Atiyah bin Saad Al Awu’fi – An Oppressed Narrator

We have seen always that whenever Ahl ul Sunnah see any narration against their faith they either weaken its narrators or attribute lies to him so as to devalue all his narrations. One such Narrator is ” Atiyah bin Saad “. He has been declared Reliable by Majority of the Sunni scholars of Hadith.

1- Imam Yahya ibn Ma’eem :

“D’awri said that he heard Yahya ibn Maeen saying : Atiyah Al Awu’fi. He is Atiyah Al Jadli. I asked Yahya about his Narrations : He replied : Good. “

Sunni Reference :

Tarikh Ibn Ma’een // Vol 1 // Page 285 // Number 2446 // Edn. Dar ul Kutub ilmiyyah Beriut.

2 – Imam Muhammad bin Saad :

“He says about him : Reliable. By the will of Allah. His Narrations are good. There were some people who used not to take from him. “

Sunni Reference :

Tabqaat – Ibn Saad // Vol 7-8 // Page 313 // Edn. Dar Ibn Jawzi Cairo.

3 – Imam Abu Zurr’ah Razi :

“He says about him : He was from Kūfa. Slight Weakness [لین] -( A term used for Reliable Narrator having slight weakness.)”

Sunni Reference :

Kitab Jarah was Tadeel – Ibn Abi Hatim Razi // Vol 6 // Page 304 // Edn. Dar ul Fikr Beriut.

4 – Imam Ibn Hajr Asqalani says about him :

“He is Truthfull. Used to make a lot of Mistakes. He was a Shia and Mudalis. “

Sunni Reference :

Taqreeb u Tahdeeb – Ibn Hajr // Page 423 // Number 4616 // Edn. Dar Minhaj Riyadh.

5 – Imam Tirmidhi :

He took his Narrations in his Jam’a Tirmidhi and then said : This Narration is Good.

Sunni Reference :

Jam’a Tirmidhi – Imam Abu Essa Tirmidhi // Page 190 // Hadith 551 // Edn. Dar u Salam Riyadh.

6 – Imam Ibn Khuzaima :

He took his Narrations in his Book of Authentic Narrations.

Sunni Reference :

Sahih Ibn Khuzaima – Ibn Khuzaima (Arabic/Urdu) // Vol 2 // Page 192 // Edn. Dar ul ilm Mumbai.

7 – Imam Hakim Neysaburi :

He tool his Narrations in his bool collected on the Authentic Criteria of Imam Bukhari and Imam Muslim.

Sunni Reference :

Mustradak Ala Sahihain – Imam Hakim Neysaburi // Vol 2 // Page 291 // Hadith 3048 // Edn. Dar ul Kutub ilmiyyah Beriut.

Besides these Imam Ijli, Ibn Shaheen, Imam Saaji has declared him Reliable.

While a group like Ahmad bin Hanbal, Imam Nasa’i, Jawzajani [ Who himself was Nasibi and harsh critic of Scholars of Kufa] etc have weaken him without any reason. Their Criticism without any Reason can’t be accepted when Majority of the Scholars have deemed him reliable.

There are mainly two types of Criticism on him :

• He used to do Tadlees [ An act done to hide the defects in ones Tradition]…
• He was a Shi’a.

🔔Tadlees of Atiyah :

Many Scholars have declared him Mudalis like Ibn Hajr in Nuqat Ala Muqadma by Ibn Salah. He put him in group one to which he included those who although were truthfull but were associated with Tadlees.

Sunni Reference :

Nuqt Ala Muqadma Ibn Salah – Ibn Hajr // Page 259 // Edn. Dar ul Kutub ilmiyyah Beriut.

Note : This book Nuqt Ala Ibn Salah is last book of Ibn Hajr Asqalani means even in his last days Ibn Hajr used to deem Atiyah as a Truthfull Narrator.

Let us see now the source of this allegation of Tadlees.

“Imam Abdullah bin Ahmad narrates from his father Ahmad bin Hanbal that it has reached him that Atiyah used to go to Kalbi. He took from his Tafsir. He used to call him Abu Saeed and say : Abu Saeed said…..

Also narrated by Abdullah bin Ahmad bin Hanbal via his own chain from Sufyan Thawari that Kalbi told him that Atiyah used to call him ” Abu Saeed”.”

Sunni Reference :

Kitab ilal by Abdullah bin Ahmad bin Hanbal // Vol 1 // Page 548 – 549 // Number 1306, 1307 // Edn. Dar ul Qabus Riyadh.

Imam Uqayli also quoted these two quotes from Ahmad bin Hambal and Sufyan Thawri in Kitab Dhufa AlKabeer.

Sunni Reference :

Kitab Dhoufa AlKabeer – Imam Uqayli // Vol 3 // Page 359 // Edn. Dar ul Kutub ilmiyyah Beriut.

Same is quoted by Ibn Hajr in Tahdeeb ul Tahdeeb to prove his Tadlees.

Sunni Reference :

Tahdeeb u Tahdeeb – Ibn Hajr Asqalani // Vol 2 // Page 114 // Edn. Risalah Alamiyyah Damascus.

