`Abd al-Rahman ibn `Amr ibn Yuhmad Abu
`Amr al-Awza`i (88-158), Shaykh al-Islam, the Wise Scholar of the
People of
Sham, one of the mujtahid imams of the Salaf along with the Four Imams,
Sufyan
al-Thawri, al-Tabari, Dawud al-Zahiri and others, the first - with Ibn
Jurayj
and Abu Hanifa - to compile the Sunna of the Prophet -- Allah bless and
greet
him -- and the Companions under fiqh subheadings. Born orphaned and
poor in
Ba`labak and raised in al-Kark in the Bekaa valley, he came to live in
the area
known as - and populated by - "the variegated tribes" (al-Awza`) in
Damascus then moved to Beirut where he remained garrisoned until his
death, his
fame having spread to the entire Islamic world of his time. One of
those who
combined assiduous worship with science and the affirmation of truth,
he is
considered a Proof in himself (hujja) as a narrator, known for
his superlative
understanding of the Law, great erudition, and piety. Al-Shafi`i said:
"I
never saw a man whose fiqh resembled his hadith more than al-Awza`i."1
He
narrated from a host of Tabi`in, among them `Ata' ibn Abi Rabah, Abu
Ja`far
al-Baqir, `Amr ibn Shu`ayb, Makhul - whom he surpassed in knowledge, -
Qatada,
Rabi`a ibn Yazid al-Qasir, Bilal ibn Sa`d, al-Zuhri, Yahya ibn Abi
Kathir - his
first shaykh,- `Abd al-Rahman ibn al-Qasim, `Ata' al-Khurasani,
`Ikrima,
`Alqama, Ibn al-Munkadir, al-Walid ibn Hisham, Muhammad ibn Sirin,
Nafi` - Ibn
`Umar's freedman - and many others. From him narrated his two shaykhs
al-Zuhri
and Yahya ibn Abi Kathir, Shu`ba, al-Thawri, Malik, Sa`id ibn `Abd
al-`Aziz,
Isma`il ibn `Ayyash, Baqiyya, Yahya al-Qattan, and many others.
Al-`Abbas
ibn al-Walid said: I never saw my father admire anything in the
world as much as he admired al-Awza`i. He used to exclaim about him:
"Glory to You! You do what You wish." O my son! Kings are powerless
to discipline themselves and their own children the way that al-Awza`i
disciplined himself. I never in my life heard him say an excellent word
except
the listener was bound to observe that it applied to him. Nor did I
ever see
him laugh without restraint. Whenever he addressed the subject of our
return to
our Maker, I would say to myself: I wonder, is there one heart in this
gathering that is not weeping?
Al-Hiql said: "Al-Awza`i gave replies
covering about seventy thousand issues." `Abd al-Rahman ibn Mahdi said:
"The People (al-nas) in their time were four: Hammad ibn Zayd in
al-Basra,
al-Thawri in al-Kufa, Malik in al-Hijaz, and al-Awza`i in al-Sham."2
Isma`il
ibn `Ayyash said: "I heard people say, in the year 140, that in our day
the wise scholar of the Umma is al-Awza`i." When the latter came to
Mecca,
Sufyan al-Thawri walked ahead of him shouting: "Open the way for the
Shaykh!" Malik compared the two saying: "One of them [Sufyan] is more
knowledgeable than the other, but is not fit to be the Imam [i.e. the
Caliph],
while the other [al-Awza`i] is." This was also the opinion of
al-Fazari,
`Ali ibn Bakkar, and Ibn al-Mubarak.
He was fearless in telling the truth to
princes. After massacring the Banu Umayya, the harsh king `Abd Allah
ibn `Ali -
al-Saffah's uncle - summoned him and asked him in front of his court:
"What is your opinion of what we have done?" Al-Awza`i related:
"I thought to myself and decided to tell him the truth, bracing for
certain death. I narrated to him the hadith: `Actions are only
according to
intentions.'3 He said: `What do you say about our killing the people of
that
dynasty?' I narrated to him the hadith: `Killing a Muslim is forbidden
except
in three cases: adultery after marriage, apostasy after Islam, and
unlawful
manslaughter.'4 He continued: `Tell me about the caliphate, is it not
our
inheritance as stipulated by the Prophet -- Allah bless and greet him?'
I
replied: `Had this been the case, `Ali - Allah be well-pleased with him
- would
have never left anyone come before him.' He said: `But what do we say
about the
treasury of the Banu Umayya?' I replied: `If they were licit to them,
they are
illicit to you, and if they were illicit to them, they are even more
illicit to
you.'"
Al-Awza`i did not rise from his place of
morning prayer until sunrise, and the sun did not pass the zenith
except he was
seen standing in prayer. Al-Walid ibn Mazyad said: "No-one surpassed
him
in intensity of worship."Among his sayings:
* Marwan al-Tatari said that al-Awza`i
said: "Whoever stands in prayer at night at length, Allah shall make
the
station of the Day of Resurrection easy for him."
