Their Attacks on al-Ḥākim, and the Discussion Concerning al-Nasāʾī

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Their Attacks on al-Ḥākim, and the Discussion Concerning al-Nasāʾī — Lawāmiʿ al-Anwār
Lawāmiʿ al-Anwār  ·  Islamic Scholarly Tradition

A Discussion in the Science of Hadith and Rijāl Criticism

Majd al-Dīn ibn Muḥammad al-Muʾayyidī  ·  d. 1428 AH

The partisans of Muʿāwiya did not confine themselves to attacking narrations — they attacked the narrators. This chapter examines two targets: al-Ḥākim al-Nīsābūrī, accused of unreliability for his refusal to praise Muʿāwiya, and al-Nasāʾī, accused of Shīʿī sympathies for the same reason — a refusal that cost him his life.

I. The Attack on al-Ḥākim

Dismissed for refusing to praise Muʿāwiya

For this reason, some of them said:1 al-Ḥākim is not to be accepted, because he used to speak disparagingly of Muʿāwiya.

To the point that al-Subkī said:2 Such conduct does not befit al-Ḥākim.

II. The Case of al-Nasāʾī

The scholar who would not compose what his heart would not sanction

And they accused al-Nasāʾī of Shīʿī sympathies, on account of his refusal to compose anything on the virtues of Muʿāwiya.

I say: al-Nasāʾī is Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, Aḥmad ibn Shuʿayb al-Khurāsānī. He authored the book al-Khaṣāʾiṣ on the virtues of the Trustee — meaning Imam ʿAlī (may God be pleased with him).

Al-Sayyid Ṣārim al-Dīn (peace be upon him) said:3 He went out from Egypt to Damascus, where he was asked about the virtues of Muʿāwiya. He replied:

“Is he not satisfied that he be equal, that he must be made to excel?! I know only the ḥadīth: ‘May God not satiate his belly.'”

— Al-Nasāʾī, upon being asked to compile the virtues of Muʿāwiya

So they trampled him underfoot, and he died a martyr thereafter.4

III. The Testimony of the Ṭabaqāt al-Zaydiyya

The undisputed Imam of ḥadīth

Something similar is mentioned in Ṭabaqāt al-Zaydiyya, where it states: Imam Abū ʿAlī al-Nīsābūrī said: The undisputed Imam of ḥadīth, Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Nasāʾī, narrated to us.5

His standards for narrators were more stringent than those of al-Bukhārī and Muslim.

It is also mentioned therein that when he was asked about Muʿāwiya, he said:

“What am I to transmit?! The ḥadīth: ‘O God, do not satiate his belly’?!”

— And the questioner fell silent

It is further stated therein: He was carried to Mecca and died there — so it is said; though the correct account is that he was carried to Ramla.6

Al-Dāraquṭnī said: He set out on the pilgrimage, was subjected to tribulation in Damascus, and attained martyrdom. He said: “Carry me to Mecca.” So he was carried there and died.

IV. His Death and Standing

Martyr, traditionist, and trusted authority

He is buried between al-Ṣafā and al-Marwa. His death was in the month of Shaʿbān in the year three hundred and three of the Hijra. In al-Khulāṣa:7 the year three hundred and four, as a martyr.

Imam al-Murshad Billāh (peace be upon him) transmitted from him; and al-Sayyid Ṣārim al-Dīn, Ibn Ḥumayd, and Ibn Ḥābis counted him among the trustworthy ḥadīth scholars of the Shīʿa.

Editor’s Notes & References

The following footnotes are editorial additions accompanying the text and are not the author’s own words.

1. Al-Dhahabī mentions in Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ (17/175), Muʾassasat al-Risāla edition, and al-Subkī in Ṭabaqāt al-Shāfiʿiyya al-Kubrā (4/162), Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Kutub al-ʿArabiyya edition, and others — citing Ibn Ṭāhir — that he asked Abū Ismāʿīl ʿAbdullāh ibn Muḥammad al-Harawī about Abū ʿAbdullāh al-Ḥākim, and he replied:
“Trustworthy in ḥadīth, a vile Rāfiḍī.”
Al-Dhahabī said: By no means — he is not a Rāfiḍī; rather, he has Shīʿī leanings. Ibn Ṭāhir said: He was intensely partisan toward the Shīʿa inwardly, while outwardly displaying Sunnism in matters of precedence and the caliphate. He was openly and extremely hostile toward Muʿāwiya and his household, making no apology for it. Ibn Ṭāhir then records a chain of transmission reaching Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī, who said:
“I entered upon al-Ḥākim while he was in his house, unable to go out to the mosque on account of the followers of Abū ʿAbdullāh ibn Karrām — for they had smashed his pulpit and prevented him from going out. I said to him: If you were to go out and dictate a ḥadīth on the virtues of this man [meaning Muʿāwiya], you would be relieved of this ordeal. He said: It will not come from my heart — it will not come from my heart.”
Al-Dhahabī also said in Tadhkirat al-Ḥuffāẓ (3/1045):
“As for his hostility toward the adversaries of ʿAlī — that is manifest. As for his attitude toward the two Shaykhs — he holds them in full veneration in every case. He is a Shīʿī, not a Rāfiḍī.”
2. Al-Subkī said in al-Ṭabaqāt al-Kubrā (4/163):
“Al-Ḥākim’s standing in our estimation is far too lofty for that.”
3. Al-Falak al-Dawwār (p. 108), no. 45.
4. Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ of al-Ḥāfiẓ al-Dhahabī (vol. 11/pp. 197 and 199, Dār al-Fikr edition, edited by al-ʿAmrawi); see also Tahdhīb al-Kamāl of al-Mizzī (1st ed., vol. 1/p. 45, Muʾassasat al-Risāla edition), and Tahdhīb al-Tahdhīb of Ibn Ḥajar (1/36, Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya edition).
5. Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ (11/198, Dār al-Fikr edition); see also Tahdhīb al-Kamāl of al-Mizzī (vol. 1/p. 44), and Tahdhīb al-Tahdhīb of Ibn Ḥajar (1/35).
6. Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ of al-Dhahabī (11/197 and p. 199, Dār al-Fikr edition).
7. Al-Khulāṣa of al-Khazrajī (1/18), no. 56, Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya edition.
Source

Lawāmiʿ al-Anwār fī Jawāmiʿ al-ʿUlūm wa-l-Āthār (Radiant Lights in the Compendium of Sciences and Traditions), by Majd al-Dīn ibn Muḥammad al-Muʾayyidī (d. 1428 AH). Chapter: Their Attacks on al-Ḥākim, and the Discussion Concerning al-Nasāʾī.