Jami At Tirmidhi / Islamic Book Store (ePub)

Biography of Imam At-Tirmidhi

At-Tirmidhi's full Name and Lineage:

His full name is Muhammad ibn Eisa ibn Sawrah ibn Musa ibn Ad-Dahhak At-Tirmidhi Al-Bughi As-Sulami, from the well-known Arab tribe of Sulaim ibn Mansur. He is the compiler of the well-known book of Hadith "Jami At-Tirmidhi" which is distinguished by At-Tirmidhi's unique approach of the classification and verification of Hadiths. Imam At-Tirmidhi is one of the outstanding scholars of Hadith who spent their lives in narrating and verifying the Hadiths of the Prophet (S.A.W.). Amr ibn Alak said:

"When Muhammad ibn Ismail Al-Bukhari died, he did not leave behind anyone in Khurasan like Abu Eisa (At-Tirmidhi), in terms of knowledge and God-fearing."

At-Tirmidhi's Birth and Early Life:

Abu `Eisa was born in the beginning of 209 AH (824 CE) in Tirmidh (now Surxondaryo Region in Uzbekistan). His grandfather was from Marw. Scholars differed whether he was born blind or not but the correct view is that he was not born so but he lost his eyesight in his old age because of his abundant study of Hadith. Ibn Kathir said:

"It appears from the state of At-Tirmidhi that blindness happened to him after he travelled, heard (Hadiths), wrote, argued and compiled (Hadith books). Abu Eisa was exceptionally distinguished by his matchless capacity of memorizing Hadiths."

Ibn Al-Imad Al-Hanbali said:

"He (At-Tirmidhi) ex-celled all his peers, and was a prodigy in memorization and proficiency."

Imam At-Tirmidhi devoted his whole life for learning and studying Hadith. He travelled a lot and learned under the greatest scholars of Hadith, such as Imam Al-Bukhari who left a great effect upon our scholar Abu Eisa At-Tirmidhi.

At-Tirmidhi's Pursuit of Knowledge:

Imam At-Tirmidhi was bent on learning Hadith. He travelled to numerous places and narrated Hadiths from many persons. He travelled to Al-Hijaz, Basra, Kufah, Baghdad, Ar-Rayy and Khurasan.

Al-Hafiz Al-Mizzi said:

"He toured the cities and heard from a great number of people from Khurasan, Iraq, Al-Hijaz and other places."

It is narrated that he took Hadith from more than 200 narrators of Hadith.

The numerous journeys of Imam At-Tirmidhi helped him get high Isnad (chain of narrators). He took Hadiths from some of the teachers of both Imam Al-Bukhari and Imam Muslim, the teachers of Imam Al-Bukhari that Muslim did not narrate from, and the teachers of Imam Muslim that Imam Al-Bukhari did not narrate from. Not only that, he narrated Hadith from 42 narrators that the five Imams of Hadith (Imam Al-Bukhari, Imam Muslim, Imam Abu Dawud, Imam An-Nasai and Imam Ibn Majah) did not narrate from. Also, he narrated Hadiths along with five scholars of Hadith (Al-Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Dawud, An-Nasai and Ibn Majah) from the same 9 narrators of Hadith.

Hadith was not the sole knowledge that Imam At-Tirmidh acquired, he was an encyclopedic scholar. He was versed in other branches of knowledge, such as Fiqh, Islamic History, Arabic language and other sciences. He was renowned for his excellent understanding and deduction of the Fiqh rulings from Hadiths.