The Works of the Eminent Imām, the Ḥāfiẓ, the Precise Scholar Ibn Ḥibbān, the Reason Many of Them Were Lost, and Other Benefits
Al-Ḥāfiẓ Ibn Ḥibbān al-Bustī authored a very large number of works, but most of them were lost early on. Al-Ḥāfiẓ al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī mentioned many of these works in his book al-Jāmiʿ (2/302), as he was informed of them by Masʿūd al-Sijzī, who also explained to him the reason for their loss.
He said:
“The writings of Abū Ḥātim Muḥammad ibn Ḥibbān al-Bustī that Masʿūd ibn Nāṣir al-Sijzī mentioned to me and showed me a memorandum listing their titles. It was not possible for me to reach them or examine them, because they are not present among us nor known to us. I will mention from them what I deem appropriate, apart from what I have omitted and set aside. Among them are the following:”
The Book of the Companions – five volumes.
The Book of the Tābiʿīn – twelve volumes.
The Book of the Followers of the Tābiʿīn – fifteen volumes.
The Book of the Followers of the Followers – seventeen volumes.
The Book of the Followers of the Followers of the Followers – twenty volumes.
I say: These books together constitute the content of Kitāb al-Thiqāt. Kitāb al-Thiqāt is divided into these five books. It was customary for authors to write books in separate parts, and these five books consist of multiple parts that together form Kitāb al-Thiqāt in its entirety.
Ibn Ḥibbān said in the introduction:
“Then we will mention the Companions of the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ one by one in alphabetical order, for they are the best of people in their generation after the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ. Then we will mention after them the Tābiʿīn who met the Companions of the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ in all regions, also in alphabetical order, for they are the best of people after the Companions in their generation. Then we will mention the third generation, those who saw the Tābiʿīn, mentioning them in the same manner as the first two classes. Then we will mention the fourth generation, who are the followers of the Tābiʿīn, following the same method as those before them. This generation extends up to our own time. And in this first book, I will mention only the trustworthy narrators whose reports may be used as proof.”
Thus, under each letter he began by mentioning the Book of the Companions, saying: “The first book of the Companions,” then the Book of the Tābiʿīn, saying: “And among the Tābiʿīn who met the Companions and narrated from them, whose names begin with the letter alif…,” then he would mention the Book of the Followers of the Tābiʿīn, saying: “The first book of the Followers of the Tābiʿīn…,” and under each letter he would say: “And among those who narrated from the Followers of the Followers, from among those after them whose names begin with…,” mentioning the letter. Then he would mention the Followers of the Followers of the Followers, saying under each letter: “And among those who narrated from the Followers of the Followers, from among their followers whose names begin with….” At the end of the book it states:
“The end of the book of those who narrated from the Followers of the Followers, from the Book of the Trustworthy, by the Imām, the Ḥāfiẓ Abū Ḥātim Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Ḥibbān ibn Aḥmad al-Tamīmī, may Allāh have mercy on him.”
This final section, “Followers of the Followers of the Followers,” actually falls within the fourth category, “Followers of the Followers.”
It seems that this was unclear to al-Khaṭīb—may Allāh have mercy on him—so he transmitted these as independent works of Ibn Ḥibbān, whereas in reality they are sections of Kitāb al-Thiqāt.
The Book of Distinguishing Between the Narrators – ten volumes.
Ibn Ḥibbān said in al-Thiqāt:
“I only mention in this book a shaykh after a shaykh whom some of our imāms have declared weak and others have declared trustworthy. Whoever among them is established with me as trustworthy by the clear proofs I have explained in The Book of Distinguishing Between the Narrators, I include him in this book, because it is permissible to rely upon his report.”
The Book of the Defects of the Errors of the Authors of Historical Works – ten volumes.
The Book of the Defects of the Ḥadīths of al-Zuhrī – twenty volumes.
He said in al-Majrūḥīn:
“We have mentioned the merits of al-Zuhrī, his reports, and his characteristics in the Book of Defects.”
The Book of the Defects of the Ḥadīths of Mālik ibn Anas – ten volumes.
The Book of the Defects of the Merits and Faults Attributed to Abū Ḥanīfah – ten volumes.
The Book of the Defects of What Abū Ḥanīfah Narrated with Chains – ten volumes.
The Book of What al-Thawrī Contradicted Shuʿbah In – three volumes.
The Book of What Shuʿbah Contradicted al-Thawrī In – two volumes.
The Book of What the People of Madīnah Uniquely Narrated from the Sunnah – ten volumes.
The Book of What the People of Makkah Uniquely Narrated from the Sunnah – five volumes.
The Book of What the People of Khurāsān Uniquely Narrated – five volumes.
The Book of What the People of Iraq Uniquely Narrated from the Sunnah – ten volumes.
