The Biography of Ibn Lahi'ah

The Shaykh : Ibn Lahi'ah, look, he was in the middle between al-Layth and Ibn 'Amir, this preacher al-Mansur. Ibn Lahi'ah was first a judge in Egypt, and this naturally means he had a high status. Then he was a hadith scholar who narrated a lot. But regarding hadith, he has two states: sometimes he is cited as evidence and sometimes he is not. The reason was his preoccupation with the judiciary, and this is the nature of a person: when he specializes in one thing, he weakens in another. This is the Sunnah of Allah in His creation. So, Abu Hanifa specialized in fiqh and was not strong in hadith. This man was a judge and was not strong in hadith. He knew this about himself, so when he narrated, he would not narrate except from a book to control his memory and recollection. Then Allah decreed that his library burned down, so he began narrating from the remnants left in his memory. Consequently, confusion and mixing appeared. For example, a hadith that was mawquf (stopping at a Companion) he would marfu' (trace to the Prophet). A hadith that was marfu' to the Prophet, he would say, "So-and-so the Companion said." A hadith that was munqati' (broken chain) he would connect. There are many known errors in the science of terminology. So now, in this era, we only know the hadith of Ibn Lahi'ah from the books of the Imams of hadith. If Ibn Lahi'ah narrated and specific people narrated from him—most of them from the 'Abdullahs, their names are Abdullah, Abdullah, Abdullah—among them is Abdullah ibn Wahb, whom we mentioned before, and among them is Abdullah ibn al-Mubarak, and among them is Abdullah ibn Yazid al-Mukhbir. These three 'Abdullahs, when they narrate from Ibn Lahi'ah, their hadith is sahih (authentic). Why? Because they narrated from him before his books burned. And there are other people at this level, for example, as mentioned earlier, the narration from al-Layth by Qutaybah ibn Sa'id. He is also Egyptian. He too, when he narrates from Ibn Lahi'ah, his hadith is sahih. If anyone other than these people narrates from Ibn Lahi'ah, his hadith is not accepted, because it is feared that he narrated after his books burned. So the point is that Ibn Lahi'ah had a status and he had prestige, and he was a judge. Therefore, al-Layth says, "I have not heard of anyone greater than Ibn Lahi'ah by three years."