10 – ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Ghanm al-Ashʿarī * (M, 4)

The jurist, imam, and leading scholar of the people of Palestine.

He transmitted hadith from: Muʿādh ibn Jabal—under whom he studied jurisprudence—ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, Abū Dharr al-Ghifārī, Abū Mālik al-Ashʿarī, Abū al-Dardāʾ, and others.

Those who narrated from him include: his son Muḥammad; Abū Salām Mamṭūr; Rajāʾ ibn Ḥaywah; Abū Idrīs al-Khawlānī—despite his seniority; Shahr ibn Ḥawshab; Makḥūl; ʿUbādah ibn Nusai; Ṣafwān ibn Sulaym; and Ismāʿīl ibn ʿUbayd Allāh.

Ibn Saʿd (1) said: “Reliable—Allah willing.”

ʿUmar dispatched him to Greater Syria to instruct the people in jurisprudence. His father was a Companion who had emigrated with Abū Mūsā.

Abū al-Qāsim al-Baghawī said: “ʿAbd al-Raḥmān was born during the lifetime of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, though his status as a Companion is a matter of dispute.”

I say: Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal included several of his narrations in the Musnad, but they are mursal (with the Companion link omitted); it nevertheless remains possible that he did enjoy Companionship.

Indeed, Yaḥyā ibn Bukayr—on the authority of al-Layth—and Ibn Luhayʿah both stated that ʿAbd al-Raḥmān was a Companion.

Al-Tirmidhī said: “He saw the Prophet.”