Errors by Ibn Ḥibbān!
Ibn Ḥibbān said in the section on the Tābiʿūn in Kitāb al-Thiqāt (5/249):
“Al-ʿAlāʾ ibn ʿAmmār ibn Yāsir: he narrates from his father; his son Muʿādh ibn al-ʿAlāʾ narrates from him.”
I say: This is a slip of the pen on his part—may Allāh have mercy on him. ʿAmmār, the father of al-ʿAlāʾ, is not the son of the well-known Companion Yāsir. ʿAmmār ibn Yāsir is a client (mawlā) of Banū Makhzūm, whereas this ʿAmmār, the father of al-ʿAlāʾ, is a Māzinī.
He also erred by repeating him among the Followers of the Tābiʿūn (7/268), whereas the correct position is that he should be counted among the Tābiʿūn.
He said among the Followers of the Tābiʿūn:
“Al-ʿAlāʾ ibn ʿAmmār ibn Ḥuṣayn ibn Jalham, the father of Abū ʿAmr ibn al-ʿAlāʾ: he narrates from his father; his son Muʿādh ibn al-ʿAlāʾ narrates from him. He was among the most perceptive people of his time; he is counted among the people of Baṣra.”
He mentioned his son Muʿādh among the Followers of the Tābiʿūn—and that is correct—so how could he also mention the father among the Followers of the Tābiʿūn? This, then, is an error on his part—may Allāh have mercy on him.
Al-Muʿallimī—may Allāh have mercy on him—commented on the second passage (7/268), saying:
“If this is not al-ʿAlāʾ ibn ʿAmmār ibn Yāsir who narrates from his father and whose son Muʿādh narrates from him—and whom the author mentioned among the Tābiʿūn—then we do not know who he is.”
I say: It is the same person, but perhaps he did not state this definitively due to the variation in the name—“ibn Yāsir.” Imām al-Muʿallimī did not notice that this was an error in the name.
Al-Bukhārī said in al-Tārīkh al-Kabīr (6/512):
“Al-ʿAlāʾ ibn ʿAmmār, from his father; his son Muʿādh narrates from him.”
Ibn Abī Ḥātim said in al-Jarḥ wa al-Taʿdīl (6/359):
“Al-ʿAlāʾ ibn ʿAmmār: he narrates from his father; his son Muʿādh ibn al-ʿAlāʾ ibn ʿAmmār narrates from him. I heard my father say this.”
Al-Bukhārī said in al-Tārīkh al-Kabīr (7/30):
“ʿAmmār. Makhlad said: ʿAbd al-Wāḥid ibn Wāṣil informed us, from Muʿādh ibn al-ʿAlāʾ, from his grandfather, who said: ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib said: ‘Successful indeed is the one who has a qawṣarah from which he eats once each day.’”
Ibn Ḥibbān said in the section on the Followers of the Tābiʿūn in Kitāb al-Thiqāt (7/482):
“Muʿādh ibn al-ʿAlāʾ ibn ʿAmmār, the brother of Abū ʿAmr ibn al-ʿAlāʾ: he narrates from Nāfiʿ and Saʿīd ibn Jubayr; Abū ʿUbaydah al-Ḥaddād and Wakīʿ narrate from him. His kunyah is Abū Ghassān.”
And he said in Mashāhīr ʿUlamāʾ al-Amṣār (p. 153):
“Abū ʿAmr ibn al-ʿAlāʾ—his name is Zabbān ibn al-ʿAlāʾ ibn ʿAmmār ibn al-ʿUryān ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ḥuṣayn ibn al-Ḥārith ibn Jalhamah ibn Ḥujr ibn Khuzāʿī ibn Māzin. They were four brothers: Abū ʿAmr, Abū Sufyān, Muʿādh, and ʿUmar. The eldest was Abū ʿAmr, then Abū Sufyān, then Muʿādh, then ʿUmar. Abū ʿAmr was among the virtuous, devoted to literature and Qurʾānic recitation until he became an authority to whom people referred and whose choices they followed. He died in the year 146 AH in Baṣra.”
I say: Thus, the grandfather ʿAmmār was among the senior Tābiʿūn; his son al-ʿAlāʾ was among the Tābiʿūn; and his four sons were among the Followers of the Tābiʿūn. All of them are trustworthy—may Allāh have mercy on them all.
Written by: Khālid al-Ḥāyik
19/1/2011