147 – al-Shaʿrānī, al-Faḍl ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Musayyab*
The Imām, ḥāfiẓ, traditionist, indefatigable traveler, and prolific transmitter, Abū Muḥammad al-Faḍl ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Musayyab ibn Mūsā ibn Zuhayr ibn Yazīd ibn Kaysān, a descendant of King Bādhān (1)—the governor of Yemen who embraced Islam upon receiving the Messenger of Allah’s ﷺ letter—was a Khurasānī from Nishapur. He was nicknamed “al-Shaʿrānī” because he used to let his hair grow long. His home village was Rīwadh in the Bayhaq district.
He heard hadiths in Egypt from Saʿīd ibn Abī Maryam, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṣāliḥ, Saʿīd ibn ʿUfair, and their peers;
in Basra from Sulaymān ibn Ḥarb, Sahl ibn Bakkār, Qays ibn Ḥafṣ, and several others;
in Kufa from Aḥmad ibn Yūnus, Waḍḍāḥ ibn Yaḥyā, and Ḍirār ibn Ṣurad;
in Medina from Qālūn, Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Uways, and Isḥāq al-Farwī;
in Aleppo from Abū Tawba al-Rabīʿ ibn Nāfiʿ;
in Hims from Ḥaywa ibn Shurayḥ;
on the frontier from Sunayd ibn Dāwūd;
in Khurasān from Yaḥyā ibn Yaḥyā al-Tamīmī and Ibn Rāhwayh;
in Wāsiṭ from ʿAmrū ibn ʿAwn;
and in Harran from Abū Jaʿfar al-Nufaylī.
He trained under ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī and Ibn Maʿīn, excelled in this science, consulted Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, and studied Arabic philology with Ibn al-Aʿrābī.
He recited the Qur’an to Khalaf ibn Hishām and arrived possessing an abundant store of knowledge.
Those who narrated from him include Ibn Khuzaymah, Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Thaqafī, and al-Muʾammal ibn