Nafi' mawla Ibn Umar

Abu Abd Allah Nafi', the freedman (mawla) of Abdallah ibn Umar. He was of Daylamite origin, taken captive by his master on one of his campaigns, and became one of the greatest pious Successors; he heard Ibn Umar and Abu Sa'id al-Khudri, and al-Zuhri, Ayyub al-Sakhtiyani and Malik ibn Anas transmitted from him. ¹

Ibn Khallikan counts him among the most famous hadith transmitters and among the reliable authorities whose reports are transmitted, accepted as proof and acted upon; most of Ibn Umar's hadith runs through him. Malik said: when I heard Nafi's report from Ibn Umar, I did not mind not hearing it from anyone else. Scholars of hadith call the chain al-Shafi'i ← Malik ← Nafi' ← Ibn Umar the "golden chain" for the eminence of each of its transmitters. ¹

Abu Ishaq al-Shirazi relates in al-Muhadhdhab on Nafi's authority that while walking with Ibn Umar he passed a shepherd's pipe; Ibn Umar put his fingers in his ears and turned from the road, asking: Nafi', do you still hear it? until Nafi' said no; then he removed his fingers and returned to the road, saying: this is what I saw the Messenger of God ﷺ do. Ibn Khallikan notes that the jurists discussed a difficulty in this report and answered that Nafi' was then still a boy. ¹