A Precious Benefit from the Book of Ibn Abī Ḥātim in Which He Mentioned a Biography from Imām al-Bukhārī’s al-Tārīkh al-Kabīr—and It Is Not Found in Any Copy!

Al-Bukhārī said:

“Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Qushayrī: narrated from ʿUbaydullāh ibn ʿUmar, from Nāfiʿ, from Ibn ʿUmar, from the Prophet ﷺ: ‘Whoever suffers hardship from fasting and does not break it, the Fire becomes binding upon him.’ [This ḥadīth] was narrated from him by Baqiyyah.”

This biography was mentioned by Ibn Abī Ḥātim in al-Jarḥ waʾt-Taʿdīl (7/325) (1752) in the biography of: “Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Maqdisī al-Qushayrī.”

He said:

“He used to reside in Bayt al-Maqdis. He narrated from Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad, Ḥumayd aṭ-Ṭawīl, Khālid al-Ḥaḏḏāʾ, ʿUbaydullāh ibn ʿUmar, and Faṭr ibn Khalīfah. Narrated from him: Abū Ḍumrah, Baqiyyah, Abū Badr Shujāʿ ibn al-Walīd, and Sulaymān ibn Sharḥabīl. I heard my father say—when I asked him about him—: ‘Abandoned in ḥadīth, he used to lie and fabricate ḥadīth.’

And al-Bukhārī singled him out by name:
[Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Qushayrī: narrated from ʿUbaydullāh ibn ʿUmar, from Nāfiʿ, from Ibn ʿUmar, from the Prophet ﷺ: ‘Whoever suffers hardship from fasting and does not break it, the Fire becomes binding upon him.’ Narrated from him by Baqiyyah.]

ʿAbd al-Raḥmān said: “I heard my father say: ‘He is Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Maqdisī; they are one and the same.’”

ʿAbd al-Raḥmān said: “I heard my father say: ‘He is this very Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, an Iraqi shaykh who came to Shām. Ibn Sharḥabīl and others narrated from him.’” End quote.

I say: The biography which Ibn Abī Ḥātim transmitted from al-Bukhārī does not exist in the printed copies of al-Tārīkh al-Kabīr, nor did any of those who edited the book point to it. Originally, it should have been in the section which Ibn Abī Ḥātim compiled from his father and Abū Zurʿah regarding al-Bukhārī’s errors in his Tārīkh. For Abū Ḥātim indicates that al-Bukhārī, in his biography, mentioned Baqiyyah narrating from him—as though he distinguished between him and al-Maqdisī, even though they are one. Yet this is not found in that section.

And Ibn Ḥajar transmitted in al-Lisān (7/287), in the biography of “Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Qushayrī al-Kūfī”, this same thing from al-Bukhārī, and he said that the one from whom Baqiyyah narrated was al-Qushayrī.

And what Abū Ḥātim held—that they are one and the same—is the correct view, in shāʾ Allāh. For he was Kūfī, and everyone he narrated from was of its people. Then he went down to Shām, and Baqiyyah narrated from him. And it seems that due to his lying, his ḥadīth did not spread; the majority of those who narrated from him were Baqiyyah, and Baqiyyah was fond of narrating from the weak and concealing them so they would not be recognized. For this reason, the people of knowledge distinguished between the two.

And it seems that al-Bukhārī—may Allah have mercy on him—deleted this biography from his book, for it is unlikely that Ibn Abī Ḥātim would have erred in attributing it to him! And Allah the Exalted knows best.

Written by: Khālid al-Ḥāyik