Abu Hurairah

Abu Hurairah embraced Islam through Tufayl ibn Amr, the chieftain of his tribe, as Tufayl had returned to his village after meeting Muhammad and became a Muslim in the early years of his mission.[3] Abu Hurairah was one of the first to respond to his call, unlike the majority of Tufayl's tribesmen, who embraced Islam later. Abu Hurairah accompanied Tufayl to Mecca to meet Muhammad who renamed him Abd al-Rahman ("servant of the Merciful") from Abd al Sham, or some said Abd al Ghanm.[5] It was said that he found a stray kitten, so he took it in his sleeve, which is the reason he was named Abu Hurairah (father of the kitten).[3][5]

During his early years embracing Islam in Medina, Abu Hurairah became disciple of Suffah.[6]^: 129 Abu Hurayrah spent 2 years 3 months approximately in the company of Muhammad[7] and went on expeditions and journeys with him.[8] However, according to Safiur Rahman Mubarakpuri in his The Sealed Nectar, the Dhat ar-Riqa' campaign took place after the fall of Khaybar and not as part of the invasion of the Najd. This is supported by the fact that Abu Hurairah and Abu Musa al-Ash'ari witnessed the battle as Abu Hurairah embraced Islam only some days before Khaybar, and Abu Musa Al-Ash'ari came back from Abyssinia and joined Muhammad at Khaybar. The rules relating to the prayer of fear which Muhammad observed at Dhat Ar-Riqa' campaign, were revealed at the Invasion of the 'Asfan and this, scholars such as al-Dhahabi,[3] has recorded the invasion were took place after the Battle of the Trench, which nodded by Mubarakpuri.[9] Nevertheless, consensus of Muslim historians has placed that Abu Hurairah came into historical record after the battle of khaybar.[10] Then he afterwards participated in battle of Mu'tah, conquest of Mecca, battle of Hunayn, and Expedition of Tabuk.[10]

Abu Hurairah were recorded has participated during the Expedition of Dhat al-Riqa'which took place in the Najd, a large area of tableland in the Arabian Peninsula in Rabi' al-Thani or Jumada al-awwal, 4 AH (or the beginning of 5 AH), as Muhammad received the news that certain tribes of the Ghatafan were assembling at Dhat al-Riqa' with suspicious purposes.[11] The Muslim fighters penetrated deep into their land until they reached a spot called Nakhla, where they came across some bedouins of Ghatafan.[11][9]

Later, Abu Hurairah were sent as Muezzin to al-Ala al-Hadhrami.[3] And Muhammad entrusted him with some works such as preserving Ramadan zakat funds.

According to Ahmad ibn Hanbal, after the death of Muhammad, Abu Hurairah participated in quelling the rebellions in Ridda wars under Abu Bakr al Siddiq.[12]

Later, after Abu Bakar passed away, in the era of Umar reign, Abu Hurairah actively participated in the Muslim conquest of Persia.[13] Later, he became governor of medieval Bahrayn province, or Eastern Arabia encompassing the modern day Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Arabian gulf, and UEA.[3][14] One day, Abu Hurairah brought his personal wealth, amounted to 10,000 gold dinar, to Medina, which he managed to amass such wealth through horse breedings, and spoils of war.[15] However, such massive amount of Dinar caused Umar to be suspicious and not immediately believe it was Abu Hurairah pure personal wealth, and accusing him to engage in Bayt al-mal corruption.[15] Thus, Umar had his wealth confiscated before engaging thorough examinations and reverse inspection towards Abu Hurairah treasury whether he is lying or not.[15] However, Abu Hurairah found innocent of all accusation and Umar asked him again to govern Bahrayn, which was turned down by Abu Hurairah.[15]

After the tenure of his governorship, Abu Hurairah return to Medina and worked as Qadhi judge and passing down Fatwa verdicts during his career.[3][6]^: 357

During the siege of Uthman, Abu Hurairah were trying to defend Uthman ibn Affan, although he was, like other who trying to save Uthman, were powerless to stop the protesters that surrounded Uthman's house.[5] Nevertheless, Abu Hurairah continued to work as Mufti after the death of Uthman.[3]

Later, during the reign of Marwan ibn Hakam, the caliph once testing Abu Hurairah about his hadiths memory, and one year later, he tasked Abu Hurairah to help the caliphate secretary to audit any hadiths circulated within the caliphate realm.[6] During this time, Abu Hurairah and Zayd ibn Thabit warned caliph Marwan against the practice in Yanbu of using Sukuk (financial certificate) as commodity of transaction, as according to the two Sahabah, as trading Sukuk as commodity were disallowed in Sharia.[16]