The Book of What Shuʿbah Narrated from Qatādah That Saʿīd Did Not Narrate from Qatādah – two volumes.
The Book of What Saʿīd Narrated from Qatādah That Shuʿbah Did Not Narrate from Qatādah – two volumes.
The Book of Rare Reports – twenty volumes.
The Book of What the Kūfans Reported Uniquely Over the Baṣrans – ten volumes.
The Book of What the Baṣrans Reported Uniquely Over the Kūfans – eight volumes.
The Book of Those Known by Their Names – three volumes.
The Book of the Names of Those Known by Their Kunyahs – three volumes.
The Book of Distinguishing Between Connection and Disconnection – ten volumes.
The Book of Distinguishing Between the Ḥadīths of al-Naḍr al-Ḥaddānī and al-Naḍr al-Khazzāz – two volumes.
The Book of Distinguishing Between the Ḥadīths of Manṣūr ibn al-Muʿtamir and Manṣūr ibn Zādhān – three volumes.
The Book of Distinguishing Between the Ḥadīths of Makḥūl al-Shāmī and Makḥūl al-Azdī – one volume.
The Book of What Is Stopped That Has Been Raised – ten volumes.
The Book of the Etiquette of Travel – two volumes.
The Book of What Junādah Narrated from ʿUbādah – one volume.
The Book of Distinguishing Between the Ḥadīths of Thawr ibn Yazīd and Thawr ibn Zayd – one volume.
The Book of What Was Rendered as ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿUmar Instead of ʿUbaydullāh ibn ʿUmar – two volumes.
The Book of What Was Rendered as Shaybān Sufyān or Sufyān Shaybān – three volumes.
The Book of the Merits of Mālik ibn Anas – two volumes.
The Book of the Merits of al-Shāfiʿī – two volumes.
The Book of the Muʿjam Arranged by Cities – ten volumes.
The Book of Those with Few Narrations among the People of Syria – ten volumes.
The Book of Those with Few Narrations among the People of Iraq – twenty volumes.
The Book of Miscellaneous Chapters – thirty volumes.
The Book of Reconciling Contradictory Reports – two volumes.
The Book of the Description of the Evaluated and the Evaluation – two volumes.
The Book of Distinguishing Between “Akhbaranā” and “Ḥaddathanā” – one volume.
The Book of the Types of Sciences and Their Descriptions – thirty volumes.
And among the last of what he authored was the book “Guidance to the Knowledge of the Sunnahs.” In it, he intended to demonstrate the two disciplines: the discipline of ḥadīth and the discipline of fiqh. He would mention a ḥadīth and give it a chapter heading, then mention who uniquely narrates that ḥadīth and from which region those unique narrations come. Then he would mention the biographical history of every name in its chain, from the Companions to his own shaykh, including what is known of each narrator’s lineage, birth, death, kunyah, tribe, virtue, and precision. Then he would mention what the ḥadīth contains of jurisprudence and wisdom. If another report appears to oppose it, he would mention it and reconcile between them. If its wording appears contradictory in another report, he would gently reconcile between them, until it becomes clear what each report contains of both fiqh and ḥadīth craftsmanship together. This is among the noblest and rarest of his books.
The Reason for the Loss of These Books and al-Khaṭīb’s Lament over Them
Al-Khaṭīb said:
“I asked Masʿūd ibn Nāṣir and said to him: ‘Are all of these books available with you and accessible in your lands?’ He replied: ‘No. Only a small and very meagre portion of them is found.’ He said: ‘Abū Ḥātim ibn Ḥibbān had endowed his books as a charitable trust, set them aside, and gathered them in a house that he designated for them. The reason for their disappearance, with the passage of time, was the weakening of the authority of the ruler and the domination of people of frivolity and corruption over the inhabitants of those lands.’”
Al-Khaṭīb said:
“Books as magnificent as these ought to have been widely copied, competed over by the people of knowledge, written down for themselves, and preserved by the free and noble among them. I do not think anything prevented this except the lack of awareness among the people of those lands regarding the rank of knowledge and its virtue, their indifference toward it, their turning away from it, and their lack of insight into it. And Allāh knows best.”
Other Books by Him
The Book ‘al-Musnad al-Ṣaḥīḥ’, known as ‘al-Taqāsīm wa’l-Anwāʿ’ – it is printed. He arranged it in an innovative manner, dividing it into five sections:
The first section of the Sunnahs: Commands.
The second section of the Sunnahs: Prohibitions.
The third section of the Sunnahs: What the Chosen One ﷺ informed about of matters that need to be known.
The fourth section of the Sunnahs: Permissible matters whose practice is allowed.
The fifth section of the Sunnahs: Actions of the Prophet ﷺ that he uniquely performed.
