Name, Lineage, and Titles
Ḥammād ibn Salamah ibn Dīnār, Abū Salamah al-Baṣrī, was an imām, a model of piety and knowledge, and a master in the Sunnah and Arabic grammar. He was a cloth merchant (bazzāz), from the area of Khirq, and affiliated with the people of al-Baṭāʾiḥ. He was a freedman of the clan of Rabīʿah ibn Mālik and the nephew of Ḥumayd al-Ṭawīl.
Those He Narrated From
He narrated from Ibn Abī Mulaykah (his most senior shaykh), Anas ibn Sīrīn, Muḥammad ibn Ziyād al-Qurashī, Abū Jamrah Naṣr ibn ʿImrān al-Ḍubʿī, Thābit al-Bunānī, ʿAmmār ibn Abī ʿAmmār, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Kathīr al-Dārī (the reciter), Abū ʿImrān al-Jawnī, Abū Ghālib Ḥazūr (a companion of Abū Umāmah), Qatādah ibn Diʿāmah, Simāk ibn Ḥarb, his uncle Ḥumayd, Ḥammād ibn Abī Sulaymān the jurist, Saʿd ibn Jumhān, Abū al-ʿAsharāʾ al-Dārimī, Yaʿlā ibn ʿAṭāʾ, Suhayl ibn Abī Ṣāliḥ, Isḥāq ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Ṭalḥah, Iyās ibn Muʿāwiyah, Bishr ibn Ḥarb al-Naddabī, ʿAlī ibn Zayd, Khālid ibn Dhakwān, Shuʿayb ibn al-Ḥabḥāb, ʿĀṣim ibn al-ʿAjāj al-Juḥdarī, Ayyūb al-Sakhtiyānī, Yūnus ibn ʿUbayd, ʿAmr ibn Dīnār, Abū al-Zubayr al-Makkī, Muḥammad ibn Wāsiʿ, Maṭar ibn Ṭuhmān al-Warrāq, Yazīd al-Raqāshī, Abū al-Tayyāḥ al-Ḍubʿī Yazīd, ʿAṭāʾ ibn ʿAjlān, ʿAṭāʾ ibn al-Sāʾib, and many others.
Those Who Narrated From Him
Among those who narrated from him were Ibn Jurayj, Ibn al-Mubārak, Yaḥyā al-Qaṭṭān, Ḥaramī ibn ʿUmārah, Ibn Mahdī, Abū Nuʿaym, ʿAffān, al-Qaʿnabī, Mūsā ibn Ismāʿīl, Shaybān ibn Farrūkh, Hudbah ibn Khālid, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muʿāwiyah al-Jumaḥī, ʿAbd al-Wāḥid ibn Ghiyāth, ʿAbd al-Aʿlā ibn Ḥammād al-Narsī, Ibrāhīm ibn al-Ḥajjāj al-Sāmī, ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿĀʾishah al-Taymī, Abū Kāmil Muẓaffar ibn Mudrik, al-Ḥasan al-Ashyab, Yaḥyā ibn Isḥāq al-Saylānī, al-Aswad ibn ʿĀmir, al-Haytham ibn Jamīl, Asad al-Sunnah, Saʿīd ibn Sulaymān, and many others. The last one claimed to have heard from him was Aḥmad ibn Abī Sulaymān al-Qawārīrī, who was weak and accused in his religion; he was met by Muḥammad ibn Mukhlad al-ʿAṭṭār in the year 270 AH.
His Role in the Transmission of Qirāʾāt
He transmitted the ḥurūf (modes of recitation) from ʿĀṣim and Ibn Kathīr. Among those who took these from him were Ḥaramī ibn ʿUmārah and Abū Salamah al-Tabūdhakī.
Praise From Scholars
Shuʿbah said, “Ḥammād ibn Salamah used to benefit me with the narrations of ʿAmmār ibn Abī ʿAmmār.” Wahb ibn Khālid said, “Ḥammād ibn Salamah is our master and the most knowledgeable among us.” Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal said he was more knowledgeable than others in the narrations of ʿAlī ibn Zayd ibn Judʿān. ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī said that Yaḥyā ibn Ḍarīs al-Rāzī had ten thousand narrations from him, meaning including the mursal and athār. Aḥmad said he was the most knowledgeable of people regarding Thābit al-Bunānī, and he was also the most reliable in narrating from Ḥumayd al-Ṭawīl.
