Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Sahl in Caesarea, and ʿAlī ibn Ḥimmaṣa al-Ḥarrānī in Egypt.

He devoted himself assiduously to hadith, had a penetrating grasp of the school, a firm footing in piety, and an impressive dignity.

Hibat Allāh al-Shīrāzī transmitted from him in his Muʿjam, saying: “The ascetic jurist Hayyāj narrated to us, and my eyes have never seen his like in renunciation and scrupulousness.” (1)

Others who narrated from him include: Muḥammad ibn Ṭāhir, Ibrāhīm ibn ʿUthmān al-Rāzqī, the hadith scholar Muḥammad ibn Abī ʿAlī al-Hamadhānī, Thābit ibn Manṣūr, Abū Naṣr Hibat Allāh al-Sijzī, and a number of others.

Ibn Ṭāhir said: “Hayyāj’s asceticism reached the point that he would fast for three consecutive days, maintaining the fast without break, but ending it with Zamzam water; if, after the third day, someone brought him something, he would eat it. He was past eighty. Every day he performed three ʿumras, taught several lessons, and visited the grave of Ibn ʿAbbās in al-Ṭāʾif once a year, eating nothing on the way. Each year he would also visit the Prophet’s ﷺ grave with the people of Mecca; once they set out, whoever took hold of his hand was under his care until they returned. He walked barefoot from Mecca to Medina. I heard someone complain to him that his sandals had been stolen, and he said, ‘Get a pair no one will steal’—meaning: go barefoot.

He was granted martyrdom in a clash between the Sunnis and the Rāfiḍites (2). Some Rāfiḍites complained to the governor of Mecca that the Sunnis were reviling them; the governor sent for Hayyāj, Abū al-Faḍl ibn Qawām, and Ibn al-Anmāṭī and had them beaten. The latter two died immediately, while Hayyāj was carried away and died a few days later—may Allah have mercy on him. (3)