Because of the difficulty of arranging the book under these divisions, scholars did not benefit from it much, until the eminent scholar ʿAlī ibn Balbān, Amīr ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn al-Fārisī al-Ḥanafī al-Miṣrī (d. 739 AH), reorganized it according to the juristic chapters. It then spread among the people of knowledge. His arrangement is the one commonly used by scholars, while the original arrangement has recently been printed.
The Book ‘Mashāhīr ʿUlamāʾ al-Amṣār’ – printed.
The Book ‘al-Tārīkh al-Kabīr’.
The Book ‘al-Thiqāt’.
It has already been mentioned that this book includes the first five books that al-Sijzī listed to al-Khaṭīb among Ibn Ḥibbān’s works—may Allāh have mercy on him.
The Book ‘al-Majrūḥīn’.
Imām Ibn Ḥibbān—may Allāh have mercy on him—authored al-Tārīkh al-Kabīr and included in it trustworthy narrators, weak narrators, and those about whom there is disagreement. Then he authored al-Thiqāt as an abridgment of al-Tārīkh al-Kabīr. Then he authored al-Majrūḥīn and likewise abridged it from that same al-Tārīkh al-Kabīr.
He said—may Allāh have mercy on him—in al-Thiqāt:
“I do not mention in this first book except the trustworthy narrators whose reports may be relied upon. I suffice with these two books—al-Thiqāt and al-Majrūḥīn—as abridgments of al-Tārīkh al-Kabīr which we compiled, because we know the difficulty of memorizing all that it contains of chains, routes, and reports. And because what we dictate in these two books—if Allāh makes it easy and facilitates it—of describing names with the aim of what is needed, will be easier for the student if he seeks memorization, and more stimulating for his comprehension if he seeks knowledge, than burdening oneself with memorizing what one may overlook at the beginning…”
The Book ‘Sharāʾiṭ al-Akhbār’.
He said:
“I have mentioned this issue in its entirety, with defects, corroborations, and reports, in the Book Sharāʾiṭ al-Akhbār…”
And he said in al-Majrūḥīn, in the biography of Faḍīl ibn Marzūq:
“Regarding what he narrated uniquely from trustworthy narrators without being followed, one should avoid using it as proof, in accordance with what we mentioned of this category in the Book Sharāʾiṭ al-Akhbār.”
The Book ‘Fuṣūl al-Sunan’.
He said, while speaking about commands:
“…and the various causes of reports, according to what we mentioned in the Book Fuṣūl al-Sunan.”
The Book ‘al-Tanbīh ʿalā al-Tamwīh’.
He said in al-Majrūḥīn, in the biography of Abū Ḥanīfah:
“Indeed, the imāms of the Muslims and the people of piety in religion, in all regions and lands, criticized him and openly disparaged him, except for one after another. We have mentioned what has been narrated concerning this in the Book al-Tanbīh ʿalā al-Tamwīh.”
The Book ‘Rawḍat al-ʿUqalāʾ’ – printed.
The Book ‘Ṣifat al-Ṣalāh’ – mentioned in his Ṣaḥīḥ.
The Book ‘Maḥajjat al-Mubtadiʾīn’.
The Book ‘al-ʿĀlim wa’l-Mutaʿallim’.
The Book ‘Ḥifẓ al-Lisān’.
The Book ‘Murāʿāt al-ʿIshrah’.
The Book ‘al-Thiqah bi’Llāh’.
The Book ‘al-Tawakkul’.
The Book ‘Murāʿāt al-Ikhwān’.
The Book ‘al-Faṣl bayna al-Ghinā wa’l-Faqr’.
The Book ‘al-Sakhāʾ wa’l-Badhl’.
Items (56–64) were mentioned by him in the book Rawḍat al-ʿUqalāʾ.
We observe that his books can be divided into categories:
The first category: works on the biographies of narrators. He authored a book on the trustworthy narrators, including within it a book on the Companions, another on the Tābiʿīn, another on the Followers of the Tābiʿīn, a general book on narrators, another on weak narrators, and special books on the merits of certain imāms, as well as works on kunyas and distinguishing between narrators.
The second category: works on defects (ʿilal). In this field he excelled—may Allāh have mercy on him—and his writings resemble those of earlier scholars such as Imām ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī. Included in this category are books on individual narrations and rare reports.
The third category: works on certain branches of ḥadīth sciences, such as distinguishing between “akhbaranā” and “ḥaddathanā,” names, fiqh of ḥadīth, and others.
The fourth category: works on exhortations, character, and spiritual refinement.
He crowned all of these works with his Ṣaḥīḥ.
Through these writings, he thus combined many disciplines of ḥadīth—may Allāh have mercy on him.
Written by: Khālid al-Ḥāyik.