Al Baqi cenetery, place where Abu Hurairah were buried

The Mausoleum of Abu Huraira in 2010

Abu Hurairah spent the rest of his life teaching hadith in Medina, except for a short period as governor of Eastern Arabia (then called "Bahrayn") during the reign of Umar, and when he was the governor of Medina during the early Umayyad Caliphate. Abu Hurairah died in 681 CE (59AH) at the age of 78 and was buried at al-Baqi'.[17] After his death, Abu Hurairah was credited with narrating at least 5,374 Ahadith.[18][19]

His funeral prayer were attended by Abdullah ibn Umar, Abu Sa'id al Khudri and the prayer was led by Walid ibn Utbah, governor of Medina at the time.[3] Walid ibn Utbah wrote to Mu'awiyah about his death, who in turn brought ten thousand dirhams to heirs of Abu Hurairah and commanding the governor to take care the family of Abu Hurairah.[5][3]

In 1274 CE (673 AH) the Mausoleum of Abu Huraira was constructed in Yibna, at the order of the Mamluk Sultan Baibars. It has been described as "one of the finest domed mausoleums in Palestine."[20][21] After 1948, the Israelis have converted it into the ‘Raban Gamaliel tomb’.

The clan of Daws, which Abu Hurairah and Tufail ibn 'Amr hailed from, was a sub branch of Zahran tribe, as Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani recorded the linking line between Daws with Zahran were Daws ibn Udthan ibn Abdullah son of Zahran,[27] thus deemd by Awtabi as evidence for chroniclers that Daws clan were belonged to Azd, a Nabatean southern Arabs ancestor, through Zahran.[28] Al-Qalqashandi recorded Zahran is a great-great-great grandson Khalid ibn Nasr.[27] While Ibn Hazm reported Zahran is a descendant of Malik ibn Nasr al Azd al-Saba (Sabaeans) al-Qahtani.[29]

Regarding the Daws tribe, there are Hadiths from records of Al-Tirmidhi, Bukhari, and Muslim regarding the praise of Daws clan were on par with Quraysh, Ansar, and Banu Thaqif in the view of Muhammad.[30]

Regarding Aqidah (core creed of Islamic belief), The Book of Faith(Arabic: Kitab al Iman, كتاب الإيمان) a book observing the segment of faith on Islam which written by the 13th century Islamic scholar Ibn Taymiyyah, were also observing the Hadith narrations and the explanation from Abu Hurairah about the Hadiths as construction source of the Iman beliefs according to Salaf teaching, which characterize Ibn Taymiyyah thinking about reformation and Ijtihad.[38] In his other book, Ibn Taymiyyah also cited the Hadith of Abu Hurairah regarding the exaltation of the Muslim community as a whole, as they are the chosen Ummah by God to enforce the Al-Wala' wal-Bara'(commanding the rightness and forbidding the evilness an unjusts) doctrine.[39] While Ibn Taymiyyah also using the traditions of Abu Hurairah in the same book for the study of Tawheed.[40]

Meanwhile, Ibn Kathir has delved Islamic eschatology of his Tafsir in his booklet, Al- Nihayah fi al-Fitan wa al-Malahim, regarding the Day of Resurrection and Day of Judgment based by many hadith sources from the narrations of Abu Hurairah, including the emergence of Al-Masih ad-Dajjal and the heralds of "thirty liars" at the end of eras, and the descent of the prophet Jesus as savior who will help Muslims against Dajjal.[41]

Muhammad al-Bukhari has listed Abu Hurairah as one of his main sources in his book, Al-Adab al-Mufrad, addressing the question of perfecting Muslim manners such as filial piety, hospitality, good will, shukr (gratitude to God), and many others ethical section of Islamic belief.[42]

Based on the historical role of Abu Hurairah as among the few companions of the prophet who were allowed to issue fatwa verdicts,[43] Ibn Abbas also recorded personally asking Abu Hurairah to issue Fatwa.[3]

