiz Abu Al-Hajjaj Al-Mizzi said,
“He (At-Tirmidhi was one of the prominent memorizing Imams (of Hadith) by whom Allah has benefitted Muslims.”24

At-Tirmidhi’s Death
After a life replete with knowledge-seeking, travelling for narrating hadiths and teaching and explaining hadith, Imam At-Tirmidhi passed away on Monday 13th of Rajab, 279 AH in Bugh (a village lies in his hometown Tirmidh).

May Allah confer mercy upon him and reward him all the good for his efforts in pre¬serving the Sunnah of the Prophet and narrating it to people!

» Imam Abu Dawud
» Imam An-Nasa’i
» Imam Ibn Majah
» Imam Al-Bukhari
» Imam Muslim