Ḥāmid ibn Ādam

The teacher Abū ʿAbd Allāh said: I heard Ḥāmid ibn Ādam say: I mentioned this to Yaʿlā ibn ʿUbayd al-Ṭanāfisī, who laughed and said: “This is well known among us.” Such was Sufyān’s initial condition; later he acknowledged Abū Ḥanīfa’s merit. Abū Saʿd al-Ṣaghānī, whose name was Muḥammad ibn Muntashir, said: I used to visit Abū Ḥanīfa. He asked: “Where have you come from?” I said: “I was with Sufyān.” Abū Ḥanīfa said: “You have come from a man whose like al-Aswad and ʿAlqama would have needed, had they been alive.” I then visited Sufyān, who asked where I had come from. I said: “From Abū Ḥanīfa.” He said: “You have come from a man with whom you find abundant knowledge and jurisprudence.” Sufyān then transmitted from Abū Ḥanīfa, from ʿUthmān ibn Rāshid, from ʿĀʾisha bint ʿAjrad, from Ibn ʿAbbās, concerning someone in major ritual impurity who omits rinsing the mouth and nose and prays: He repeats the prayer.

The teacher Abū ʿAbd Allāh said: I heard Ḥāmid ibn Ādam say: I heard Asad ibn ʿAmr say: Abū Ḥanīfa used to tell us: “When I tell you something for which I have not found a transmitted report, seek one: there may be a report concerning it.” One day he said: “If a man tells his wife, ‘By God, I shall not approach you for three months,’ he does not enter īlāʾ until he swears for four months.” He cited no report but told us to seek one. Later Saʿīd ibn Abī ʿArūba visited us; at that time he was foremost because of his extensive learning and visits to scholars. We asked him and he related, from ʿĀṣim al-Aḥwal, from ʿAṭāʾ, from Ibn ʿAbbās: If a man swears not to approach his wife for three months and leaves her for four months, he has not entered īlāʾ. We brought Abū Ḥanīfa this good news, and he rejoiced. We asked his evidence. He answered: “God’s Book: ‘For those who swear abstention from their wives, a waiting period of four months’ [Qurʾan 2:226]. I disliked venturing upon interpretation by my own opinion.”

The teacher Abū ʿAbd Allāh said: Ḥāmid ibn Ādam informed us: Salm ibn Sālim informed us: A man of Mecca, one of its best people, related to me: Abū Ḥanīfa spent nine nights at a man’s house in Mecca, and I never saw him sleep during them.