As the examination of Sunni Madhhabs thoughts as a whole were structurally based on Madhhab Sahabi or Qawl Sahabi (Hadiths which spoke and translated by Sahabah) such as Madhhab or Qawl Abu Hurairah,[44] The ruling jurisprudence for the four main Sunni Madhhabs heavily relied on the traditions of Abu Hurairah Hadiths and by extend, his Fatwa.[44] Fatwas issued by Abu Hurairah were compiled by 13 AD Shafiite scholar Taqi al-Din al-Subki has compilled the Fatwa from Abu Hurairah law verdicts in his book, Fatawa Abu Hurairah.[25] Abu Hurairah was involved in several traditional rulings regarding jurisprudence during the era of Rashidun, such as there are independent Athar tradition, which were called "Athar pledge of six Sahabah" consisted the collective traditional ruling from six prominent companions of the prophet: Ali, Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas, Abu Darda, Saʽid al-Khudri, Abu Hurairah, and Abu Shafiah to deny and forbid the using of Rosary or Prayer beads for Muslims, the six Sahabah ruling were supported by Abdullah ibn Masud and his disciples, as Ibn Masud argued the usage of beads for prayer were a Bidʻah (heretical unislamic ritual) that practiced by Kharijites.[45]

Abd al-Rahman Jaziri, professor at Al-Azhar University and chief inspector for the Ministry of Religious Endowment's Department of Mosques, has conclude that certain cases, each four Madhhabs sometimes even have Ijma (consensus) of same ruling which they taken from Abu Hurairah, such as the flogging of adulterers who has not married yet.[46]

Maliki Madhhab opus jurisprudence, Muwatta Imam Malik, also containing various hadiths that narrated by Abu Hurairah as the ruling cases basis.[47][48] It is due to Abu Hurairah narration regarding the punishment of flogging towards those who addicted with alcoholic and intoxicating substances, or drunkards, that Averroes, 12th AD Malikite scholar had ruled so in his book, Bidayat.[49] Averroes's Bidayat also giving reconciliatory explanation about a hadith of Abu Hurairah regarding the cleansing and washing the dead before Salat al-Janazah.[50]

Abu Hanifa of Hanafi Madhhab had taken the Marfu' Hadith from Abu Hurairah as obligatory for doing Sujud Tilawa prostration.[44]

Ahmad ibn Hanbal of Hanbali were also taken Abu Hurairah authentic Hadith which recorded by Abu Dawud al-Sijistani the allowance of Friday prayer to be done if the day were accidentally on the same day with Eid prayers, while Abu Hanifa even ruled the Friday prayer are still obligatory even if it happened in the same day with Eid.[44] On the fundamental scale, Hanbalite also using the consensus of the companions of the prophet, Abu Hurairah generation, as one of their source of law, while viewing the consensus of later generation scholars were diffused and prone to flaw.[51] The individual views of companions opinion were also given credence at certain degree by Hanbalite scholars.[51]

Shafiite also using the ruling of Abu Hurairah the allowance to recite Basmala loud and clear during Salah prayer.[52] This ruling found in Abu Hurairah hadith were also used by Muhammad ibn al-Uthaymeen, Hanbalite scholar and Saudi jurist who considered by David Commins to be one of the greatest Faqīh of the modern era,[53] In his fatwa for the similar question asked regarding the Basmala recitation matter.[54]

Meanwhile Bulugh al-Maram, collection of hadith pertaining specifically to Shafi'i jurisprudence work by Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani also listed many Abu Hurairah hadith as his resource.[55] Meanwhile, the book of Al-Nawawi's Forty Hadith, more known as Arba'in Nawawi which authored by Shafiite medieval scholar Al-Nawawi which regarded as one of the most eminent and revered authorities in Islamic jurisprudence, of the foundations of Islamic sacred law or Sharīʿah, also delved the selective hadith regarding core of Iman (Islam) and jurisprudential ruling from Abu Hurairah.[56] According to Muhammad ibn al-Uthaymeen in his commentary towards The Meadows of the Righteous book authored by al-Nawawi, Ijtihad (reasoning) of Abu Hurairah were taken by al-Nawawi for the rulings of Wudu (ablution ritual).[57]

Wahbah al-Zuhayli, 20th Syrian Shafiite scholar, said the Fatwa ruling from Abu Hurairah had it is own normative legality to be implemented.[58]

According to Muhammad Nasiruddin al-Albani in his book,Silsalat al-Hadith ad-Da'ifah the Madhhab of Abu Hurairah method were taken as guideline for Hadith studies scholars to evaluate Hadith validity, if they found a hadith with doubtful chain.[59] This method has been highlighted by Albani when evaluate the hadith regarding the rule about Tahharah or cleansing the body part which licked by a dog seven times.[59]

