Muhammad ibn al-Munkadir

Muhammad b. al-Munkadir b. Abdallah b. al-Hudayr, the Qurashi Taymi of Medina, the imam and shaykh al-islam Abu Abdallah, brother of Abu Bakr and Umar; he heard Abu Hurayra (may God be pleased with him), Ibn Abbas, Jabir, Anas, Sa'id b. al-Musayyab, and a group besides them. ¹

Narrating from him were his son al-Munkadir, Shu'ba, Ma'mar, Rawh b. al-Qasim, the two Sufyans, Malik, and others; Ibn Uyayna said he was among the "lodestones of truthfulness" around whom the righteous gathered, al-Nasa'i called Ibn al-Munkadir a memoriser, al-Bukhari recorded his hearing from A'isha, and Malik said he was the master of the qur'an-readers — hardly anyone asked him about a hadith without his weeping. Ibn Uyayna also relates that Iyas b. al-Munkadir was an afflicted neighbour, and whenever the neighbour raised his voice in weeping Muhammad raised his in praise; from him comes the saying "I strove against my soul for forty years until it stood upright". ²

There is consensus on his reliability and his precedence in learning and practice; he belonged to Ata's layer but outlived it. At the point of death he is said to have grown deeply distressed, saying "I fear this verse — I fear God will exchange me for something I have not reckoned on". Al-Waqidi says he died in 130 AH. ²