Name, Lineage, and Origin
Ḥammād ibn Zayd ibn Dirham, Abū Ismāʿīl al-Azdī al-Baṣrī, was the blind, trustworthy ḥāfiẓ and imām of his time. He was known as “the blue one” (al-azraq) and was from the mawālī of the family of Jarīr ibn Ḥāzim. He was originally from Sijistān; his grandfather Dirham had been captured from there and enslaved.
Those from Whom He Narrated
He heard hadith from Anas ibn Sīrīn, ʿAmr ibn Dīnār, Abū ʿImrān al-Jawnī, Muḥammad ibn Ziyād al-Qurashī al-Jumaḥī, Abū Jamrah al-Ḍubʿī, Thābit al-Bunānī, Badīl ibn Maysarā, Ayyūb al-Sakhtiyānī, ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Ṣuhayb, Bishr ibn Ḥarb, Salm ibn Qays al-ʿAlawī, Shuʿayb ibn al-Ḥabḥāb, ʿĀṣim ibn Abī al-Najūd, ʿĀmir ibn ʿAbd al-Wāḥid al-Aḥwal, ʿAbbās ibn Furūkh al-Jarīrī, ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Abī Yazīd al-Makkī, Kathīr ibn Ziyād al-Azdī, Muḥammad ibn Wāsiʿ, Maṭar al-Warrāq, Hārūn ibn Riʾāb, Wāṣil Mawlā Abī ʿAyyīnah ibn al-Muhallab, Abū al-Tayyāḥ al-Ḍubʿī, Yazīd al-Rishk, Isḥāq ibn Suwayd, Jamīl ibn Murrah, Ḥājib ibn al-Muhallab ibn Abī Ṣufrah, al-Zubayr ibn al-Kharrīt, al-Zubayr ibn ʿArabī, al-Ṣaqʿab ibn Zuhayr, Kathīr ibn Shanẓīr, Manṣūr ibn al-Muʿtamir, Yurayd ibn Sinān, Dāwūd ibn Abī Hind, Yūnus ibn ʿUbayd, Abū Ḥāzim al-Aʿraj, ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Abī Bakr ibn Anas, and many others.
Those Who Narrated From Him
He was narrated from by his teachers such as Ibrāhīm ibn Abī ʿUblah, Sufyān al-Thawrī, and Shuʿbah. Others who narrated from him included ʿAbd al-Wārith ibn Saʿīd, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mahdī, ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Mubārak, Abū al-Nuʿmān ʿĀrim, Musaddad, Sulaymān ibn Ḥarb, ʿUbayd Allāh al-Qawārīrī, Muḥammad ibn ʿUbayd ibn Ḥisāb, ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī (his most senior student), Zakariyyā ibn ʿAdī, Muḥammad ibn ʿĪsā ibn al-Ṭabbāʿ, Qutaybah ibn Saʿīd, Sahl ibn ʿUthmān al-ʿAskarī, Ibrāhīm ibn Yūsuf al-Balkhī al-Faqīh, Dāwūd ibn ʿAmr al-Ḍabbī, Sunayd ibn Dāwūd al-Muṣīṣī, Sulaymān ibn Ayyūb Ṣāḥib al-Baṣrī, Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr al-Muqaddamī, Abū al-Rabīʿ al-Zuhranī, Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Ḥarashī, Muḥammad ibn Zanbūr, Muḥammad ibn al-Naḍr al-Marwazī, Isḥāq ibn Abī Isrāʾīl, Aḥmad ibn ʿAbdah, ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muʿāwiyah al-Jumaḥī, Abū al-Ashʿath Aḥmad ibn al-Muqaddam al-ʿIjlī, and al-Haytham ibn Sahl, who was the last of those who narrated from him. His narrators were comprehensively collected by Abū al-Ḥajjāj in his Tahdhīb.
Praise From Scholars
ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mahdī said: “The imams of the people in their time were four: Sufyān al-Thawrī in Kūfah, Mālik in al-Ḥijāz, al-Awzāʿī in al-Shām, and Ḥammād ibn Zayd in Baṣrah.”
Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn said: “No one is more accurate in narration than Ḥammād ibn Zayd.”
Yaḥyā ibn Yaḥyā al-Nīsābūrī said: “I never saw a shaykh more memorising than Ḥammād ibn Zayd.”
Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal said: “Ḥammād ibn Zayd is from the imams of the Muslims and the people of religion. He is more beloved to me than Ḥammād ibn Salamah.”
Sufyān al-Thawrī said: “The man of Baṣrah after Shuʿbah is that blue one,” referring to Ḥammād ibn Zayd.
Wakīʿ said: “We used to compare Ḥammād ibn Zayd to Mount Muzdalifah.”
Sulaymān ibn Ḥarb said: “Ḥammād ibn Zayd had no book except the book of Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd al-Anṣārī.”
Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-ʿIjlī said: “He was trustworthy. He memorised four thousand hadiths and had no book.”
ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Kharrāsh said: “Ḥammād ibn Zayd never erred in a hadith.”
Ibn al-Mubārak praised him in poetry, saying:
“O seeker of knowledge, go to Ḥammād ibn Zayd; you will gain forbearance and knowledge, then bind it with a rein.”
ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mahdī said: “I never saw anyone more knowledgeable than Ḥammād ibn Zayd, Mālik ibn Anas, and Sufyān al-Thawrī. No one in Baṣrah was more learned in fiqh than Ḥammād ibn Zayd.”
He was considered the strongest and most precise of the companions of Ayyūb al-Sakhtiyānī. He said: “I sat with Ayyūb for twenty years.”
His Character and Worship
Abū ʿĀṣim said: “When Ḥammād ibn Zayd died, I do not know of anyone in Islam who had his dignity and appearance.”
Yazīd ibn Zurayʿ said upon his death: “Today the master of the Muslims has died.”
Abū Ḥātim ibn Ḥibbān said: “He was blind, and memorised all of his hadiths.”
He was born in the year 98 AH, and only became blind in old age.
He was known for his dignity, character, and profound fiqh. Abū Usāmah said: “When I saw Ḥammād ibn Zayd, I would say: his manners are like Kisrá’s, and his fiqh is like ʿUmar’s.”
He died in the year 179 AH, in the month of Ramaḍān. Some said he died on Friday the 19th of Ramaḍān, others said on the 10th. Mālik died six months before him.
His Beliefs and Defence of the Sunnah
He was a firm defender of the Sunnah and an enemy of the Jahmiyyah. He said: “They only want to say there is no God in the sky.”
He said: “The Quran is the speech of Allah, which Jibrīl brought down from the Lord of the worlds.”
He said: “When the hadith of the Prophet is read, one should be silent and attentive, just as one is when the Quran is recited.”
He viewed that raising the voice during the recitation of hadith after the Prophet’s death is like raising the voice in his presence.
His Intelligence and Precision
Muḥammad ibn ʿĪsā said: “I never saw anyone more intelligent than Ḥammād ibn Zayd.”
Bishr ibn al-Ḥārith said: “Mentioning isnāds makes the heart feel proud, so I seek forgiveness for mentioning them.”
When Abān ibn Abī ʿAyyāsh asked him to tell Shuʿbah to stop criticising him, Ḥammād did so. But later he told Shuʿbah that Abān lied about the Prophet.
He was known for his unmatched accuracy. Yūnus ibn ʿUbayd, Ibn al-ʿUlayyah, ʿAbd al-Wārith, and others were all considered less accurate than him by Yaḥyā ibn Maʿīn and other scholars.
His Method in Transmission and Clarification Between the Two Ḥammāds
Many scholars narrated from both Ḥammād ibn Zayd and Ḥammād ibn Salamah. Sometimes they would say, “Ḥammād narrated to us” without clarifying. If the context includes a known teacher of both, it could be ambiguous. But certain students, like ʿAlī ibn al-Madīnī and others, only met Ḥammād ibn Zayd, so when they said “Ḥammād,” it meant him. Others, like ʿAffān, usually clarified when narrating from Ibn Zayd and left it vague with Ibn Salamah. Conversely, Sulaymān ibn Ḥarb and ʿĀrim usually meant Ibn Zayd when they said “Ḥammād” without clarification.
This kind of overlap also existed with the two Sufyāns (al-Thawrī and Ibn ʿUyaynah). Scholars were known to attribute carefully based on era and who was narrating from whom.
Some of His High-Chain Narrations
He narrated a hadith from Abū ʿImrān al-Jawnī from Jundub that the Prophet said: “Recite the Quran as long as your hearts are united on it. If you differ, then stand up from it.” This was considered a high-isnād narration.
He also narrated from Ayyūb from Nāfiʿ from Ibn ʿUmar from Bilāl that the Prophet prayed between the two columns, with his face inside the Kaʿbah. Muslim narrated this from Abū al-Rabīʿ al-Zuhranī from him.
Another narration from Ibn ʿUmar, through ʿAmr ibn Dīnār, confirmed that the Prophet prayed in the Kaʿbah, while Ibn ʿAbbās said he did not, only making takbīr at its corners. The correct view is with the one who affirms the act, as it includes an addition.
His Rank
Ḥammād ibn Zayd was a pillar of the Sunnah, a master of hadith, unmatched in precision, trustworthy, and an imām of the religion. He was loyal to the Sunnah and firm against innovators. He combined deep knowledge, excellent character, and profound worship. His hadiths are a foundation of the Sunnah, and scholars praised him unanimously. His death in 179 AH marked the end of an era, and none replaced him in his position. May Allah have mercy on him.
Siyar A‘lām al-Nubalā’ by Ad Dhahabi (7/456-466)
