Imam Nasai– A great Imam of Hadith

 

Imam Nasai– A great Imam of Hadith

(May Allah shower His Mercy on him)

 

Among the Imams of the Sihah Sittah – the six most authenticated books of Hadith, Imam Abu ‘Abdur Rahman Nasai (May Allah shower His Mercy on him) occupies an important place.  Hafidh Abu ‘Ali Nishapuri says:  In my land and out of it, I have seen only 4 Imams of Hadith – Muhammad bin Ishaq in Nishapur and Ibrahim bin Abi Talib, Nasai in Egypt and ‘Abdan in Ahwaaz.

 

Abul Hasan bin Muzaffar has said:  All our Shaykhs of Egypt accept the superiority and Imamate of Imam Nasai.  Hafidh ‘Ali bin 'Umar says: Imam Nasai is superior over all his contemporaries in the science of Hadith.

 

Hafidh Ibn Hajar ‘Asqalani writes that Imam Nasai is very meticulous in the science of classification of narrators (Asmaa ur Rijaal), reliable and superior over all his contemporaries.  He also says that a group of the scholars of the science of classification of narrators have ranked Imam Nasai over Imam Muslim bin Hajjaj.  In the sciences of Hadith, Daraqutni, etc. have ranked Imam Nasai over even the Imam of the Imams Abu Bakr bin Khuzaima.

 

Hafidh Shamsuddin Dhahabi writes that in matters of science of Hadith and the science of the classification of narrators, Nasai is even more of an expert than Muslim, Tirmidhi and Abu Dawood and is way inferior in no way to Abu Dhar’a and Bukhari.

 

Thus, Imam Nasai is revered by the experts of the science of Hadith and is popular among the aficionados of Hadith.  He lived for Hadith and passed away in service of it.

 

Imam Nasai (May Allah shower His Mercy on him) wrote many books.  Some of them are:

 

Sunan Kubra

Al Mujtaba

Kitaab Ut Tamyeez

Kitaab Ul Mudalliseen

Kitaab Udh Dhu’afa

Kitaab Ul Jarah Wat Ta’adeel

Masheekhatun Nasai

 

[Excerpted from Tadhkiratul Muhadditheen]