A concise scholarly biography of Imām Muḥammad ibn Shihāb al-Zuhrī, highlighting his lineage, learning, teachers, students, and lasting contribution to ḥadīth scholarship.
His Name and Lineage
He is Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Muslim ibn ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Shihāb ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ḥārith ibn Zuhrah ibn Kilāb ibn Murrah ibn Kaʿb ibn Luʾayy ibn Ghālib al-Qurashī al-Zuhrī al-Madanī.
He belonged to the noble Banū Zuhrah clan of Quraysh and was among the leading scholars of Madīnah.
His Birth
According to Duhaym (d. 245 AH / 859 CE), he was born in the year 50 AH (670 CE). Khalīfah ibn Khayyāṭ (d. 240 AH / 854 CE), however, stated that he was born in 51 AH (671 CE).
His Physical Appearance
Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah (d. 198 AH / 814 CE) said:
“I saw al-Zuhrī with his hair flowing to his shoulders and his beard dyed in a fading red colour. It appeared as though he had dyed it with katam. He was bleary-eyed. I was seventeen years old when he visited us in 123 AH, and he remained with us until 124 AH. Mālik was misled by his dyed beard and thought that he was a young man.”
Layth ibn Saʿd (d. 175 AH / 791 CE) said:
“Al-Zuhrī used to wear garments dyed in red.”
His Teachers
Al-Zuhrī narrated from many of the senior Companions and leading Successors (Tābiʿūn), including:
Sahl ibn Saʿd al-Sāʿidī (d. 91 AH / 710 CE),
Anas ibn Mālik (d. 93 AH / 712 CE),
al-Sāʾib ibn Yazīd (d. 91 AH / 710 CE),
ʿAbd Allāh ibn Thaʿlabah ibn Suʿayr,
Maḥmūd ibn Rabīʿ (d. 99 AH / 718 CE),
Maḥmūd ibn Labīd (d. 96 AH / 715 CE),
Shabīb Abū Jamīlah,
Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab (d. 94 AH / 713 CE),
and many others.
Abū Ḥātim al-Rāzī (d. 277 AH / 890 CE) said:
“The most proficient students of Anas ibn Mālik were al-Zuhrī, Qatādah, and Thābit al-Bunānī, in this order.”
Al-Zuhrī said:
“I sat with Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyab and heard nothing but matters concerning the Hereafter. I sat with ʿUbayd Allāh and did not find anyone with rarer narrations than him. I found ʿUrwah to be an ocean of knowledge, whom vessels could not disturb.”
His Pursuit of Knowledge
Abū Zinād (d. 130 AH / 748 CE) said:
“Al-Zuhrī would write everything when he sought knowledge. I saw him with slates upon which he would record ḥadīth.”
He also said:
“He used to carry wooden slates and paper with him on which he would write what he heard, and we used to laugh at him.”
Al-Zuhrī said:
“My knees touched the knees of Ibn al-Musayyab for eight years.”
He also said:
“I travelled between the Ḥijāz and al-Shām for forty-five years, and I did not find a rare ḥadīth, nor did I find anyone who narrated to me a ḥadīth that I did not already know.
His Manners in Seeking Knowledge
ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUmar al-ʿUmarī (d. 171 AH / 787 CE) reported that al-Zuhrī said:
“I narrated a ḥadīth to ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn, and when I finished, he said, ‘May Allah ﷻ bless you. That is how it was narrated to us.’”
Mālik ibn Anas (d. 179 AH / 795 CE) said:
“You did not use to write?”
He replied, “No.”
“And did you not ask for repetition?”
He replied, “No.”
Saʿd ibn Ibrāhīm (d. 125 AH / 742 CE) said:
“Al-Zuhrī did not surpass us in knowledge except that he would ask whatever he wished and would spare no effort.”
Al-Zuhrī said:
“I have never asked a scholar to repeat what he said to me.”
Mālik also said:
“I recited seventy aḥādīth to al-Zuhrī and made a grammatical error in one of them. He shook his camel angrily and said, ‘People no longer understand.’”
Al-Zuhrī used to revise his knowledge constantly. When he returned home, he would wake one of his servants and say:
“So-and-so narrated such-and-such.”
She would reply:
“What has that to do with me?”
