Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ - Shams al‑Din al‑Dhahabi - (9/228)

Siyar Aʿlām al-NubalāʾShams al‑Din al‑Dhahabi

Ḥajjāj ibn Rishdīn said, “I once heard ʿAbd Allah ibn Wahb lamenting aloud and crying out. I leaned out from my upper room and asked, ‘What is the matter, Abū Muḥammad?’

He replied, ‘Abū al-Ḥasan! I had been hoping to be resurrected in the company of the scholars, and now I am to be resurrected in the company of the judges.’

That very day he went into hiding, and the authorities set out in search of him.

Ibn Abī Ḥātim said, “My father related to us, saying: Ḥarmalah related to us, ‘I heard Ibn Wahb say:

‘I vowed that every time I back-bit a person I would fast one day, but that exhausted me; I would back-bite and then fast. So I resolved that every time I back-bit someone I would give one dirham in charity, and because of my love for dirhams I gave up back-biting.’ (1)

I (the author) remark: Such—by Allah—were the scholars, and this is the fruit of beneficial knowledge. ʿAbd Allah is, without reservation, a decisive authority. His narrations abound in the Ṣaḥīḥ collections and in the major compendia of Islam. It is enough for you that al-Nasāʾī, for all his rigor in criticism, said: ‘Ibn Wahb is reliable; I do not know of his transmitting any objectionable report from trustworthy narrators.’

I also say: In his written works he included many maqāṭīʿ (reports that stop short of the Prophet) and muʿḍalāt (narrations with two or more missing links), and he narrated extensively from Ibn Samʿān and Bābah. Some leading scholars took issue with Ibn Wahb’s method of collecting hadith, claiming that he was somewhat lenient in what he accepted. Yet whether he was actually lenient and deemed that permissible, or whether he was strict, the fact remains that whoever transmits one hundred thousand hadiths and, within so vast a corpus, only rarely produces a rejected report has reached the pinnacle of precision.

Abū al-Ṭāhir ibn ʿAmr said, “News of Ibn Wahb’s death reached us while we were in the gathering of Sufyān ibn ʿUyaynah. He exclaimed:

‘We belong to Allah and to Him we shall return; the Muslims as a whole have been afflicted by his loss, and I in particular have been afflicted.’ (2)

(1) Tartib al-Madarik, vol. 2, p. 431. (2) Tartib al-Madarik, vol. 2, p. 423.

قَالَ حَجَّاجُ بنُ رِشْدِيْنَ: سَمِعْتُ عَبْدَ اللهِ بنَ وَهْبٍ يَتَذَمَّرُ وَيَصِيْحُ، فَأَشرَفْتُ عَلَيْهِ مِنْ غُرْفَتِي، فَقُلْتُ: مَا شَأْنُكَ يَا أَبَا مُحَمَّدٍ؟ قَالَ: يَا أَبَا الحَسَنِ! بَيْنَمَا أَنَا أَرْجُو أَنْ أُحْشَرَ فِي زُمْرَةِ العُلَمَاءِ، أُحشَرُ فِي زُمْرَةِ القُضَاةِ. قَالَ: فَتَغَيَّبَ فِي يَوْمِهِ، فَطَلبُوْهُ. قَالَ ابْنُ أَبِي حَاتِمٍ: حَدَّثَنَا أَبِي، حَدَّثَنَا حَرْمَلَةُ، سَمِعْتُ ابْنَ وَهْبٍ يَقُوْلُ: نَذَرتُ أَنِّي كُلَّمَا اغْتَبْتُ إِنْسَاناً أَنْ أَصُوْمَ يَوْماً، فَأَجْهَدَنِي، فَكُنْتُ أَغْتَابُ وَأَصُوْمُ، فَنَوَيْتُ أَنِّي كُلَمَّا اغْتَبتُ إِنْسَاناً، أَنْ أَتَصَدَّقَ بِدِرْهَمٍ، فَمِنْ حُبِّ الدَّرَاهِمِ تَرَكتُ الغِيْبَةَ (١) . قُلْتُ: هَكَذَا -وَاللهِ- كَانَ العُلَمَاءُ، وَهَذَا هُوَ ثَمَرَةُ العِلْمِ النَّافِعِ، وَعَبْدُ اللهِ حُجَّةٌ مُطْلَقاً، وَحَدِيْثُهُ كَثِيْرٌ فِي الصِّحَاحِ، وَفِي دَوَاوِيْنِ الإِسْلاَمِ، وَحَسْبُكَ بِالنَّسَائِيِّ وَتَعَنُّتِهِ فِي النَّقْدِ حَيْثُ يَقُوْلُ: وَابْنُ وَهْبٍ ثِقَةٌ، مَا أَعْلَمُهُ رَوَى عَنِ الثِّقَاتِ حَدِيْثاً مُنْكَراً. قُلْتُ: أَكْثَرَ فِي تَوَالِيْفِهِ مِنَ المَقَاطِيْعِ وَالمُعْضَلاَتِ، وَأَكْثَرَ عَنِ ابْنِ سَمْعَانَ وَبَابتِهِ، وَقَدْ تَمَعْقَلَ بَعْضُ الأَئِمَّةِ عَلَى ابْنِ وَهْبٍ فِي أَخذِهِ لِلْحَدِيْثِ، وَأَنَّهُ كَانَ يَتَرَخَّصُ فِي الأَخذِ، وَسَوَاءٌ تَرَخَّصَ وَرَأَى ذَلِكَ سَائِغاً، أَوْ تَشَدَّدَ، فَمَنْ يَرْوِي مائَةَ أَلْفِ حَدِيْثٍ، وَيَنْدُرُ المُنْكَرُ فِي سَعَةِ مَا رَوَى، فَإِلَيْهِ المُنْتَهَى فِي الإِتْقَانِ. قَالَ أَبُو الطَّاهِرِ بنُ عَمْرٍو: جَاءنَا نَعْيُ ابْنِ وَهْبٍ، وَنَحْنُ فِي مَجْلِسِ سُفْيَانَ بنِ عُيَيْنَةَ، فَقَالَ: إِنَّا للهِ وَإِنَّا إِلَيْهِ رَاجِعُوْنَ، أُصِيْبَ بِهِ المُسْلِمُوْنَ عَامَّةً، وَأُصِبْتُ بِهِ خَاصَّةً (٢) .

(١) " ترتيب المدارك " ٢ / ٤٣١. (٢) " ترتيب المدارك " ٢ / ٤٢٣.