Abu Hatim, Muhammad ibn Idris al-Razi (811–890) was a notable hadith scholar and Athari theologian^[1] born in Ray. He is the father of Ibn Abi Hatim.^{[3] [4]}

Life

His full name is Abū Ḥātim Muḥammad ibn Idrīs ibn al-Mundhir ibn Dāwūd ibn Mihrān al-Rāzī al-Ḥanẓalī al-Ghaṭafānī. Some sources suggest that he was originally from Isfahan and was a mawla of the Ghatafan tribe. Other sources suggest that he acquired his nisbat from a street of Ray called "Darb Ḥanẓalah". He died on the month of Sha’bân in the year 277H/11-12.890 CE.^{[5] [6]}

His teachers of Hadith

The better known [narrators] he narrated from:

• He narrated from many, such that al-Khalili said, “Abu Hatim al-Labban al-Ḥāfiẓ said to me, ‘I had gathered [those] who Abu Hatim ar-Razi narrated from; they reached close to 3,000.’”^[5]

From the better known of them are:

• Abū Nuʿaym al-Faḍl ibn Dukayn
• Zuhayr ibn ʿAbbād
• Yaḥyá ibn Bukayr
• ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Mūsá
• Ādam ibn Abī Iyās
• `Abd Allāh ibn Ṣāliḥ al-ʿIjlī
• ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṣāliḥ al-Kātib
• Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Anṣārī

Qabīṣah

Some of his early students

The better known narrators [who narrated] from him:

• Abū Zurʿah al-Rāzī
• Yūnus ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlá
• Abū Bakr ibn Abī al-Dunyā
• Mūsá ibn Isḥāq al-Anṣārī
• Abū Dāwūd
• Al-Nasāʾī
• Abū ʿAwānah al-Isfarāʾinī
• Abū al-Ḥasan al-Qaṭṭān
• Abū Bishr al-Dūlābī

Praise

The Scholars’ and Imams’ commendation of him:

• Abū Zur’ah told Abū Ḥātim, “I have not seen [anyone] more intent on seeking the hadîth than you.”
• Yūnus ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlá said, “Abu Zur’ah and Abū Hâtim are the two Imams of Khurasan.” He supplicated for them both and said, “Their continuance is an improvement for the Muslims.”
• ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Ḥātim said, “I heard Mūsâ bin Is·hâq al-Qâdî saying, ‘I have not seen [anyone] who memorized more hadith than your father,’ and he had met Abū Bakr Ibn Abi Shaybah, Ibn Numayr, Yahya ibn Ma'in, and Yahya al-Himmani.”
• Ahmad ibn Salamah an-Naisâbūrî said, “I have not seen after Ishaq and Muhammad ibn Yahya [anyone] more preserving of the hadîth or more knowledgeable of its meanings than Abi Hatim ar-Razi.”
• Uthman ibn Khurrazad said, “The most preserving of those I saw are four: Muhammad ibn al-Minhal ad-Darir, Ibrâhîm ibn ‘Ar’arah, Abu Zur’ah ar-Razi, and Abu Hatim.”
• Al-Khalili said, Abū Hâtim was a scholar of the Companions’ differences [of opinion] and the jurisprudence of the Followers and [those] after them. I heard my grandfather and a group [who] heard ‘Ali ibn Ibrahim al-Qattan saying, “I have not seen the like of Abu Hatim.” So we told him, “[But] you had seen Ibrâhîm al-Harbî and Isma’il al-Qadi.” He said, “I have not seen [anyone] more complete or more virtuous than Abu Hatim.”
• Abu al-Qasim al-Lalaka’i said, “Abū Hâtim was an imam, a ḥāfiẓ, a verifier.”
• Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi said, “Abū Hâtim was one of the credible, ḥāfiẓ imams.”
• Al-Dhahabi said, “He was among the oceans of knowledge. He travelled about the countries and excelled in the text and the chain [of transmission]. He gathered and compiled, disparaged and accredited, authenticated and deemed defective.” He said, “He was one of the notables and from the formidable imams of the People of the Relic … he was a neighbour in the arena of his comrade and relative, the ḥāfiẓ Abu Zur’ah.” ^[7]

Jonathan A. C. Brown identifies him as one of the three most important hadith critics of his generation, alongside al-Bukhārī and Abū Zurʿah al-Rāzī (Hadith, 81).