Hammad ibn Salama

Hammad ibn Salama ibn Dinar, Abu Salama of Basra, was one of the most prolific memorisers of hadith and a teacher of Shu'ba. He recited the Qur'anic readings from 'Asim and Ibn Kathir, and died in 167 AH while praying in the mosque. ²

Wuhayb ibn Khalid called him "our master and the most learned of us"; Ahmad ibn Hanbal said he was the most knowledgeable of Thabit al-Bunani's reports and the firmest in Humayd al-Tawil's. Yahya ibn Ma'in accredited him and Ibn al-Madini counted him a proof among narrators, while 'Affan wrote some thirteen thousand reports from him. Al-Dhahabi nonetheless relays al-Hakim's criticism of his memory and of combining several transmitters under one wording, and summarises him as "truthful, an authority", though short of Hammad ibn Zayd's precision. ³

When he earned a small profit on a garment in the market he would tie up his robe and sell nothing more that day. He never narrated until he had read a hundred verses in the codex, and he said: "If the ruler summons you to recite 'Say: He is God, One' for him, do not go." ²