Ibn Majah
- Died
- 273 AH
- Born in
- Qazvin
Ibn Majah (209–273 AH / 824–887 CE) was a hadith scholar, Quranic exegete, and historian from Qazwin, best known for compiling the hadith collection Sunan Ibn Majah.
Lineage and Early Life
His full name was Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Yazid al-Raba'i al-Qazwini. The nisba al-Raba'i indicates clientage (wala') to the tribe of Rabi'a, while al-Qazwini refers to his native city of Qazwin in Jibal. Majah was the sobriquet of his father Yazid, pronounced with an open mim and jim and ending in a quiescent ha', though alternative reports suggested it was the name of his mother or grandfather. He was born in Qazwin in 209 AH, as recorded on his authority by his companion Ja'far ibn Idris, though another report gives his birth year as 207 AH. Several members of his family were engaged in scholarship, including his brothers Abu Bakr, Abu Abd Allah, and Abu Muhammad al-Hasan ibn Yazid.
Education, Travels, and Students
After studying under local scholars in Qazwin such as Ali ibn Muhammad al-Tanafisi and Amr ibn Rafi' al-Bajali, he embarked on extensive travels to collect hadith. His journeys took him to Rayy, Nishapur, Kufa, Basra, Baghdad, Wasit, Mecca, Medina, Damascus, and Egypt. Among his most prominent teachers were Abu Bakr ibn Abi Shayba, Uthman ibn Abi Shayba, Hisham ibn Ammar, Duheem, Muhammad ibn Yahya al-Dhuhli, and Muhammad ibn Rumh.
A large circle of students transmitted from him, the foremost of whom was Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Ibrahim al-Qattan, the primary transmitter of his Sunan. Other notable students included Muhammad ibn Isa al-Abhari, Abu al-Tayyib Ahmad ibn Rawh al-Baghdadi, Sulayman ibn Yazid al-Fami, and Muhammad ibn Isa al-Saffar. In addition to hadith, he composed a comprehensive Quranic commentary (Tafsir) and a historical chronicle (Tarikh) spanning from the era of the Companions to his own time.
Scholarly Standing
Scholars widely recognized his expertise and reliability in hadith. Abu Ya'la al-Khalili described him as a great, trustworthy authority whose reliability was unanimously accepted and who possessed vast memorization and knowledge of the field. Ibn Kathir noted that his Sunan testified to his profound scholarship, extensive reading, and strict adherence to the Prophetic Sunna in both theological principles and practical rulings. When he presented his Sunan to Abu Zur'a al-Razi, the latter commended its quality and remarked that it contained very few defective narrations. Shams al-Din al-Dhahabi characterized him as a truthful, critical memorizer of vast learning, while observing that his collection contained some uncorroborated (munkar) and weak narrations. Later scholars, beginning with Ibn Tahir al-Maqdisi and Abd al-Ghani al-Maqdisi, included his Sunan as the sixth of the canonical Six Books on account of its legal arrangement and unique supplementary narrations.
Death
He died on a Monday in Qazwin and was buried on Tuesday with eight nights remaining in the month of Ramadan in 273 AH (other reports state with six or seven nights remaining, or the year 275 AH), at the age of sixty-four. His brother Abu Bakr led the funeral prayer, and his burial was carried out by his brothers Abu Bakr and Abd Allah alongside his son Abd Allah.
Answer updated
List of Works
Sunan Ibn Majah is a collection of Prophetic hadith organized by chapters of jurisprudence. It is structured according to legal themes, covering Islamic rulings, ethics, and ritual obligations, and is regarded as the sixth of the major canonical hadith compendia.