—from Samarkand, accompanied by a servant.
Someone asked him, “What has brought you to these lands?”
He answered, “Necessity.”
ʿImrān ibn Ḥudayr said: Ikrimah once picked up an old, worn-out turban of his. A man remarked, “What do you want with that? We have plenty of turbans—we will send you one!” He replied, “I take nothing from ordinary people; I accept only from the governors.”
Al-Aʿmash, citing Ibrāhīm, said: I met Ikrimah and asked him about al-batshah al-kubrā (the Great Seizure) (1). He replied, “The Day of Resurrection.” I said, “But ʿAbd Allāh used to say it is the Day of Badr!” Later, someone who questioned him told me that he had then answered, “The Day of Badr.” I say: both views are well-known (2).
ʿAbbās ibn Ḥammād, from ʿUthmān ibn Murrah, said: I said to al-Qāsim, “Ikrimah claims: ‘Ibn ʿAbbās narrated to us that the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—prohibited al-muzaffat (pitch-coated vessels), al-naqīr (hollowed palm-trunk containers), ad-dubbāʾ (gourds), al-ḥantam (green jars), and the clay jars (3).’” He replied, “My nephew, Ikrimah is a liar; in the morning he relates one report…"
(1) That is, in reference to the Almighty’s words: “On the Day We strike with the ultimate strike—we shall indeed take vengeance” (Q 44:16). Ibn Masud’s explanation of this verse is reported by al-Bukhari, 8/439, Tafsir, chapter: “So wait for the Day when the sky will bring forth evident smoke.” A number of early authorities—such as Mujahid, Abu l-Aliyah, Ibrahim al-Nakha‘i, al-Dahhak, and Atiyyah al-Awfi—shared Ibn Masud’s interpretation, and it is the view preferred by Ibn Jarir al-Tabari.
(2) See al-Tabari, 25/111, 115. Ibn Hajar states in the Introduction to Fath al-Bari, p. 427: “As for the criticism of Ikrimah on the grounds that he retracted his initial opinion about the meaning of ‘the ultimate strike’ in favour of what Ibn Masud reported, it is more fitting to praise Ikrimah than to censure him, for he abandoned his own view once he learned that someone more qualified held a different position.”
(3) Ikrimah was not alone in transmitting this report from Ibn Abbas; it was also narrated by Abu Jamrah Nasr b. Imran. Consult al-Bukhari 1/120, 125, 166; 6/146; 8/67; Muslim (17); Abu Dawud (3692); and Ahmad 1/228, 274.
The muzaffat is a container lined with bitumen; the naqir is the hollowed trunk of a tree—some say the base of a palm; the dubba is a gourd (sing. dubbaʾa); and the hantam are green earthenware jars once used to store wine. All four vessels hasten strong fermentation and quickly render the drink intoxicating.
The prohibition of preparing nabidh (fermented beverage) in these receptacles applied only in the early Islamic period and was later abrogated, as in the marfuʿ hadith of Buraidah: “I had forbidden you to use animal-skin vessels; now drink from any container so long as it does not produce an intoxicant.” Muslim, Sahih (977) (65), 3/1585.