Ibn al-Najjār (1) said: “The learning of Abū Mūsā spread across the horizons, and through it Allah benefited the Muslims. He combined in himself what few others possessed: prodigious memorization, extensive knowledge, reliability, precision, piety, an excellent manner, and sound transmission. He recited the Qur’an according to the various narrations, studied Shāfiʿī jurisprudence, excelled in grammar and language, and wrote copiously. He travelled to Baghdad and performed the pilgrimage in the years 524 AH and 542 AH (2).”
Ismāʿīl al-Taymī said to a student, “Stay close to the ḥāfiẓ Abū Mūsā, for he is a young man of consummate accuracy.”
Muḥammad ibn Maḥmūd al-Rawaydashtī said, “The leading scholars have produced many works on the merits of our shaykh Abū Mūsā.”
79 – ʿAbd al-Mughīth ibn Zuhayr ibn Zuhayr ibn ʿAlawī al-Ḥarbī
The shaykh, the Imām, the ḥadith-scholar, the ascetic,
= “…because they had a valid excuse for not joining the expedition,” transmitted through the isnad of Sulayman b. Harb – Hammad b. Zayd – Humayd – Anas. Al-Bukhari also recorded it (8:95–96, “Maghazi”) through Ahmad b. Muhammad – Abd Allah b. al-Mubarak – Humayd al-Tawil – Anas; Ibn Majah (no. 2764) through Muhammad b. al-Muthanna – Ibn Abi ‘Adi – Humayd – Anas; and Abu Dawud (no. 2508) through Musa b. Isma‘il – Hammad – Humayd – Musa b. Anas – Anas.
Al-Bukhari judged the version that omits Musa b. Anas from the chain to be sounder, whereas al-Isma‘ili disagreed, saying: “Hammad is an authority in the narrations of Humayd and should be preferred to others.”
Ibn Hajar states in Fath al-Bari (6:35) that both isnads can be correct: Humayd may first have heard the report from Musa on the authority of his father, then later met Anas himself and received it directly—or the reverse, hearing it from Anas and later confirming it through Musa. See the remainder of his discussion there.
A supporting narration is reported from Jabir in Muslim (no. 1911) and Ibn Majah (no. 2765).
(1) Al-Dumyati, al-Mustafad min Dhayl Tarikh Baghdad, fol. 11.
(2) I.e. the year 500 AH.
(*) Biographical notices in: Ibn Nuqtah, al-Taqyid, fol. 169; Ibn al-Athir, al-Kamil, 11:230; Ibn al-Dubaythi, Tarikh, fol. 189 (Paris MS 5922); Ibn al-Najjar, al-Tarikh al-Mujaddad, fol. 2 (Zahiriyah); al-Dhahabi, Tarikh al-Islam, deaths of 583 AH, and al-‘Ibar, 4:249. =