Ibn Abī Shaybah or Imām Abū Bakr Ibn Abī Shaybah or Abū Bakr ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad Ibn Abī Shaybah Ibrāhīm ibn ʿUthmān al-ʿAbasī al-Kūfī (

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

: امام أبو بكر عبد الله بن محمد بن أبي شيبة إبراهيم بن عثمان العبسي الكوفي) (159H – 235H) was an early Muslim scholar of

hadith Ḥadīth ( or ; ar, حديث, , , , , , , literally "talk" or "discourse") or Athar ( ar, أثر, , literally "remnant"/"effect") refers to what the majority of Muslims believe to be a record of the words, actions, and the silent approva ...

. He authored a

musannaf Musannaf hadīth collections are defined by their arrangement of content according to topic and constitute a major category within the class of all such works. Etymologically, ''musannaf'' is the passive particle of the Arabic verb ''sannafa'', ...

work commonly known as '' Musannaf Ibn Abi Shaybah'' that is one of the earliest extant works in that genre. Alongside

Ahmad ibn Hanbal Ahmad ibn Hanbal al-Dhuhli ( ar, أَحْمَد بْن حَنْبَل الذهلي, translit=Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal al-Dhuhlī; November 780 – 2 August 855 CE/164–241 AH), was a Muslim jurist, theologian, ascetic, hadith traditionist, and ...

Ali ibn al-Madini Abū al-Ḥasan ʻAlī ibn ʻAbdillāh ibn Jaʻfar al-Madīnī (778 CE/161 AH – 849/234) ( ar, أبو الحسن علي بن عبد الله بن جعفر المديني) was a ninth-century Sunni Islamic scholar who was influential in the sci ...

and

Yahya ibn Ma'in Yaḥyā ibn Maʻīn ( ar, يحيى بن معين) (774-847), was a great classical Islamic scholar in the field of hadith of Persian origin. He was a close friend of Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal. Ibn Ma'in is known to have spent all of his inheritance ...

, Ibn Abi Shaybah has been considered by many Muslim specialists in hadith to be one of the four most significant authors in the field.

Biography

He was born in Kufa,

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...

in 159H. He was the author of large voluminous works such as Musannaf Ibn Abi Shaybah, Al-Musnad and others. He heard from a large group of the scholars from the reliable and trustworthy Imams, such as Sufyan ibn 'Uyaynah, 'Abd Allah ibn Al-Mubarak and 'Abd al-Rahman ibn Mahdi. Imam

and his son, 'Abd Allah, reported on his authority and he is from the shuyukh (teachers) of the famous Imams: Al-Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Dawud and Ibn Majah. Abu 'Ubayd Al-Qasim ibn Salam said: "The leading scholars of Hadith are four: The most knowledgeable of them of the Halal and the Haram (Lawful and Unlawful) is Ahmad ibn Hanbal. The best at listing hadeeth and placing them in the right context is

. The best at writing a book is Ibn Abi Shaybah. And the most knowledgeable of which hadith are authentic and which are weak is Yahya ibn Ma'in." He added that: "(Knowledge of) the Hadeeth ultimately goes back to four (people): to Abu Bakr Ibn Abi Shaybah, Ahmad ibn Hanbal,

and 'Ali ibn al-Madini. So Abu Bakr (Ibn Abi Shaybah) is the best among them at presenting it (i.e. the

). Ahmad is the one with the most Fiqh (understanding) of it among them. Yahya is best among them at gathering and collecting it. And 'Ali is the most knowledgeable amongst them of it." Al-'Ijli said: "He is reliable (thiqqah) and a Hafiz." Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi said: "He was precise in his narration (mutqin), memorized many ahadith (hafiz), and produced many works (mukthir). He wrote the books Al-Musnad, Al-Ahkam, and At-Tafsir." Al-Hafiz Al-Dhahabi described him as: "The Grand and unique Hafiz, and the one who is reliable (in narration)." He died at the age of 76 (235H).

Writings

Below is a summary of the discussion of Imam Ibn Abi Shaybah available works in Maktabah al-Shamilah and published in Beirut, Lebanon. *'' Musannaf Ibn Abi Shaybah'' *'' Musnad Ibn Abi Shaybah'' *'' Adab le Ibn Abi Shaybah''

References

{{Authority control Sunni Muslim scholars 770s births 849 deaths Hadith scholars