232 – Abū al-Fath al-Harawī, Naṣr ibn Aḥmad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Ḥanafī *

The imam, exemplar, ascetic, devout worshipper, and centenarian, Abū al-Fath Naṣr ibn Aḥmad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Ḥanafī of Herat.

He heard ḥadith from his maternal grandfather, Abū al-Muẓaffar Manṣūr ibn Ismāʿīl al-Harawī, who in turn narrated from Abū al-Faḍl ibn Khumayruwayh.

He also received narrations from Abū Yaʿqūb al-Qarrāb, the ḥāfiẓ, from Abū al-Ḥasan al-Dabbās, and from several others.

Shaykh al-Islām Abū Ismāʿīl al-Anṣārī compiled for him a three-volume collection of fawāʾid (selected traditions) (1). In his homeland he was the most senior authority, possessing the highest chains of transmission and the greatest degree of asceticism among those who remained there.

A number of scholars—among them the teachers of al-Samʿānī—narrated from him in Herat, Merv, and Būshanj.

Date of death: some said he died in 510 AH, but the correct report is that he passed away on 7 Shaʿbān 511 AH.

Al-Samʿānī (1) said: “He is Naṣr ibn Aḥmad ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Asad ibn Aḥmad, a descendant of Ḥanīfa ibn Lujaym ibn Ṣaʿb ibn ʿAlī ibn Bakr ibn Wāʾil.

“He was a man of knowledge, sound judgment, and righteousness; he spent his life writing down learning and distinguished himself by the abundance of his narrations.

“He heard ḥadith from his father, his grandfather, his maternal grandfather, Abū ʿUthmān Saʿīd ibn al-ʿAbbās al-Qurashī, Isḥāq ibn Abī Isḥāq al-Qarrāb, ʿAbd al-Wahhāb ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿĪsā, and Muḥammad ibn al-Fuḍayl.

“He was born in 419 AH.”

I (the author) say: He lived for ninety-two years.