“this is a farewell exhortation; what covenant will you place upon us?”
He said, “I charge you to fear Allah, and to hear and obey…”—and he related the rest of the ḥadīth (1).
This ḥadīth is of a lofty grade, its chain sound.
Yahyā ibn ʿAmmār died in Herat in Dhū al-Qaʿdah of the year 422 AH. The ascetic imam ʿUmar ibn Ibrāhīm (2) led the funeral prayer over him, and the procession was thronged.
Jamāl al-Islām al-Dāʾūdī composed an elegy for him, saying:
A questioner asked, “What has befallen you today?” I replied,
“You censure my state—yet how could this be a time for blame?
Do you not see the earth, in every quarter, diminished,
its four corners weeping one for another,
for the death of the best man of the entire age—
the builder of the faith of guidance, Yahyā ibn ʿAmmār?”
319 – Sultan Abū al-Qāsim Muḥammad ibn Subuktakin, the Turk—
the king, Yāmīn al-Dawlah, conqueror of India, Abū al-Qāsim Maḥmūd, son of the chief of commanders.
(1) Its chain of transmission is sound. It was recorded by al-Darimi 1/44–45 through Abu Asim al-Nabil al-Dahhak ibn Makhlad with this same isnad; al-Hakim 1/95 declared it sahih and al-Dhahabi agreed. The hadith was also reported by Ahmad 4/126–127; Abu Dawud (4607); and Ibn Abi Asim in al-Sunna (32, 57) through al-Walid ibn Muslim, who said: “Thawr ibn Yazid narrated it to us,” with the same chain. Ibn Hibban (1021) judged it authentic. Al-Tirmidhi (2676) and Ibn Abi Asim (27) transmitted it via Baqiyya ibn al-Walid, from Buhayr ibn Saad, from Khalid ibn Maadan; and Ibn Majah (42) and Ibn Abi Asim (55) through al-Walid ibn Muslim, who said: “Abd Allah ibn al-Ala narrated to us; Yahya ibn Abi al-Muta related to me; I heard al-Irbad ibn Sariyya ….”
(2) His biography has already been given under no. 301.
(*) For further biographical details see: al-Muntazam 8/52-54; al-Kamil fi al-tarikh 9/139, 401; Wafayat al-a‘yan 5/175-182; al-Mukhtasar fi akhbar al-bashar 2/134, 157; Duwal al-Islam 1/251; al-Ibar 3/145; Tatimmat al-mukhtasar 1/511-512; Tabaqat al-Subki 5/314-327; al-Bidaya wa al-nihaya 12/29-31; al-Jawahir al-mudiyya 2/157-158; Tarikh Ibn Khaldun 4/357, 358, 363, 364, 369, 378; al-Nujum al-zahira 4/373-374; Kashf al-zunun p. 426; Shadharat al-dhahab 3/220-221; Hadiyyat al-‘arifin 2/401; Nuzhat al-khawatir by Abd al-Hayy al-Hasani 1/69-74.