ibn Harb al-Ḍabbī—the Basran, the date-seller, nicknamed Tamṭām—who later settled in Baghdad.
He was born in 193 AH.
He studied under Abū Nuʿaym, Muslim ibn Ibrāhīm, al-Qaʿnabī, ʿAffān ibn Muslim, ʿAbd al-Ṣamad ibn al-Nuʿmān, Abū Ḥudhayfah al-Nahdī, ʿAmr ibn Marzūq, Musaddad, al-Ḥawḍī, and others of their rank.
Those who transmitted from him include Abū Jaʿfar ibn al-Bakhtarī, Ismāʿīl al-Ṣaffār, ʿUthmān ibn al-Sammāk, Abū Sahl al-Qaṭṭān, Ibn Kawthar al-Barbahārī, Abū Bakr al-Shāfiʿī, and many more.
Al-Dāraqutnī said: “Reliable and trustworthy, though he did make mistakes.” Elsewhere he remarked: “Reliable, proficient. I heard Abū Sahl ibn Ziyād relate that he heard Mūsā ibn Hārūn speak about a ḥadīth narrated by Muḥammad ibn Ghālib from al-Warkānī, from Ḥammād al-Abah, from Ibn ʿAwn, from Ibn Sīrīn, from ʿImrān ibn Ḥuṣayn, in which the Prophet ﷺ said, ‘Sūrat Hūd and its sister sūrahs have turned my hair gray.’ He declared, ‘This ḥadīth is fabricated.’
I say: he meant that the chain of transmission is fabricated, not the wording of the report. (1)
(1) The hadith is sound: Abu Bakr al-Marwazi transmits it in Musnad Abi Bakr, no. 30; al-Tirmidhi in Sunan, no. 3293, and in the Shamaʾil, no. 40; Ibn Saʿd in al-Tabaqat, 1/435-436; and Abu Nuʿaym in Hilyat al-Awliyaʾ, through the chain Shayban – Abu Ishaq – Ikrima – Ibn ʿAbbas. Ibn ʿAbbas reports that Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) said: “O Messenger of Allah, grey hair has appeared on me.” He replied: “Surat Hud, al-Waqiʿa, al-Mursalat, ʿAmma yatasaʾalun (Surat al-Nabaʾ), and Idha sh-Shamsu Kuwwirat (Surat al-Takwir) have made me grow old.”
Al-Hakim declared the narration authentic (2/343, 476) and al-Dhahabi agreed. Al-Diyaʾ also included it in al-Ahadith al-Mukhtara.
Parallel reports exist: from ʿUqba ibn ʿAmir in al-Tabarani (cited in Majmaʿ al-Zawaʾid); from Anas in Ibn Saʿd’s Tabaqat; and from Abu Juhaifa in al-Tirmidhi’s Shamaʾil, no. 41.
Scholars explain that these surahs prematurely aged the Prophet because—despite their brevity—they contain exceptionally severe warnings: vivid portrayals of the terrors of the Hereafter, its marvels and horrors, the fate of the doomed and the punished, and, in some cases, an injunction to remain steadfast.