We say : Imam Ahmad hasn’t given the source from where he got that Atiyah used to call Kalbi with same Kuniyyah as that of Abu Saeed AlKhudri. Rather he used a dubious term [بلغنی]. So this can never be relied upon against Atiyah.

About the quote of Sufyan ibn Yazid Thawri which he took from Kalbi. How can this be used as an evidence against Atiyah when Kalbi himself was a Lair.

Imam Dahabhi says about him :

“Muhammad bin Sa’ib AlKalbi. Kufi. Abu Nadhar. From Shab’e. His narrations are to be left. Suleiman Tamimi, Zaiydah, Ibn Ma’een called him Liar. Ibn Qatan and Abdur Rahman Mahdi left his narrations.”

Sunni Reference :

Mugni fi Dhoufa – Imam Dahabhi // Vol 2 // Page 305 // Number 5545 // Edn. Dar ul Kutub ilmiyyah Beriut.

Iman Ibn Rajab Hanbali also refuted the claim about Tadlees of Atiyah by the same aforementioned argument.

Sunni Reference :

Sharah u ilal – Ibn Rajab Hanbali // Vol 2 // Page 690 – 691 // Edn. Dar u Salam Cairo.

So all what has been said about Atiyah regarding Tadlees is because of these two fabricated quotes. This surely is a Oppression that we use a fabricated quote against someone.

About this type of Tadlees even Imam Bukhari did this about Kalbi in one of his book. He called Muhammad bin Sa’ib Kalbi as Muhammad bin Bishr to confused readers that this may be some Reliable one.

Sunni Reference :

Lisan ul Mizan – Ibn Hajr // Vol 5 // Page 101 // Edn. Dar ul Kutub ilmiyyah Beriut.

🔔Tashayyu of Atiyah.

He has been called Shi’a only because of one thing that he used not to abuse Ali ibn Abi Talib (as) as is quoted by Ibn Saad in Tabqaat otherwise there is nothing Shi’a in him. Also Shi’a in the Science of Rijal means the one who gives Preference to Ali ibn abi Talib over Uthman while accepting the Caliphate of Abu Bakr and Umar. Ibn Hajr Asqalani says in preface of his commentary of Sahih Bukhari like this :

“Shi’ism [Tashayyu] is loving Ali and giving him prefrence over other Companions. Those who give him preference over Abu Bakr and Umar are Exaggerated in Shi’aism [Ghaal fi Tashayyu] and Rafidhi is also used for him.”

Sunni Reference :

Hadiyah Saari ( Muqadma Fath ul Baari) – Ibn Hajr Asqlani – Edited by bin Baaz // Page 640 // Edn. Deoband

Also Atiyah has narrated virtues of Abu Bakr in Sunni Books. How can a Shi’a [Rafidhi] quote any narration in praise of Abu Bakr. Here is his Narration about Praise of Abu Bakr narrated by Abu Na’eem Asfahani in his book Tarikh Asfahan.

Sunni Reference :

Dhikr Akhbaar Asfahan / Tarikh Asfahan – Abu Na’eem Asfahani // Vol 2 // Page 188 // Edn. Dar Ilmiyah Delhi.

Hence it is proven beyond any doubt that Tashayyu in him was same as found in Majority of the Sunni Scholars of Kufa [Claiming Ali superior to Uthman only]…

Narrated by Abdullah bin Ahmad bin Hanbal from his father who said :

” All People ( Scholars) of Kufa deem Ali to be superior than Uthman except Talha bin Musraf and Abdullah bin Idress. I asked him about Zubayd [ bin Harith]. He replied : He used to Love Ali meaning giving Superiority to Ali over Uthman. “

Sunni Reference :

Kitab ilal was AlMarefa Rijal – Imam Ahmad bin Hanbal // Vol 2 // Page 535 // Edn. Dar ul Qabus.

Now comming to the lone Criticism of Ibn Hajr in his Taqreeb that ” He used to make a lot of Mistakes “.

We say : Mistakes are proven when his narrations are compared with that of other more Reliable narrators from the same teacher he is narrating. Only then one can claim that he has made mistake in this narration. also Ibn Hajr is alone in this Criticism. No one from the past made such huge claim about him. This surely is a mistake from Ibn Hajr Himself.

🔔Now for our Hanafi friends. Their Imam Abu Hanifa used to take narrations from Atiyah bin Saad AlAwu’fi.

Sunni Reference :

Manaqib Imam Abu Hanifa – Imam Dahabhi // Page 15 // Edn. Maktaba Bushra Lahore.

And as per them Iman Abu Hanifa was very strict in taking Narrations from anyone. Their own scholar Abdul Majeed Turkemani quoted Ibn Khaldun as follows :

“And from Imam Abu Hanifa less Traditions have been narrated due to strict criteria in taking Narrations.”

Sunni Reference :

Darasat Usūl e Hadeeth Ala Manhaj Hanafiyyah – Abdul Majeed Turkemani // Page 374 // Edn. Dar ibn Kathir Damascus.

So when he was so strict in taking Narrations how can he take Narrations from Atiyah if he would have been weak.

So from above discussion Al Hamdulillah we have proven that Majority of the Scholars of Hadeeth have declared him Reliable. He is free from Tadlees and His Tashayyu is minimal and will never affect his Narrations.