Ibrahim ibn Sad
- Died
- 184 AH
- Born in
- Medina
Ibrahim ibn Sa'd (108–184 AH / 726–800 CE) was a Medinan hadith scholar of Quraysh who settled in Baghdad and oversaw its public treasury.
Lineage and early life
He was Abu Ishaq Ibrahim ibn Sa'd ibn Ibrahim ibn 'Abd al-Rahman ibn 'Awf al-Qurashi al-Zuhri al-'Awfi al-Madani, a great-grandson of the companion Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf. His mother was Amat al-Rahman bint Muhammad ibn 'Abd Allah ibn Zam'ah, from the Banu 'Amir ibn Lu'ayy clan.
He was born in Medina in 108 AH. He later moved to Iraq, settled in Baghdad during the reign of the Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid, and was appointed in charge of the city's public treasury (bayt al-mal). He is also reported to have held judicial office in Medina like his father.
Education and transmissions
Ibrahim studied in Medina under his father, the judge Sa'd ibn Ibrahim, as well as his relative Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri, whom he heard at a young age and who treated him with honor. His other teachers included Salih ibn Kaysan, Muhammad ibn Ishaq, Hisham ibn Urwah, Safwan ibn Sulaym, and Yazid ibn al-Had. He held a particularly large corpus of legal traditions from Muhammad ibn Ishaq, reported to reach about seventeen thousand hadiths on legal rulings outside of the campaigns (maghazi), making him one of the most prolific Medinan transmitters of his era.
A broad circle transmitted from him, including senior scholars who were older than him such as Shubah ibn al-Hajjaj and al-Layth ibn Sad, as well as Abu Dawud al-Tayalisi, Abd al-Rahman ibn Mahdi, Ahmad ibn Hanbal, and his own sons Yaqub ibn Ibrahim ibn Sad and Sa'd. The last surviving transmitter of his direct transmissions was al-Husayn ibn Sayyar al-Harrani.
Scholarly standing and views
Ibrahim was widely regarded as a trustworthy authority (thiqah hujjah), with endorsements from Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Yahya ibn Main, Abu Hatim al-Razi, and Ibn Adi. Yahya ibn Main considered him firmer in the transmissions of Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri than Ibn Abi Dhib and praised his reporting of the compilation of the Quran. Salih Jazrah remarked that his narrations from al-Zuhri contained some weaknesses because he had heard them in his youth.
He was known for permitting singing with the lute (al-oud), defending Medinan practice in discussions with contemporaries such as the judge Abu Yusuf. While this position caused certain traditionalists to initially refrain from narrating from him, critics and biographers maintained his trustworthiness in hadith transmission.
Death
Ibrahim died in Baghdad in 184 AH at the age of seventy-five, though other reports place his death in 182, 183, or 185 AH, with his age reported as seventy-three.
Answer updated
List of Works
Nuskhat Ibrahim ibn Sa‘d is an early hadith collection preserving prophetic traditions, legal rulings, and reports transmitted within the hadith compilations (al-Fawa’id) associated with the Ibn Mandah family. Transmitted directly through Abu Salih Abd Allah ibn Salih, the material encompasses both connected and expedited transmissions from early authorities, covering legal rulings, ritual practices, clothing and adornment, and the virtues of the Prophet's companions.