Bilal Philips, a Salafi preacher from Canada who was known for his preaching activity to three thousand US army veteran of the first Gulf War after the successful victory of Saudi-US coalition,[60] also listed several quotations from Abu Hurairah in his earlier work, Salvation Through of Repentance , regarding various matters of Islamic teaching, included Qadr Night and Friday prayers.[61]

Meanwhile, Ministry of Religious Affairs (Indonesia) and Indonesian Ulema Council has issued a ruling for the cleansing protocol to manage COVID-19 pandemic Muslim victims dead bodies based on the fatwa verdict of Abu Hurairah when managing dead bodies.[62] The same council worked together with Ministry of Health to issue formal decree of the obligation for Hajj pilgrims to undergo Meningitis vaccination,[63] on the basis of their ruling from Hadith of Abu Hurairah.[64]

Saleh Al-Fawzan, member of Council of Senior Scholars (Saudi Arabia) and Permanent Committee for Scholarly Research and Ifta and one of the most senior scholar Has listed most of his thoughts regarding Fiqh jurisprudence based on hadiths narrated by Abu Hurairah.[65]

Abu Hurairah were credited with over 5000 hadith (A. Kevin Reinhart states that 5,374 hadith have been attributed to Abu Hurairah),[66] that are attributed to Sunni hadith studies.[67] While regarding the chain (Sanad), according to Ali Ahmad as-Salus, the rough estimation if all accounts compiled, Abu Hurairah has possessed 500,374 chains of hadith, far much more than chains from Ibn Abbas, Aisha, Abdullah ibn Umar, and Abdullah ibn Masud.[68] Ibn Kathir has recorded the narration from Bukhari and Muslim regarding the law of a wife whose husband just passed away 40 days to Abu Hurairah.[35] His Hadiths hunting were not stopped after death of Muhammad, since Abu Hurairah were further searching Hadiths that possessed by Abu Bakr, Umar, Aisha, Fadl ibn Abbas, Basra ibn Abi Basra, Usama ibn Zayd, Ubayy ibn Ka'b, and also Ka'b al-Ahbar who collects Hadith from other sahabah.[3][5][69]

However, according to his own admission, Abu Hurairah said that Abd Allah ibn Amr ibn al-As had more Hadith than himself, since Ibn Amr diligently written every Hadith he heard, while Abu Hurairah admit he depends only to his extraordinary memory.[70]

Scholarship position of Abu Hurairah among Muslim community of his era contemporary were highlighted by Muhammad Sa'id Mursi, who recorded around 800 of his fellow Sahabah and Tabi'un disciples were taking Hadith from Abu Hurairah.[6]

According to the records from Ibn Hajjar and ad-Dhahabi, Abu Hurairah fellow Sahabah and Tabi'un who narrated hadiths from him were:[3][5]

According to ad-Dhahabi, the healthiest and authentic chain which end at Abu Hurairah were:[3]

• Abu Hurairah, through Ibn Sirin, through Ayyub al-Sakhtiani
• Abu Hurairah, through Ibn Sirin, through Abd Allah ibn Awn
• Abu Hurairah, Abdul Rahman bin Hormuz, through Abdullah ibn dhakwan
• Abu Hurairah, through Sa'id ibn ibn al-Musayyib, through Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri

According to Ali ibn al-Madini, ninth-century Hadith scholar, The most authentic chain that end in Abu Hurairah were:[71]

• Abu Hurairah, through Ibn Sirin, through Ayyub al-Sakhtiani, through Hammad ibn Zaid

According to Ahmad Muhammad Shakir, 18 AD Hadith scholar from Al-Azhar University, the most precious Hadith chain of narrators that came from Abu Hurayrah were:[72]

• Abu Hurairah, through Sa'id ibn ibn al-Musayyib, through Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri, through Malik ibn Anas
• Abu Hurairah, through Sa'id ibn ibn al-Musayyib, through Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri, through Ma'mar ibn Rashid
• Abu Hurairah, through Sa'id ibn ibn al-Musayyib, through Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri, through Sufyan ibn ʽUyaynah
• Abu Hurairah, through Ibn Sirin, through Ayyub al-Sakhtiani, through Hammad ibn Zaid
• Abu Hurairah, through Ubaidah ibn sufyan al hadhrami, through Ismail ibn al hakim
• Abu Hurairah, through Hammam ibn Munabbih, through Ma'mar ibn Rashid

