Miskīn reported to us; Ibn ʿUyaynah narrated to us, from al-Zuhri, from Sālim, from his father, that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: “Kill the snakes, especially the one with two stripes and the short-tailed one, for they harm the eyes and cause miscarriage.” (1)
127 – al-Azhari, Abū Ḥāmid Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad
The upright, musnid, and truthful scholar: Abū Ḥāmid Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Azhar al-Azhari, from Nishapur, known as al-Shurūṭī (2), a descendant of ḥadith scholars.
He heard ḥadith from Abū Muḥammad al-Makhladi, Abū Saʿīd ibn Ḥamdūn, and Abū al-Ḥusayn al-Khaffāf.
He possessed carefully verified primary manuscripts.
Among those who narrated from him were Zāhir and Wajīh, the two sons of Ṭāhir; ʿAbd al-Ghāfir ibn Ismāʿīl; and others.
He died in Rajab of the year three and sixty and four hundred, d. 463 AH.
(1) Muslim (no. 2233) also related the report through the chain of ʿAmr al-Naqid, and Abu Dawud (no. 5252) through Musaddad; both transmit it from Sufyan ibn ʿUyaynah with the same isnad. Al-Bukhari recorded it, 6/248-249, Book of the Beginning of Creation, chapter on Allah’s words wa-baththa fi-ha min kulli dabbah (“and He spread therein every living creature”), by way of ʿAbd Allah ibn Muhammad – Hisham ibn Yusuf – Maʿmar – al-Zuhri. It is likewise found in the Musannaf of ʿAbd al-Razzaq (no. 19616) and, through that route, in Muslim (2233 §30) from Maʿmar on the authority of al-Zuhri; it also appears in the Muwattaʾ, 2/975-976, and in Sunan al-Tirmidhi (no. 1483).
By dhu l-tufaytain the Prophet meant the snake that bears two stripes along its back. The word tufiyya denotes a leaflet of the date-palm (pl. tufi); the two stripes are likened to two such leaflets. This kind is reckoned the most harmful of snakes. The abtar is the serpent with a stunted tail, and al-batar is a general term for the most vicious serpents.
His statement “for they seize the eyesight” means that they can snatch away and extinguish a person’s sight when their gaze meets his, owing to a peculiar property they possess; others say it signifies that their bite weakens the vision.
* ʿIbar, 3/252; Tadhkirat al-Huffaz, 3/1131; Shadharāt al-Dhahab, 3/311.
(2) The nisba al-shurutiy is given to those who draft legal documents and official registers (sakkak, sijillat), because such writings are filled with stipulations (shurut); hence the scribe is called shuruti. See al-Ansab.