Name and background
His full name was ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Salamah. His nickname was al-Mājishūn. He was a major imam and mufti. His kunya was Abū ʿAbd Allāh and also Abū al-Aṣbagh. He was a freedman of the Banū Taym and lived in Madinah. He was a jurist and the father of the famous jurist ʿAbd al-Malik ibn al-Mājishūn, a companion of Mālik ibn Anas, and the cousin of Yūsuf ibn Yaʿqūb al-Mājishūn.
Residence and narration
He spent a period in Baghdad. He narrated from al-Zuhrī, Ibn al-Munkadir, Wahb ibn Kaysān, Hilāl ibn Abī Ḥimānah, his uncle Yaʿqūb ibn Abī Salamah, Suhayl ibn Abī Ṣāliḥ, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Qāsim, ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Faḍl al-Hāshimī, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Dīnār, Isḥāq ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Ṭalḥah, Saʿd ibn Ibrāhīm, ʿAmr ibn Yaḥyā ibn ʿUmārah, Hishām ibn ʿUrwah, ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿUmar, Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Ṣaʿṣaʿah, ʿUmar ibn Ḥusayn, and other scholars from his city. He was not known for narrating many hadiths, but he was a jurist with deep insight, eloquent, and of great status.
Who Narrated From Him
Those who narrated from him include Ibrāhīm ibn Ṭahmān, Zuhayr ibn Muʿāwiyah, al-Layth ibn Saʿd, Wakiʿ, Ibn Mahdī, Shabābah, Ibn Wahb, Abū Dāwūd, Abū ʿĀmir al-ʿUqadī, Yaḥyā ibn Ḥassān, ʿAmr ibn al-Haytham Abū Qaṭan, Hāshim ibn al-Qāsim, Ḥujayn ibn al-Muthannā, Asad ibn Mūsā, Aḥmad ibn Yūnus, Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Uways, Ḥajjāj ibn Minhāl, Bishr ibn al-Walīd al-Kindī, Saʿdawayh al-Wāsiṭī, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṣāliḥ al-ʿAjlī, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṣāliḥ al-Juhani the scribe, ʿAlī ibn al-Jaʿd, Ghassān ibn al-Rabīʿ, Abū Salamah al-Tabūdhdhakī, Abū al-Walīd al-Ṭayālisī, and many others.
Origin Of The Name Al-Mājishūn
Ibn Abī Khaythamah reported that he was originally from Isfahan and later settled in Madinah. He used to say when meeting people: “Jūnī Jūnī.” Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal was asked how he got the nickname al-Mājishūn, and he said he had picked up some Persian words and would greet people saying “Shūnī, Shūnī,” so he was nicknamed al-Mājishūn. Ibrāhīm al-Ḥarbī said he was Persian, and that the nickname came from the redness of his cheeks, which resembled the colour of wine, so the people of Madinah Arabised the term. Others said the original word was “māʾ kun” (meaning “red wine”), and that he and his family were known by this nickname.
What Scholars Said About Him
ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn Ḥayyān narrated from his grandfather’s notebook that Abū Bakr said that Ibn Maʿīn was asked whether ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn al-Mājishūn was like al-Layth and Ibrāhīm ibn Saʿd. He replied: No, he is beneath them. He used to hold the views of qadar and speculative theology, then he left that and returned to the Sunnah. He was not devoted to hadith. When he went to Baghdad, they began writing from him. Afterwards, he would say: “The people of Baghdad turned me into a hadith scholar.” He was truthful and reliable but not a specialist in hadith like Shuʿbah and Mālik.
Abū Dāwūd narrated from Abū al-Walīd that he was suited for vizier duties. Abū Ḥātim, al-Nasāʾī, and others said he was trustworthy.
Narration from al-Zuhrī
Aḥmad ibn Sinān narrated from ʿAbd al-Raḥmān who said that Bishr ibn al-Sarī said: Ibn Abī Dhiʾb and al-Mājishūn did not hear from al-Zuhrī. Ibn Sinān interpreted this to mean they only received by reading (ʿarḍ).
His Position As A mufti
Abū al-Ṭāhir ibn al-Sarraj narrated from Ibn Wahb: I made Hajj in the year 148 AH, and a caller was calling out: “No one may give fatwa except Mālik and ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Abī Salamah.”
Recommendation To Al-Manṣūr
ʿAmr ibn Khālid al-Ḥarrānī said: When Abū Jaʿfar al-Manṣūr made Hajj, al-Mahdī came to bid him farewell. When he was about to depart, al-Manṣūr said: “O my son, give me a gift.” He said: “I gift you a wise man.” So he gifted him ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Abī Salamah.
Response to the Jahmiyyah
Aḥmad ibn Salāmah narrated through a long isnād from ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn al-Mājishūn that when asked about the denial of the Jahmiyyah, he said:
“I have understood your question about what the Jahmiyyah are saying about the attribute of the Almighty Lord, whose greatness surpasses description and estimation. Tongues are too weak to describe Him, and minds fall short of understanding His magnitude. Minds cannot reach Him, so they return defeated. People have only been commanded to reflect on what He created. You ask ‘how’ only about something that once did not exist and then existed.
But as for the One who has always existed and does not change, who has no equal, no one knows how He is except Him. The proof that the mind cannot grasp His description is that it cannot fully grasp the description of one of His smallest creations. So understand that you are not required to describe what your Lord has not described of Himself, and you are incapable of understanding even what He has described.
Whoever denies what Allah described of Himself has gone deep into misguidance and been led astray by devils, and denied the verse: ‘Faces that Day will be radiant, looking at their Lord’ (al-Qiyāmah: 22–23). He said: ‘He will not be seen.’”
He then gave a long statement affirming the attributes and that one should leave them as they are, without delving into how.
It was reported that he once looked into the writings of someone who denied the attributes and said: “This is demolition without construction, an attribute without meaning.”
Stipend and writings
ʿAbd al-Malik ibn al-Mājishūn, the jurist, reported that the caliph al-Mahdī gave his father 10,000 dinars. Aḥmad ibn Kāmil said he had authored books which Ibn Wahb narrated from him.
Status and death
Muḥammad ibn Saʿd said: ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz was trustworthy and had many hadiths. The people of Iraq narrated more from him than the people of Madinah. He came to Baghdad and stayed there until he died in 164 AH. The caliph al-Mahdī prayed over him. This is the date given by several scholars, though Ibn Ḥibbān said he died in 166 AH. Ibn Ḥibbān said he was a pious jurist who followed the madhhabs of the people of the two Harams, built his rulings on their foundations, and defended their views.
Siyar A’lām al-Nubalā By Ad Dhahabi (7/309-
