Hammad al-Ansari
- Died
- 1418 AH
- Born in
- -
Hammad al-Ansari (1344–1418 AH / 1925–1997 CE) was a West African-born hadith scholar based in Saudi Arabia who taught at the Islamic University of Madinah and served as head of its Department of Sunnah and Creed.
Lineage and Early Life
He was Abu Abd al-Latif Hammad ibn Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Hinnah ibn al-Mukhtar ibn Muhammad al-Bashir al-Ansari al-Khazraji al-Sa'di, tracing his lineage to the companion Sa'd ibn Ubadah al-Khazraji through his son Sa'id, and to the Banu Nasr rulers of Granada. He was born in 1344 AH (1925 CE; another report gives 1343 AH) in the town of Tadmakka (also known as al-Suq) in Mali, into a family established in Timbuktu known for scholarship, judicial posts, and issuing legal rulings.
Al-Ansari began his early instruction in Manaqah, where he learned the alphabet before memorizing the Quran, completing its memorization at the age of ten (another report states at eight years old). He was raised and educated under the tutelage of his uncle, studying Arabic grammar, hadith, and foundational poetic manuals and texts in the rational and legal sciences.
Migration and Education in the Hijaz
Prompted by French colonial rule, al-Ansari emigrated from Mali at the age of twenty-one in 1365 AH, accompanied by two companions, traveling by night across Nigeria, Khartoum, and Omdurman before arriving in the Hijaz.
In Mecca, he attended study circles in the Grand Mosque of Mecca, studying under scholars such as Muhammad Hamid al-Fiqi, Abd Allah al-Mashshat, Muhammad Amin al-Halabi, Muhammad Abd al-Razzaq Hamza, and Hasan al-Mashshat. He also received scholarly licenses (ijazat) from visiting authorities, including Abd al-Shakur al-Hindi, Abd al-Haqq al-Umari, Muhammad Yasin al-Fadani, and Abd al-Hafiz al-Filastini.
Upon moving to Madinah in 1369 AH, he resided in Ribat Muhammad Mazhar and enrolled in Dar al-Ulum al-Shar'iyyah. There he read Hanafi jurisprudence, Sahih Muslim, and Arabic poetry and grammar with Umar Barri, in addition to studying under Muhammad al-Hafiz, Abduh Khuday', and Muhammad ibn Turki al-Najdi, with whom he read Malik's al-Muwatta and Ibn Qudamah's al-Mughni. He was also influenced by Muhammad Abd Allah ibn Mahmud al-Madani and the Grand Mufti Muhammad ibn Ibrahim Al al-Shaykh.
Teaching Career and Scholarship
Al-Ansari began teaching early in Mecca around 1367 AH after receiving permission from Abd Allah ibn Hasan Al al-Shaykh to hold lessons in the Grand Mosque. He later relocated his academic activity to Madinah, where he was appointed to the faculty of the Islamic University of Madinah, eventually chairing the Department of Sunnah and Creed (Qism al-Sunnah wa-l-Aqidah).
He specialized in hadith criticism, transmission chains, biographical evaluation (al-jarh wa-l-ta'dil), and inheritance law. He authored works on hadith transmitters, including al-Fath al-Kabir fi Tarajim Shuyukh al-Tabarani min al-Mu'jam al-Saghir, where he classified undocumented narrators according to specific critical criteria. Al-Ansari amassed a vast personal library of rare manuscripts and photographic copies that served as an essential resource for visiting scholars and graduate students completing theses under his supervision.
Death
Al-Ansari died on Wednesday, 21 Jumada al-Akhirah 1418 AH (October 1997 CE) in Madinah at the age of approximately seventy-four.
Answer updated
List of Works
Kashf al-Sutur fi Nahy al-Nisa an Ziyarat al-Qubur (Unveiling the Coverings Regarding the Prohibition of Women Visiting Graves) is a legal and hadith treatise examining the prophetic reports concerning women visiting cemeteries.
Abu al-Hasan al-Ashari (also published as Abu al-Hasan al-Ash‘ari wa-‘Aqidatuh) is a theological treatise examining the intellectual trajectory and creedal positions of Abu al-Hasan al-Ashari.
al-Mafhum al-Sahih lil-Tawassul (The Proper Concept of Intercession in Light of the Sunnah) is a theological and hadith treatise written in refutation of contemporary arguments advocating supplication through the persons of the righteous.
al-Tadlis wa al-Mudallisun (Concealment and the Concealers in Hadith Transmission) is a biographical treatise on the discipline of hadith transmitters that compiles biographical entries for 161 transmitters characterized by tadlis (the obfuscation of transmission sources), encompassing both agreed-upon and contested figures.