* Al-Walid ibn Muslim and `Abd Allah ibn
al-Mubarak related that al-Awza`i said: "This science was noble, men
would
transmit it to one another, but when it spread to books, those other
than its
rightful custodians became involved with it."5
* "Whoever holds on to the rare and
unusual positions of the scholars has left Islam." This is similar to
Ibn
`Abd al-Salam's saying: "There is no good in one who over-maneuvers (yatahayyal)
so as to impose his doctrine despite its weakness and the fact
that his evidence is far removed from the truth - whether he interprets
the
Sunna, or the Consensus, or the Book - standing on bases that are
neither right
nor true, through corrupt figurative interpretations and rare
responses."6
* "The Book stands in greater need to
the Sunna than the Sunna to the Book." Ibn `Abd al-Barr said: "That
is because the Sunna expounds the meaning of the Book (and not vice
versa)."7
* Al-Walid ibn Mazyad said that al-Awza`i,
asked about humility (khushu`) in prayer, replied: "Downcast
gaze,
lowering the wing of submission, and softness of heart which is sorrow
and
dread." He also said: "I saw al-Awza`i, he was like a blind man due
to his humility."
* Al-Walid heard al-Awza`i define the
naïve (al-ablah) as "he who is in blind ignorance of evil but
acutely
discerning of goodness."
* "Whoever remembers death much, a
little suffices him for livelihood; and whoever realizes that his
utterances
are counted as deeds, his speech becomes spare."
* `Abd Allah ibn Ahmad narrated from
al-Hasan ibn `Abd al-`Aziz from `Amr ibn Abi Salama al-Tinnisi that
al-Awza`i
said: "I saw myself as if carried up by two angels who camped me in
front
of the Lord of Power and Might. He said to me: `Are you my servant `Abd
al-Rahman who commands good deeds?' I replied: `By Your Power and
Might! You
know best.' Then they descended again and brought me back where I first
was."
Among al-Awza`i's notable rulings is that
the thigh is part of a man's legal nakedness in the mosque, but not in
the
bath.8
Muhammad ibn `Abd al-Rahman al-Sulami
said: "I saw al-Awza`i, he was of above-average build, slim, somewhat
swarthy, and he used henna." He used to wear a round turban without a
hanging extremity (`adhaba). Al-Dhahabi said: "In addition to
his
brilliance in the science and his foremost rank in works, he was also a
master
in the art of writing letters." Four communities attended his funeral
in
Beirut: the Muslims carried his bier, followed by the Jews, the
Christians, and
the Copts. Yazid ibn Madh`ur said: "I saw al-Awza`i in my sleep and
asked
him: `Show me a level by which to draw near to Allah.' He replied: `I
did not
see a level higher than that of the wise scholars of knowledge (al-`ulama'),
and, after it, that of the grief-stricken (al-mahzunin).'" SAN
7:86-104
#1049.
1 A reference to al-Awza`i's faithful application
of his knowledge in his life.
2 This is a notable example of the use of
al-nas to mean the major ulamas.
3 Narrated from `Umar by Bukhari and
Muslim.
4 Narrated from Ibn Mas`ud by Bukhari,
Muslim, and in the Four Sunan; from `Uthman by al-Tirmidhi (hasan),
al-Nasa'i,
Ibn Majah, Ahmad, al-Hakim (4:350), al-Shafi`i in his Musnad, al-Bazzar
in his
Musnad; and from `A'isha by Abu Dawud. See al-Bayhaqi's Kitab
al-Murtadd in
Ma`rifa al-Sunan (12:237-258).
5 This statement refers to the books which are
passed on for circulation as in modern times, not to those used by the
early
narrators as mnemonic records when narrating. It is established that
early
hadith narrators did not narrate except from record, as demonstrated by
M.M.
Azami and others. 'Abd Allah ibn Ahmad ibn Hanbal said: "I never saw my
father narrate except from a book, save less than a hundred hadiths."
In
al-Dhahabi, Siyar A`lam al-Nubala' (9:457). The best source
on the proof-texts
for this fact is al-Khatib al-Baghdadi's book Taqyid al-'Ilm
("The
Tethering of Knowledge"). This title is taken from Anas's saying:
"Tether knowledge with writing" (qayyidu al-'ilma bi al-kitab).
Anas
also said: "We would not consider as knowledge the knowledge of those
who
did not write down their knowledge." Taqyid (p. 96-97). See
also al-Hakim
al-Tirmidhi's chapter entitled "Writing is the means to tether
knowledge
and preserve it from oblivion" in his Nawadir al-Usul (p.
39-41).
6 Ibn `Abd al-Salam, Al-Qawa`id al-Sughra
(p. 144).
7 Narrated by al-Darimi and others and
cited by Ibn `Abd al-Barr in Jami` Bayan al-`Ilm (2:1193-1194
#2351). and
al-Shatibi in al-Muwafaqat (Salafiyya ed. 1343 4:10).
8 The rulings of the Four Schools agree
that the definition of "nakedness" (`awra) for a man is all that
is above
the knees and below the navel front and back whether in public or
private.
Among the proofs for this is the Prophet's -- Allah bless and greet him
--
saying: "The [man's] thigh is nakedness." Narrated from Jarhad
al-Aslami, `Ali, and Muhammad ibn Jahsh - with three sound chains
according to
al-Arna'ut - by Abu Dawud, Ibn Majah, Ahmad, Malik, al-Hakim
(4:180-181), Abu
Ya`la in his Musnad (#331), al-Tahawi in Sharh Mushkil
al-Athar (4:401-406
#1697, #1699, #1700, #1704), al-Baghawi in Sharh al-Sunna
(9:21-22), Ibn Hibban
in his Sahih (4:609-611), and others. Al-Tahawi said in
Sharh Ma`ani al-Athar
(1:474): "Mass-narrated, sound reports from the Prophet -- Allah
bless and
greet him -- have reached us that the thigh is nakedness." Al-Kattani
cited
it in Nazm al-Mutanathir.