Al-Naḍr ibn Muḥammad

Al-Naḍr ibn Muḥammad said: “I have never seen anyone who adheres to transmitted reports like Abū Ḥanīfa.” When told, in a question, that Abū Ghassān said such-and-such, he also said: “What do these youngsters say? The scrupulous Muslim jurist, who found it difficult to say anything unless it agreed with transmitted evidence, related to me.” He meant Abū Ḥanīfa.

Al-Naḍr ibn Muḥammad was from Kufa, had accompanied and sat with Abū Ḥanīfa, and was among his closest companions. He later settled in Marw, then set out on pilgrimage with an enslaved woman. In Kufa he met Abū Ḥanīfa, who welcomed him kindly and lodged him at his house. When he left for Mecca, he left the woman there. On returning, he asked Abū Ḥanīfa to have the attendant take her to a house in al-Kunāsa. Abū Ḥanīfa invited him to remain in a part of his house, but al-Naḍr refused. The attendant took the woman. When al-Naḍr wanted to spend the night with her, she said: “Do you not claim to be this man’s student?” He said yes. She said: “The distance between you and him is like that between heaven and earth.” He said: “Yes, in his jurisprudence, learning and insight.” She said no. “Then what?” he asked. She answered: “I was with him four months: no lunch or dinner was prepared for him, nor a bed. When night fell, he stood like a pillar until morning. Yet you cannot endure one night.” Al-Naḍr was distressed and spent the night apart from her. She said: “He fed us fine white bread and ate coarse food himself.”

Al-Naḍr ibn Muḥammad said: I heard Abū Ḥanīfa say: “There is no chapter of the Qurʾan with which I have not performed witr.”

He said: In another account, al-Naḍr ibn Muḥammad said: Abū Ḥanīfa said: “There is no verse of the Qurʾan with which I have not performed witr.” Bishr said: I asked al-Naḍr what this meant. He answered: He would read a portion, and when he reached witr, continue reading in witr from where he had stopped.

Al-Naḍr ibn Muḥammad said: I arrived in Kufa ten days after Ḥammād ibn Abī Sulaymān’s death. I saw learned people visiting Abū Ḥanīfa. When asked ten questions, he hesitated over nine. I performed pilgrimage; on returning, I saw him asked ten questions without hesitating over one.