According to Yasin Jibouri, several Shia scholars such as Ja'far al-Iskafi regarded Abu Hurayra as telling lies.[73] Same goes with Abu Rayyah, independent writer from Egypt who quoted medieval Shia source in his report regarding Abu Hurairah.[74] Certain Shia writers are known for doubting his authority as a narrator.[73] As Abdullah Saeed points out the writing from Abu Rayyah that Caliph Umar bin Khattab is recorded to repeatedly threaten Abu Hurayrah, noted at the time as a blatant self-promoter, with serious consequences due to his frequent misquote of the Prophet's words.[75]

However, researchers have found that the Sunni scholarly community unanimously regarded Abu Hurairah as trustworthy both classical medieval and modern contemporaries, and they though the allegation of the hadith falsification by Abu Hurairah were coming solely from Shia traditions, which not found in Kutub al-Sittah and other major Hadith works, as medieval scholars such as Dhahabi said that the criticism towards Abu Hurairah are not accepted even during the early times of Islam for several reasons, including because those who criticize Abu Hurairah themselves are known as Mudallis (defected or untrustworthy narrators) according to Jarh wa Ta'dil (biographical evaluation study) and Asbab wurud (chronological study of Hadith).[3] Which generally agreed by later era counterparts, which further adds that Jarh wa Ta'dil rulings only valid to evaluate Tabi'un or generations above them, while Sahabah generation are free and exempt from Jarh wa Ta'dil and accepted without exception, as long they are confirmed and identified by chroniclers as Sahabah.[76]

Safia Aoude and Ali al-Tamimi also highlighted, the narration of Umar threatening Abu Hurairaha, which quoted by Abdullah Saeed, were also came solely from a writer which influenced by Abu Rayyah,[77][78] Particularly from anonymous writer who has pen name "O. Hashem" who write his criticism towards Abu Hurairah in his book, Saqifah.[14] Several Sunni thinkers and scholars such as has been Mustafa al-Siba'i, Shuaib Al Arna'ut, along with director of Maktabah al-Haram al-Makki ash-Shariff(Library of the Great Mosque of Mecca) Abdur-Rahman al-Mu'allimee al-Yamani,[79] has criticized the sources which O. Hashem quoted only using falsified and inauthentic hadith according to standard of Bukhari, Sahih Muslim, Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, and Al-Dhahabi criterion of biography evaluation, while also questioning O. Hashim scholarly credibility as they though O. Hashem were driven by Shiite biased view on his critics.[14] While Muhammad ibn al-Uthaymeen dismissing such criticism towards Abu Hurairah which came from Shia traditions as he said they are simply "a tradition of error collection".[80]

According to Burhanuddin from Ministry of Religious Affairs, the scholars observation from Siba'i, Abdul Mun'im Shalih Al-'Ali, Dhiya'urrahman Al A'Dzamy, Muhammad Abu Syahbah, Shalahuddin Maqbul Ahmad, and Abdullah ibn Abdil Aziz An-Nashir, has found out the reason Abu Rayyah, has such inorganized method in his writing were because the background of Abu Rayyah though not came from proper academic learning, instead he was just influenced by the writings of Goldziher.[81]

Badri Khairuman from Kalijaga Islamic University, on the other side, has pointed out that Abu Rayyah critic towards Abu Hurairah were flawed according to the main principles of Biographical evaluation traditions and accusing Abu Rayyah relying on single source of 12th AD twelver Shia scholar, Allamah Al-Hilli.[76] Furthermore, the case of accusation of Abu Hurairah were nullified according to Badri, as Badri reasons it is impossible if Umar does not trust Abu Hurairah, while on the fact Umar were nominating Abu Hurairah twice as governor of Bahrayn and entrusting him to produce Fatwa in eastern Arabia, while on the last years of Umar, the caliph appoint Abu Hurairah as judge in Medina, the citadel of caliphate.[82] Badri concludes his thesis that the phenomena of Abu Rayyah writing came from the elementary and very small Abu Rayyah knowledge regarding the structural Hadith studies with proper methodology.[76] While scholar, Abdur-Rahman al-Mu'allimee al-Yamani gave short remarks that Abu Rayyah assessment towards Abu Hurairah came from biased view, not proper methodology of Hadith study.[83][84]