86 – ʿImrān ibn Ḥiṭṭān ibn Ẓabyān al-Sadūsī * (Kh, D, T)
The Basran.
He was one of the distinguished scholars, yet he ranked among the leading figures of the Khārijites.
He narrated hadith from: ʿĀʾishah, Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī, and Ibn ʿAbbās.
Those who transmitted from him include: Ibn Sīrīn, Qatādah, and Yaḥyā ibn Abī Kathīr.
Abū Dāwūd said, “Among all the sectarians, no one’s hadith are sounder than those of the Khārijites,” and then he cited ʿImrān ibn Ḥiṭṭān and Abū Ḥassān al-Aʿraj.
Al-Farazdaq remarked, “ʿImrān ibn Ḥiṭṭān is among the finest of poets; if he wished to compose poetry like ours he could, whereas we are incapable of producing poetry like his.”
Salamah ibn ʿAlqamah related—on the authority of Ibn Sīrīn—that ʿImrān married a Khārijite woman, saying, “I shall bring her back (to the truth).” Instead, she turned him to her own doctrine. ⦗1⦘
Al-Madāʾinī adds that she was exceedingly beautiful while he was plain-looking. One day, when he expressed admiration for her, she said, “You and I are in Paradise: you were granted bounty and showed gratitude, and I was tried and remained patient.”
Al-Aṣmaʿī said, “It has reached us that ʿImrān ibn Ḥiṭṭān was the guest of Rūḥ ibn Zinbāʿ. Rūḥ mentioned him to ʿAbd al-Malik, who said, ‘Invite him to come to us.’ ”
So he fled and wrote: