154 AH.
Al-Haytham ibn ʿAdī and ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī recorded the same date—Allah knows best.
Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal said: He lived fifty-eight years.
I read aloud to ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad the jurist—Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm has transmitted to you—and I read aloud to Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān—al-Bahāʾ ʿAbd al-Raḥmān has transmitted to you; they both said:
Shuhda the scribe (1) informed us; Abū ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṭalḥah narrated to us; Abū al-Ḥusayn ibn Bishrān narrated to us; Ismāʿīl al-Ṣaffār narrated to us; Aḥmad ibn Manṣūr al-Ramādī narrated to us; ʿAbd al-Razzāq narrated to us; Maʿmar informed us, from Abān, from one of the early scholars, who said:
Whoever offers salām to seven people receives the reward of freeing a slave (2).
Through this same chain Maʿmar informed us, from Yaḥyā ibn Abī Kathīr, from Zayd ibn Salām, from his grandfather, who said:
Muʿāwiyah wrote to ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Shibl: “Teach the people what you heard from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.” So he gathered them and said, “I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say: ‘Learn the Quran; once you have learned it, do not be excessive about it, do not turn away from it, do not use it to earn a livelihood, and do not seek worldly gain by means of it …’”—the remainder of the hadith (3).
(1) Shuhda bint Abi Nasr Ahmad ibn al-Faraj ibn Umar al-Abri, nicknamed al-Katiba, was originally from Dinawar but was born and died in Baghdad. A learned woman renowned for her elegant handwriting, she transmitted hadith to large numbers of students. She died in 574/1178–79 at a little over ninety years of age. Sources: Ibn Khallikan, Wafayat al-ayan 2:477-478; al-Dhahabi, al-Ibar 4:220; Shadharat al-dhahab 4:248. The author will give her full biography later.
(2) The transmitter is Aban ibn Abi Ayyash al-Basri, whose narrations are considered unreliable.
(3) The report appears in the Musannaf (no. 19444) and, through the same chain, in Ahmad, 3:444; al-Hafiz declares its isnad sound in Fath al-bari. Its complete wording is: “Then he said: ‘Merchants are the wicked.’ They asked, ‘Messenger of Allah, has not Allah permitted trade and forbidden usury?’ He replied, ‘Indeed; but they swear oaths and thereby sin.’ He then said: ‘The profligate are the people of Hell.’ They asked, ‘Messenger of Allah, who are the profligate?’ He said, ‘Women.’ They asked, ‘Messenger of Allah, are they not our mothers, daughters and sisters?’ He said, ‘Yes, but when they are given something they do not show gratitude, and when they are tested they show no patience.’ He added: ‘The rider should greet the walker, the walker the one who is seated, and the smaller group the larger. Whoever returns the greeting receives its reward; whoever does not, bears no blame.’”