al-A'mash: One Interesting Character

[Ibn Abi Ahmed]

Subhanallah, I really didn't give this Imaam his due right in my last post and I know I obviously still cannot but here's some more insight about him:

He was known as 'al-Mushaf', because of how precisely and perfectly he remembered the ahadeeth with their Sanad. If one were to pick up one any of the six major books of hadeeth and was to look at the Isnaads, al-'Amash would be there at least once every ten pages.

The reason behind him being very stringent in narrating ahadeeth was because of the era he lived in. That time was the era of the preservation of the hadeeth, and naturally everyone wanted in because if you were able to narrate even a small amount of ahadeeth, your name would go down in history books as a narrator of hadeeth. This is true, because until today we have knowledge about so many men that narrated hadeeth, so much so that scholars wrote volumes and volumes about them.
This obviously meant automatic fame. So naturally, people wanted that and many people started learning ahadeeth for the wrong reasons. Therefore, al-'Amash was very very selective about his students and would only teach those students he thought were actually sincere as opposed to wanting fame. This explains the story of why he hired a dog to guard his house from the students who came for hadeeth, and also why the students forced the poor man to put up with being spit on so that Al-'Amash would continue narrating for them. It used to be said that to get Al-'Amash to narrate hadeeth is like trying to pull out his teeth, meaning it would be so hard to get him to narrate.

His character may not have been the best, but the fact is he still one of the greatest Imaams. Some scholars even said that out of the many scholars of hadeeth and the many great narrators, one of the men that Allaah caused the ahadeeth to be preserved through was Al-'Amash rahimullah.

 

[Ummu Sufyaan]

wa alaykum us-Salaam wa rahmatullahi wa barakatu

jazakallahu khair...

Assalamu Alaykum Warahmatullahi Wabarakaatuh,

One time, a soldier wanted to cross a river. He came across al-A’mash, who was standing near the river, so he jumped on his back and had him walk through the water. When he jumped on al-A’mash, he recited ‘Glory to Him Who has provided this for us’ (سبحان الذي سخر لنا هذا - the supplication for riding a vehicle). When al-A’mash had gotten half way across the river, he threw the soldier off of his back, recited {“…My Lord! Cause me to land at a blessed landing-place, for You are the best of those who bring to land…“} [al-Mu'minun; 29] and left him in the river and ran away.

too cute!

 

[Re.TiReD]

One time, al-A’mash went out in the morning and passed by the mosque of Bani Asad. They were about to start praying, and he went inside and prayed. The imam recited ‘al-Baqarah’ in the first rak’ah, and recited ‘Al ‘Imran’ in the second. When he finished, al-A’mash said to him: “Will you not fear Allah? Did you not hear that the Messenger of Allah (صلى الله عليه و سلم) said: “Whoever leads the people in prayer should go easy, as there are those behind him who are old, weak, and have needs to tend to.”” So, the man said: “Allah Said: {“…and it is heavy except on those who have khushu’…”} [al-Baqarah; 45] So, al-A’mash said: “I am a messenger sent from those who have khushu’ telling you that you are heavy.”

;D