121 – Ashʿath ibn ʿAbd al-Malik, Abū Hānīʾ al-Ḥumrānī * (4)

He was an Imām, a jurist, and a trustworthy transmitter—Abū Hānīʾ al-Ḥumrānī, a Basran scholar, the client of Ḥumrān, who in turn was the client of the Commander of the Believers ʿUthmān.

He narrated from al-Ḥasan, Ibn Sīrīn, Bakr ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Muzanī, ʿĀṣim al-Aḥwal, and others.

Among those who transmitted from him are: Shuʿbah, Ḥammād ibn Zayd, Khālid ibn al-Ḥārith, Yaḥyā al-Qaṭṭān, Muḥammad ibn Abī ʿAdī, Ḥammād ibn Masʿadah, Rawḥ ibn ʿUbādah, Abū ʿĀṣim, and many more.

He was counted among the scholars of Basra.

Yaḥyā al-Qaṭṭān said: “In my view he is reliable and trustworthy. Of all the companions of Muḥammad ibn Sīrīn whom I met after Ibn ʿAwn, none was more firmly grounded than Ashʿath al-Ḥumrānī.”

I [the author] say: Apparently the last person to narrate from him was Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Anṣārī.

Al-Nasāʾī and others declared him “reliable.”

Abū Ḥātim said: “There is no harm in him; he is more reliable than Ashʿath al-Hudhdānī.”

I add: I am unaware of anyone who deemed him weak.

Ibn ʿAdī, in his al-Kāmil, mentioned him but concluded that there is absolutely no basis for weakening him.

True, the two Ṣaḥīḥs did not cite any of his narrations—just as they omitted the reports of a number of other firmly established transmitters.

Ḥafṣ ibn Ghiyāth said: “Ashʿath narrated to us. Yet I marvel at the people of Basra: they prefer their Ashʿath over our Ashʿath—Ashʿath ibn Sawār!”

He added: “This one is Ashʿath al-Tawābitī; he is Ashʿath…"