99 – Ḥammād ibn Abī Sulaymān Muslim al-Kūfī (4, Qaranahu M)

The erudite scholar, the Imām, and the jurist of Iraq—Abū Ismāʿīl ibn Muslim al-Kūfī—was a client of the Ashʿarīs and originally came from Isfahān.

He narrated from Anas ibn Mālik.

He studied jurisprudence under Ibrāhīm al-Nakhaʿī and was the most distinguished, the most learned, the sharpest in analogical reasoning, and the keenest in debate and reasoned opinion among his pupils.

He also transmitted from Abū Wāʾil, Zayd ibn Wahb, Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib, ʿĀmir al-Shaʿbī, and several others.

He did not relate a large number of hadith because he died before the period in which transmission became widespread.

The senior-most teacher he met was Anas ibn Mālik, so he is classed among the younger Successors.

Those who narrated from him include his student Imām Abū Ḥanīfah; Abū Ḥanīfah’s son Ismāʿīl ibn Ḥammād; al-Ḥakam ibn ʿUtaybah—who was older than he—al-Aʿmash; Zayd ibn Abī Unaysah; Mughīrah; Hishām al-Dastūwāʾī; Muḥammad ibn Abān al-Juʿfī; Ḥamzah al-Zayyāt; Misʿar ibn Kidām; Sufyān al-Thawrī; Shuʿbah ibn al-Ḥajjāj; Ḥammād ibn Salamah; Abū Bakr al-Nahshalī; and many others.

He was counted among the intelligent scholars and the noble, generous men; he possessed wealth, standing, and a dignified bearing.

Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn Numayr said, “Abū Sulaymān, Ḥammād’s father, was the client of Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī (may Allah be pleased with him).”

Al-Ḥumaydī said: “Sufyān narrated to us, saying, ‘I saw Ḥammād ibn Abī Sulaymān come to…’”