Hadith Hisham ibn Ammar
- Author died
- 245 AH
- Editions
- Dār Ishbīliyā
Hadith Hisham ibn Ammar (Ḥadīth Hishām ibn ʿAmmār) is a collection of prophetic traditions transmitted by the Syrian scholar, Quran reciter, and preacher Abu al-Walid Hisham ibn Ammar (153–245 AH / 770–859 CE) . The corpus preserves his narrations from prominent eighth-century authorities, reflecting the hadith tradition of Damascus and the Hijaz during the early Abbasid period .
Origin and Transmission
The transmission originates from Hisham ibn Ammar's extensive studies across major centers of learning. To fund his journey to hear traditions directly from Malik ibn Anas in Medina, his father sold a house for twenty dinars . During their initial encounter, after Malik had him disciplined with seventeen lashes of a whip (or fifteen in an alternate report), Malik compensated him by narrating seventeen hadiths (or fifteen) and answering his legal questions . Beyond Malik, Hisham received hadiths from teachers including Sufyan ibn Uyaynah, Muslim al-Zanji, Ismail ibn Ayyash, al-Walid ibn Muslim, Yahya ibn Hamzah, and Sadaqah ibn Khalid .
Hisham's transmissions were recorded by numerous disciples and compiled under various titles, such as Musnad Abi al-Walid Hisham ibn Ammar and specific collections of his transmissions from Malik . Key transmitters of his narrations included Ishaq ibn Abi Hassan al-Anmati, Muhammad ibn al-Fayd al-Ghassani, Abu Zur'ah al-Dimashqi, Muhammad ibn Ismail al-Bukhari, Abu Dawud, al-Nasa'i, and Ibn Majah .
Notable Contents
The narrations transmitted through Hisham ibn Ammar cover doctrinal, legal, and eschatological matters. Among the most widely cited is the narration concerning the prohibition of musical instruments (al-ma'azif), recorded in Sahih al-Bukhari through Hisham from Sadaqah ibn Khalid, on the authority of Abu Malik al-Ash'ari (or Abu 'Amir): «ليكونن من أمتي أقوام يستحلون الحر والحرير والخمر والمعازف» ("There will be among my nation people who will deem lawful illicit sexual intercourse, silk, wine, and musical instruments") .
Another well-known report in his corpus is the extended narration regarding the Market of Paradise (Suq al-Jannah), transmitted by al-Bukhari and Ibn Majah from Hisham, from Abd al-Hamid ibn Habib, from al-Awza'i, describing the believers' gathering and their vision of God in Paradise .
Scholarly Standing and Evaluation
Early hadith critics subjected Hisham's narrations to close scrutiny:
- Authentication and Praise: Yahya ibn Ma'in and al-Ijjli declared him trustworthy (thiqah), and al-Daraqutni characterized him as truthful and of high standing (saduq kabir al-mahall) . Abu Zur'ah al-Razi underscored the breadth of his material, noting that whoever missed hearing from Hisham would need to descend an entire link in chain elevation across ten thousand hadiths . Furthermore, Yahya ibn Ma'in and Abu Ubayd al-Qasim ibn Sallam personally reviewed his written texts; Hisham reported that Ibn Ma'in verified all his manuscripts except for the transmissions of Suwayd ibn Abd al-Aziz due to Suwayd's weakness .
- Criticism and Precautions: Abu Hatim al-Razi noted that while Hisham was fundamentally truthful (saduq) and reliable when reading from his early written manuscripts, his memory deteriorated in old age, rendering him vulnerable to prompting (talqin) by others . Abu Dawud stated that Hisham transmitted more than four hundred unsupported traditions due to individuals prompting him with narrations that were not his own . Several contemporaries, including Ibn Warah and Salih Jazara, also criticized his practice of requiring financial payment for dictating hadith sessions .
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