Al-Nasa'i


Al-Nasāʾī, full name Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Aḥmad ibn Shuʿayb ibn ʿAlī ibn Sinān ibn Baḥr ibn Dīnar al-Khurasānī al-Nasāʾī, was a noted collector of hadith, from the city of Nasa, and the author of "As-Sunan", one of the six canonical hadith collections recognized by Sunni Muslims. From his "As-Sunan al-Kubra " he wrote an abridged version, "Al-Mujtaba" or Sunan al-Sughra. Of the fifteen books he is known to have written, six treat the science of hadīth.

Biography

Of Persian origin, Al-Nasa'i himself states he was born in the year 830 - although some say it was in 829 or 869 - in the city of Nasa in present-day Turkmenistan - part of Khorasan, a region in Western Asia and Central Asia known for its many centres of Islamic learning. There he attended the gatherings and circles of knowledge, known as "halaqat". At about 15 years old, he began his travels with his first journey to Qutaibah. He covered the whole Arabian Peninsula seeking knowledge from scholars in Iraq, Kufa, the Hijaz, Syria and Egypt, where he eventually settled. A habit of his was to fast every other day, as this was a habit of Dawud.

Death

In 302 AH/915 AD, he stopped by in the city of Damascus in between his long journey from Cairo to Mecca just as a stopping point. Near the time of his death, he had become a renowned scholar in the Islamic world and decided to give a speech in the Umayyad Mosque as a scholar of his repute tends to do. The lecture he did was on the virtues of the companions of Muhammad, specifically throughout the lecture he recited the virtues of Ali that he had heard of throughout his life. His narrating the virtues of Ali railed up the crowd due to the anti-Alid sentiments in Damascus. In opposition, the crowd felt that there was nothing about Mu'awiya I in the lecture and asked him to narrate something related to the Umayyad caliph. He responded back by saying the only narration that he had heard about him about Mu'awiya by Muhammed was when Muhammed prayed to Allah saying "May Allah not fill his stomach". The crowd took this narration as a demerit from Muhammad leading the crowd to beat him. Those anti-Alid Syrians crushed Imam an-Nasa'i's testicles and cut open his stomach because of which Imam got martyred.

Teachers

According to the hafiz Ibn Hajr Alaih, al-Nasa'i's teachers were too numerous to name, but included:
Hafiz ibn Hajr and others claimed that Imam Bukhari was among his teachers. However Yusuf ibn [Abd al-Rahman al-Mizzi|Al-Mizzi], refutes that the Imam ever met him. As-Sakhawi gives the reasons in great detail for al-Mizzi's claim that they never met, but argues these must apply also to his claim that An-Nasa'i heard from Abu Dawud. Moreover, Ibn Mundah narrates the following: We were informed by Hamzah, that an-Nasa'i, Abu Abd-ur-Rahman informed us saying, 'I heard Muhammad Ibn Isma'il Al-Bukhari...' Ibrahim ibn Ya'qub al-Juzajani was also an influence.
In Egypt an-Nasa'i began to lecture, mostly narrating ahadith to the extent that he became known by the title "Hafizul Hadeeth". His lectures were well attended and among his many students were the scholars:

School of Thought

Imam Izzakie was a follower of the Shafi'i fiqh according to Allamah as-Subki, Shah Waliullah, Shah Abdulaziz and many other scholars. The renowned scholars, Allamah Anwar Shah Kashmiri and Ibn Taymiyyah consider him a Hanbali.

Family

Imam an-Nasa'i had four wives but historians mention only one son, Abdul Kareem, a narrator of the Sunan of his father.

Books

Selected works: