Abu Hasan Ali ibn Umar ibn Ahmad ibn Mahdi al-Daraqutni (, 918 CE — 995 CE) was a 10th-century muhaddith best known for compiling the hadith collection Sunan al-Daraqutni. He was celebrated later by Sunni hadith scholars such as the "imam of his time" and the "amir al-mu'minin in hadith".
Biography
Birth
Al-Daraqutni was born in c. 918 CE/306 AH in the Dar al-Qutn () quarter of Baghdad, whence he got his nisba.
Education
Al-Daraqutni grew up in a house of knowledge and virtue, as his father was one of the trustworthy Hadith transmitters, and he watched him in his youth frequenting the circles of knowledge and hearing, memorizing his audios and narrations, and spending the clouds of his day learning and studying. His studies were initially largely restricted to his native Iraq, where he frequented Wasit, Basra and Kufa. Later in life, he travelled to Syria and Egypt and while in the latter, he enjoyed the patronage of the Ikhishid vizier Jafar bin al-Fadl for assisting him with compiling his own hadith collection.
Teachers
His teachers in his period include
Ibn Hibban
The son of Abu Dawood
Abu al-Qasim al-Baghawi
Ibn Mujahid, from whom he learned the different recitations of the Quran
Abu Sa'id al-Istakhri
Students
His students included the hadith scholars: Al-Hakim al-Nishapuri Abu Nu'aym al-Isfahani Abu Dharr al-Harawi Al-Baqillani Al-Sulami
Death
He died in 995 CE/385 AH and was buried in the Bab al-Dayr cemetery in Baghdad, near the grave of Maruf Karkhi.
Theological position
Al-Daraqutni was a committed follower of the Shafi‘i school, studying jurisprudence under the Shafi'ite scholar Abu Sa'id al-Istakhri. According to Al-Dhahabi under the authority of Al-Sulami, Al-Daraqutni was not a fan of kalam and did not engage in theological discussions. However, he supported the kalam that was with accordance to the Qu'ran and Sunnah, and this is evident based on his support for Al-Baqillani refuting against the Mu'tazilah and Karramiyya. His story with Al-Baqillani dispenses with prolongation in proving his adherence to the Ash'ari school.
If Baghdad's public milieu had been more supportive of middle-of-the-road traditionalism, Al-Daraqutni, a Shafi'te inhabitant, would have rejected the anthropomorphic account as unreliable. However, the Hanbali extremists who controlled Baghdad made it nearly difficult to reject the anthropomorphic version. The poem gives precise instructions to the Muhaddithun, who were perplexed when they came across these two distinct, if not contradictory, writings, in addition to the implicit preference for the mild version over the anthropomorphic one. Al-Daraqutni bluntly described the most crucial aspect of the Ash'arite method of transmission in this short poem: a systematic insistence on a strict transmission procedure in which the text was communicated verbatim without any verbal or gestural embellishments. Al-Daraqutni undoubtedly saw this stringent procedure as a defence against anthropomorphism. In other words, Hanbalite violence forced Baghdad's middle-of-the-road traditionalists to accept the anthropomorphic version in the tenth century.
He wrote a treatise against Muʿtazilite Amr ibn Ubayd on the subject of anthropomorphic narrations in relation to God's attributes and defending the ambiguous texts by providing evidence for its authenticity. According to Ibn al-Jawzi's book entitled Mirat al Zamanwzi, Al-Daraqutni considered Ibn Qutayba to be one of the innovators whose beliefs leaned towards anthropomorphism attributing direction, shape and image to God. He also claimed that Ibn Qutayba showed enmity towards Ahl al-Bayt.
Works
Several of al-Daraqutni's extant works have been published:
General hadith works
al-Sunan, his primary hadith collection. Kitab al-du'afa wa-l-matrukin, an alphabetically ordered list of 632 hadith transmitters considered to be da'if or rejected. al-'Ilal al-warida fi al-ahadith al-Mukhtalif wa-l mu'talif fi asma al-rijal, a list of hadith transmitters who names are similar in spelling but differ in pronunciation.