Al-Daraqutni



Ali ibn Umar al-Daraqutni (عَلِيّ بْن عُمَر ٱلدَّارَقُطْنِيّ; 918–995 CE / 306–385 AH), was a Sunni Muslim scholar and traditionist best known for compiling the hadith collection Sunan al-Daraqutni. He is commonly celebrated in Sunni tradition with titles such as "Imam" and "Amir al-Mu'minin fi al-Hadith".

Birth
Al-Daraqutni was born in c. 918 CE/306 AH in the Dar al-Qutn (دار القطن) quarter of Baghdad, whence he got his nisba.

Education
Al-Daraqutni grew up in a house of knowledge and virtue, as his father was one of the trustworthy Hadith transmitters, and he watched him in his youth frequenting the circles of knowledge and hearing, memorizing his audios and narrations, and spending the clouds of his day learning and studying. His studies were initially largely restricted to his native Iraq, where he frequented Wasit, Basra and Kufa. Later in life, he travelled to Syria and Egypt and while in the latter, he enjoyed the patronage of the Ikhishid vizier Jafar bin al-Fadl for assisting him with compiling his own hadith collection.

Teachers
His teachers in his period include
 * Ibn Hibban
 * The son of Abu Dawood
 * Abu al-Qasim al-Baghawi
 * Ibn Mujahid, from whom he learned the different recitations of the Quran
 * Abu Sa'id al-Istakhri

Students
His students included the hadith scholars:
 * Al-Hakim al-Nishapuri
 * Abu Nu'aym al-Isfahani
 * Abu Dharr al-Harawi
 * Al-Baqillani
 * Al-Sulami

Death
He died in 995 CE/385 AH and was buried in the Bab al-Dayr cemetery in Baghdad, near the grave of Maruf Karkhi.

Theological position
Al-Daraqutni was a committed follower of the Shafi‘i school, studying jurisprudence under the Shafi'ite scholar Abu Sa'id al-Istakhri. According to Al-Dhahabi under the authority of Al-Sulami, Al-Daraqutni was not a fan of kalam and did not engage in theological discussions. However, he supported the kalam that was with accordance to the Qur'an and Sunnah, and this is evident based on his support for Al-Baqillani refuting against the Mu'tazilah and Karramiyya. His story with Al-Baqillani dispenses with prolongation in proving his adherence to the Ash'ari school.

If Baghdad's public milieu had been more supportive of middle-of-the-road traditionalism, Al-Daraqutni, a Shafi'te inhabitant, would have rejected the anthropomorphic account as unreliable. However, the Hanbali extremists who controlled Baghdad made it nearly difficult to reject the anthropomorphic version. The poem gives precise instructions to the Muhaddithun, who were perplexed when they came across these two distinct, if not contradictory, writings, in addition to the implicit preference for the mild version over the anthropomorphic one. Al-Daraqutni bluntly described the most crucial aspect of the Ash'arite method of transmission in this short poem: a systematic insistence on a strict transmission procedure in which the text was communicated verbatim without any verbal or gestural embellishments. Al-Daraqutni undoubtedly saw this stringent procedure as a defence against anthropomorphism. In other words, Hanbalite violence forced Baghdad's middle-of-the-road traditionalists to accept the anthropomorphic version in the tenth century.

According to Ibn al-Jawzi's book entitled Mirat al Zamanwzi, Al-Daraqutni considered Ibn Qutayba to be one of the innovators whose beliefs leaned towards anthropomorphism attributing direction, shape and image to God. He also claimed that Ibn Qutayba showed enmity towards Ahl al-Bayt. He wrote a treatise against Muʿtazilite Amr ibn Ubayd on the subject of anthropomorphic narrations in relation to God's attributes and defending the ambiguous texts by providing evidence for its authenticity.

Works
Several of al-Daraqutni's extant works have been published:

General hadith works

 * al-Sunan, his primary hadith collection.
 * Kitab al-du'afa wa-l-matrukin, an alphabetically ordered list of 632 hadith transmitters considered to be da'if or rejected.
 * al-'Ilal al-warida fi al-ahadith
 * al-Mukhtalif wa-l mu'talif fi asma al-rijal, a list of hadith transmitters who names are similar in spelling but differ in pronunciation.

Works on Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim
Al-Daraqutni wrote a series of commentaries, addendums and analyses of narrations contained within Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim.
 * Dhikr asma' al-tabi'in wa-man ba'dahum mimman sahhat riwayatuhuu min al-thiqat 'ind Muhammad ibn Isma'il al-Bukhari
 * Dhikr asma' al-tabi'in wa-man ba'dahum mimman sahhat riwayatuhu 'ind Muslim
 * al-Ilzamat ala sahiay al-Bukhari, a compilation of 109 narrations whose chains of narration, according to al-Daraqutni, satisfy the requirements for inclusion in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim.
 * Asma al-sahaba allati ittafaqa fiha al-Bukhari wa-Muslim wa-ma infarada bihi kull minhuma
 * Kitab al-tatabbu'
 * Kitab fi dhikr riwayat al-sahihayn

Kitab al-tattabu
In his Kitab al-tatabbu', al-Daraqutni reviews 217 narrations within the two collections which he deems to be flawed using both isnad and matn criticism. Reasons given include the isnad not meeting the requirements for inclusion in the collections, and the commentary of the hadith's transmitters being inadvertently merged with its matn. Jonathan A. C. Brown cautions that the work is an adjustment to the two collections rather than an attack on their overall integrity.

Works on theology

 * Kitāb as-sifāt, a collection of hadiths concerning the attributes of God.
 * Kitab al-Ru'ya, a collection of hadiths concerning the vision of Allah on the Day of Judgement.
 * Ahadith An-Nuzūl, a collection of hadiths concerning the descent (nuzūl) of Allah from the heavens.

Other

 * Kitab al-qira'at, a work on the different recitations of the Quran.