17 – Ibn Wārah, Muḥammad ibn Muslim ibn ʿUthmān ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Rāzī
A ḥāfiẓ, imām, and meticulous critic, Abū ʿAbd Allāh Ibn Wārah al-Rāzī was one of the leading authorities of his age.
He travelled widely across the lands in pursuit of knowledge.
He related ḥadith from Abū ʿĀṣim al-Nabīl, al-Anṣārī, al-Firyābī, Muḥammad ibn ʿArʿarah, Hawdhah ibn Khalīfah, Abū Nuʿaym, Abū Mus-hir, ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Mūsā, al-Haytham ibn Jamīl, Saʿīd ibn Abī Maryam, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yūsuf, Ḥajjāj ibn Abī Manīʿ, al-Aṣmaʿī, ʿAlī ibn ʿAyyāsh, ʿĀrim, Muslim ibn Ibrāhīm, and many others.
He even sought out Aḥmad ibn Ṣāliḥ al-Miṣrī and his peers for further transmission.
People cited him as the very model of memorisation, though he was also noted for a certain foolishness and self-importance.
Three scholars once gathered in Rayy—rarely do the like of them coincide: Abū Zurʿah (1), Ibn Wārah, and Abū Ḥātim (2).
Those who narrated from him include al-Nasāʾī, Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā al-Dhuhalī—who was his senior—Abū Bakr ibn ʿĀṣim, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Khirāsh, and Ibn Nājah.