He would respond:
“I know it has nothing to do with you, but I have just heard it and wished to revise it.”
Al-Dhahabī (d. 748 AH / 1348 CE) mentioned that al-Zuhrī disliked eating apples and preferred to drink honey, saying that it strengthened his memory.
Al-Zuhrī used to say:
“Whoever wishes to memorise aḥādīth should eat dried grapes.”
Scholarly Praise for al-Zuhrī
ʿAmr ibn Dīnār (d. 126 AH / 744 CE) said:
“I have not seen anyone more precise in narrating ḥadīth than al-Zuhrī.”
Saʿīd ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz (d. 167 AH / 783 CE) said:
“When knowledge reached us from al-Zuhrī in the Ḥijāz, we accepted it.”
Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal (d. 241 AH / 855 CE) said:
“Al-Zuhrī was the best of people in ḥadīth and the most skilled regarding chains of narration.”
Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd al-Qaṭṭān (d. 198 AH / 813 CE) said:
“No one among the people of knowledge possessed what Ibn Shihāb possessed.”
Ayyūb al-Sakhtiyānī (d. 131 AH / 749 CE) said:
“I have not met anyone more knowledgeable than al-Zuhrī.”
His Students
Among his most prominent students were:
ʿAṭāʾ ibn Abī Rabāḥ (d. 114 AH / 732 CE),
ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz (d. 101 AH / 720 CE),
Ayyūb al-Sakhtiyānī (d. 131 AH / 749 CE),
Mālik ibn Anas (d. 179 AH / 795 CE),
Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah (d. 198 AH / 814 CE),
ʿAbd al-Malik ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Ibn Jurayj (d. 150 AH / 767 CE),
Jaʿfar ibn Barqān (d. 130 AH / 747 CE),
Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj (d. 261 AH / 875 CE),
Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl al-Bukhārī (d. 256 AH / 870 CE),
and many others.
Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn (d. 233 AH / 848 CE) said:
“The most reliable transmitters from him were Mālik ibn Anas, Maʿmar, Yūnus, ʿAqīl, Shuʿayb, and Ibn ʿUyaynah.”
Al-Awzāʿī (d. 157 AH / 774 CE) reported:
“Al-Zuhrī gave me a manuscript and said, ‘Narrate its contents with my permission.’”
Some scholars refrained from narrating from him due to certain practices they observed. Abū Jaʿfar al-Rāzī (d. 160 AH / 776 CE) said:
“I did not write any ḥadīth from al-Zuhrī because he used to dye his hair black.”
His Character and Conduct
Saʿīd ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz said:
“We used to visit al-Zuhrī, and he would host us with various kinds of food.”
Al-Dhahabī said:
“Al-Zuhrī was modest and held in high esteem within the administration of Banū Umayyah.”
His Death
Ibn Saʿd (d. 230 AH / 845 CE), Khalīfah ibn Khayyāṭ (d. 240 AH / 854 CE), and al-Zubayr ibn Bakkār (d. 256 AH / 870 CE) stated:
“Ibn Shihāb died on the seventeenth of Ramaḍān in the year 124 AH (742 CE).”
Reference
Ibn Saʿd, Muḥammad ibn Saʿd (d. 230 AH / 845 CE), al-Ṭabaqāt al-Kubrā, ed. ʿAlī Muḥammad ʿUmar, Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyyah, Beirut, 1990, vol. 5, pp. 193-210.
Al-Dhahabī, Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad (d. 748 AH / 1348 CE), Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ, ed. Shuʿayb al-Arnāʾūṭ, Muʾassasat al-Risālah, Beirut, 2001, vol. 5, pp. 326-360.
Khalīfah ibn Khayyāṭ (d. 240 AH / 854 CE), al-Ṭabaqāt, ed. Akram Ḍiyāʾ al-ʿUmarī, Dār al-Qalam, Damascus, 1985, pp. 237-240.
Ibn Abī Ḥātim, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Muḥammad (d. 327 AH / 938 CE), al-Jarḥ wa al-Taʿdīl, Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Turāth al-ʿArabī, Beirut, 1952, vol. 7, pp. 176-180.
Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī (d. 852 AH / 1449 CE), Tahdhīb al-Tahdhīb, Dār al-Fikr, Beirut, 1995, vol. 9, pp. 445-452.
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