Isḥāq al-Kawsaj reported from Ibn Maʿīn that he was trustworthy. ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī said he was a ḥujjah regarding certain narrators, and the most knowledgeable in narrations from Thābit al-Bunānī and ʿAmmār ibn Abī ʿAmmār. He also said anyone who criticised Ḥammād should be accused in his religion.
His Knowledge and Status
He was a vast ocean of knowledge who sometimes made mistakes due to the volume of what he transmitted. He was trustworthy and a ḥujjah, in shāʾ Allāh, but he was not as precise as Ḥammād ibn Zayd. Al-Bukhārī avoided narrating from him except in one narration in the chapter of al-Riqāq, where he said: “Abū al-Walīd narrated to me from Ḥammād ibn Salamah from Thābit from Anas from the Prophet.” His narrations are at least ḥasan, and Muslim reported from him in the aṣl (main books), especially in his transmissions from Thābit and Ḥumayd because he was an expert in both.
His Writings and Knowledge
ʿAmr ibn ʿĀṣim said, “I wrote more than ten thousand from him.” Jaʿfar al-Ṭayālisī said he heard ʿAffān say the same. Ḥajjāj ibn Minhāl said, “He narrated to us and he was one of the imāms of the religion.”
Al-Ḥākim mentioned that some said he had weak memory and sometimes joined multiple narrators into one isnād. Muslim only took from his narrations through Thābit in the main collection and used others in supporting narrations. ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muʿāwiyah al-Jumaḥī said that both Ḥammāds narrated to them, and he preferred Ḥammād ibn Salamah to Ḥammād ibn Zayd “like the dinar is better than the dirham,” referring to religion and not precision. In terms of precision, Muslim relied on Ibn Zayd who was like Mālik in precision.
Shahāb ibn Maʿmar al-Balkhī said he was counted among the abdāl. Alongside his knowledge of hadith, he was a great scholar of Arabic, a faqīh, eloquent, a leader in the Sunnah, and an author.
ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mahdī said, “If Ḥammād ibn Salamah was told he would die tomorrow, he wouldn’t be able to add anything to his deeds.” His time was filled with worship and devotion. ʿAffān said, “I saw those more outwardly devoted, but I never saw anyone more consistent in doing good, reading the Quran, and acting sincerely for Allah.”
Ibn Maʿīn said, “His narrations were consistent from the beginning to the end.” Ibn Zuhayr said that Ibn Maʿīn used to say, “If you see someone criticising ʿIkrimah or Ḥammād ibn Salamah, accuse him in his Islam.”
Ibn al-Madīnī and others said no one was more reliable than him in narrating from Thābit. Mūsā ibn Ismāʿīl al-Tabūdhakī said, “If I told you I never saw Ḥammād ibn Salamah laugh, I would be truthful. He was always occupied—either narrating, reading, doing tasbīḥ, or praying. He divided his day among these.”
Ibn Maʿīn said, “The most reliable narrator from Thābit is Ḥammād ibn Salamah.” Muḥammad ibn Maṭar said that Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal considered him trustworthy and that he gained more insight about him each day. Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-ʿIjlī narrated from his father that Ḥammād used to recite one hundred verses from the mushaf before narrating hadith.
Firmness in the Sunnah and Language
Imām Aḥmad said, “If you see someone criticising Ḥammād ibn Salamah, accuse him in his Islam. He was severe on the innovators.” Yūnus said, “From Ḥammād ibn Salamah I learned Arabic.”
Yaḥyā al-Yazīdī wrote an elegy for him: O seeker of grammar, weep for him.
Some narrated that he married seventy women but never had children.
His Rejection of Court Involvement and Piety
Al-Bukhārī narrated from Ādam that when the authorities invited him, he replied, “Would I carry my red beard to these people? By Allah, I will not go.” He was also said to have had answered prayers.
Abū Dāwūd said he only had the book of Qays ibn Saʿd. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn al-Mughīrah reported from him the hadith about Allah’s descent and said: “If you see someone deny this, accuse him.”
