Ata ibn Abi Rabah

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Ata ibn Abi Rabah
عطاء بن أبي رباح
Mufti of Mecca
Succeeded byIbn Jurayj
Personal
Bornc. 25 AH/646 CE, Muwalladi l-Janad, Yemen, Rashidun Caliphate
Diedc. 115 AH/733 CE
Mecca, Umayyad Caliphate
ReligionIslam
ChildrenYaqub ibn Ata ibn Abi Rabah
Known forIslamic jurisprudence, hadith transmission
Muslim leader
Students
Influenced by

Ata ibn Abi Rabah (

Arabic: عطاء بن أبي رباح, romanized: ʿAṭāʾ ibn Abī Rabāḥ) was a prominent early Muslim jurist and hadith transmitter who served as the mufti of Mecca
in the late seventh and early eighth centuries.

Early life

Ata was born in the town of Muwalladi l-Janad in

Uthman ibn Affan's reign, c. 25 AH/646 CE. His mother was a Nubian basket weaver while his father was named Aslam who is described as being dark-skinned and flat-nosed. He was a cripple and possessed a limp, and while he was born with one healthy eye, he later went completely blind.[1]

Life as a scholar

Ata was raised in Mecca as a

Abu Hurairah and Jabir ibn Abd Allah. His most prominent students were Ibn Jurayj and Qays ibn Sa'd. In 93 AH/711 CE, he was imprisoned on suspicion of being a murji' at the behest of Al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf, but was later released. Biographical sources disagree on the year of his death, but it is likely he died c. 115 AH/733 CE.[1]

Personal life

Ata had one child named Yaqub ibn 'Ata ibn Rabah.[3]

Legacy

Piety

Narrations in biographical works present Ata as a pious and virtuous man. He reportedly only wore simple clothing, performed the

Al-Baqarah in salah without moving despite reaching an advanced age.[1]

Hadith

Early hadith scholars, such as Yahya ibn Said al-Qattani, were critical of hadith that Ata had transmitted in mursal form, suspected he may have engaged in tadlis and noted that his intellectual faculties declined towards the end of his life. However, he was generally perceived as a reliable transmitter and later hadith critics such as Ahmad ibn Hanbal exonerated him from tadlis.[1] Several of Ata's students, including his son Yaqub and Ibn Jurayj, transmitted hadith from him in writing.[4]

One of the Most Famous Narration related to Ata ibn Abi Rabah is the Explanation of the Verse in the Quran, 'Man Hitting his Wife' which is in

Qur'an 4:34
.

'Ata ibn Rabah said: I said to

Ibn 'Abbas, what is the kind of hitting that is not harsh? He said, "Hitting with a siwak
and the like"

*** Click here to see the Authenticity of this Narration

*** Click here to Read the Explanation of Qur'an 4:34

Musannaf of Abd al-Razzaq

Ata is frequently cited as one of Ibn Jurayj's authorities in the

ra'y. Of the authorities cited in his traditions, 15% are companions of Muhammad, 10% are Quranic verses and 5% are hadith from Muhammad. According to Motzki, Ibn Jurayj attempted to reproduce Ata's narrations faithfully and the corpus lacked signs of fabrication.[5]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Motzki, Harald (2002). The Origins of Islamic Jurisprudence: Meccan Fiqh Before the Classical Schools. Translated by Katz, Marion H. Brill. pp. 246–262.
  2. ^ Motzki, Harald (2009-06-01). "ʿAṭāʾ b. Abī Rabāḥ". Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE. Retrieved 2020-08-03.
  3. ^ "'Ata' bin Abi Rabah عطاء بن أبي رباح". muslimscholars.info. Retrieved 2020-08-03.
  4. ^ al-Azami, Muhammad Mustafa (1978). Studies in Early Hadith Literature: with a critical edition of some early texts. Indiapolis, Indiana: American Trust Publications. p. 80.
  5. ISSN 0022-2968
    .
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ata_ibn_Abi_Rabah&oldid=1218765315"