of the religion, distinguished by sincerity, scrupulous piety, exact retention, and keen vigilance.
Al-Ḥākim said: I heard the professor Abū al-Walīd say, “In our time no jurist in Khurāsān was more conversant with juristic traditions and the statements of the Companions than Abū Nuʿaym al-Jurjānī; and in Iraq no one surpassed Abū Ziyād al-Naysābūrī.”
Al-Ḥākim also said: I heard the ḥāfiẓ Abū ʿAlī say, “Abū Nuʿaym al-Jurjānī was one of the foremost imams. After Ibn Khuzaymah I never saw his like in Khurāsān—or, he said, anyone better than him. He had memorized the mawqūf reports (those that stop with a Companion) and the mursal reports (those whose chain omits the Companion) as thoroughly as we memorize the musnad traditions traced back to the Prophet.”
Abū Nuʿaym al-Jurjānī himself said: “The reports concerning the number of takbīrs in the funeral prayer are mass-transmitted and establish the number as four. The most famous and sound of them is the ḥadīth of al-Zuhrī, from Ibn al-Musayyib, from Abū Hurayrah (1)—though that narration deals with performing the funeral prayer over one who is absent.”
(1) Reported by al-Bukhari, 3/163, Book of Funerals, chapters: “Pronouncing four takbirs over the deceased,” “A man who announces his own death,” “Rows for the funeral prayer,” and “Performing the funeral prayer in the cemetery and in the mosque”; also in the section “Virtues of the Companions,” chapter “The death of the Negus.” Reported as well by Muslim (no. 921) in the Book of Funerals, chapter “On the number of takbirs”; by Malik, 1/226, Book of Funerals, chapter “Pronouncing takbirs over funerals”; by Abu Dawud (3204); Ibn Majah (1534); al-Tayalisi (2300); Ahmad, Musnad 2:241, 280, 289, 348, 439, 479, 529; and al-Bayhaqi, 4/49.
(2) Nonetheless, authentic narrations confirm that the Prophet ﷺ pronounced four takbirs when the deceased was present. Muslim (no. 954), Book of Funerals, records from Ibn Abbas: “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ prayed over a grave after it had been filled in and pronounced four takbirs.” Al-Nasaʾi, 4/84, and Ibn Majah (1528), both in the Book of Funerals, chapter “Prayer over the grave,” relate from Yazid b. Thabit—who was older than Zayd—that he said: “We went out with the Prophet ﷺ. When we reached al-Baqiʿ, he saw a new grave and asked about it. They said, ‘It is for So-and-so.’ He recognized her and exclaimed, ‘Why did you not inform me?’ They replied, ‘You were resting and fasting; we did not wish to trouble you.’ He said, ‘Do not act like that. Never let anyone among you die while I am in your midst without informing me, for my prayer over him is a mercy for him.’ He then approached the grave; we formed rows behind him, and he pronounced four takbirs.” The chain of transmission is sound, and Ibn Hibban declared it authentic (no. 759). Al-Bayhaqi, 4/48, and al-Nasaʾi, 4/69, likewise report—with a sound chain—from Abu Umama b. Sahl…