Major Scholars Who Died the Same Year
In 167 AH, many great scholars died in Baṣrah: Abū Ḥamzah Muḥammad ibn Maymūn al-Sukkarī (muhaddith of Marw), al-Ḥasan ibn Ṣāliḥ ibn Ḥayy al-Hamdānī (Kufan jurist), al-Rabīʿ ibn Muslim, Salām ibn Miskīn, al-Qāsim ibn al-Faḍl al-Ḥaddānī, al-Sarī ibn Yaḥyā (disputed), Suwayd ibn Ibrāhīm al-Ḥannāṭ, Abū Bakr al-Hudhalī, Abū ʿAqīl Yaḥyā ibn al-Mutawakkil, Abū Hilāl Muḥammad ibn Salīm al-Rāsibī, Dāwūd ibn Abī al-Furāt, Abū al-Rabīʿ Ashʿath al-Sammān, ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Muslim al-Qasamlī, and many others. It was a year of loss for Baṣrah.
Also in that year died the shaykh of Damascus Saʿīd ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Tanūkhī, the scholar of Alexandria ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Shurayḥ, the Kufan ḥadīth scholar Muḥammad ibn Ṭalḥah ibn Muṣarrif, the Abbasid governor of Kūfah ʿĪsā ibn Mūsā, and the famous poet Bashshār ibn Burd.
Select Chains and Narrations
A narration was reported by Abū al-Maʿālī Aḥmad ibn Isḥāq from Egypt via a high isnād ending with Ḥammād ibn Salamah from Thābit from Abū Rāfiʿ from Abū Hurayrah: A man visited his brother in another village, and Allah sent an angel to him… ending with: “Allah has loved you as you loved him for His sake.” Muslim narrated this from ʿAbd al-Aʿlā, and we matched him with a higher chain.
Another narration comes from Ibn ʿUmar regarding the verse “The Day when mankind will stand before the Lord of the Worlds” (al-Muṭaffifīn: 6), where the Prophet said: “They will stand until sweat reaches their ears.” Muslim narrated this from al-Tammār.
Another hadith comes through a group including ʿAlī ibn al-Jaʿd, ʿAbd al-Aʿlā ibn Ḥammād, Abū Naṣr al-Tammār and others, from Ḥammād ibn Salamah from Abū al-ʿAsharāʾ from his father, who asked the Prophet if slaughter was only valid from the neck or upper chest, to which he replied: “Even if you stabbed it in the thigh, it would suffice.”
Anecdote About Manuscripts
Ibn Ḥibbān reported that Ibn Maʿīn came to ʿAffān to hear his books of Ḥammād ibn Salamah. When asked if he had already heard them from others, he said he had seventeen narrators for him. ʿAffān refused and told him to go to al-Tabūdhakī in Baṣrah, which he did. Al-Tabūdhakī also confirmed he was now the eighteenth. He said he wanted to identify Ḥammād’s own errors by comparing across narrators.
Death and Burial
Yūnus ibn Muḥammad said he died while in prayer at the masjid. Suwār ibn ʿAbd Allāh narrated from his father that he once found Ḥammād in his market and when he profited by only a grain or two in a garment, he would tie up his goods and stop selling, suggesting that he only sold to meet his needs.
Al-Tabūdhakī reported that Ḥammād said: “If the governor invites you to recite to him: ‘Say: He is Allah, the One,’ do not go to him.” Isḥāq ibn al-Ṭabbāʿ heard him say, “Whoever seeks hadith for other than Allah will be disgraced.”
He was superior to contemporaries like Bakr ibn ʿAyyāsh and the nephew of al-Zuhrī in accuracy, gathering, knowledge, and retention. He was unmatched in Baṣrah, and only a Muʿtazilī or Jahmī would dislike him due to his strong adherence to the Sunnah.
Ḥammād ibn Zayd said that they never saw anyone learning sincerely except Ḥammād ibn Salamah. Muslim ibn Ibrāhīm said that Ḥammād used to ask Ḥammād ibn Abī Sulaymān about isnāds while others would ask about opinions.
He once said, “A man can become heavy (burdened), then be light again.” ʿAffān said that he went to visit ʿAṭāʾ ibn Abī Rabāḥ during Ramaḍān but found that he had already died.
Abū Salamah al-Tabūdhakī said he died at the age of seventy-six. Based on this, he was born in the lifetime of Anas ibn Mālik. Abū al-Ḥasan al-Madāʾinī said he died on a Tuesday in Dhū al-Ḥijjah in 167 AH, and the funeral was led by Isḥāq ibn Sulaymān. Others said he died after ʿĪd al-Aḍḥā. Some said he died in 166 AH, which is incorrect.
Siyar A‘lām al-Nubalā’ by Ad Dhahabi (7/445-455)
