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Salam Brothers,

I would like to know what is the status of narrator Minhal Ibn Amr. I have read somewhere that he was a Shia, but still many Sunni scholars accepted his narrations. However, is it true that some scholars like Imam Razi, Yaha bin Ma'in, Shu'bah, etc have rejected his narrations? However here is a Hadith Website that cites narrations from Minhal Ibn Amr:-

https://hadithanswers.com/how-many-days-did-ibrahim-alayhis-salam-spend-in-the-fire/

The Main Question Is: is Minhal Ibn Amr reliable narrator, according to Yahya bin Ma'in, Imam Razi, Shu'bah, etc?

Thanks.

Medi1Saif
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Ren
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  • Well we could only answer if there's such a qualification, ibn Ma'in actually says he is trustworthy and sometimes he adds from his own (da'if?, fabricator?). Imam Ahmad didn't give a direct answer but named another rawy he'd prefer instead. – Medi1Saif Jun 27 '20 at 07:11
  • @Medi1Saif, I know that people here on stack exchange might not be that qualified to answer this question, but I really need to know if Yahya bin Ma'in and Shu'bah both rejected Minhal or not. You stated that Yahya bin Ma'in actually quoted him? Or Yahya bin Ma'in actually stated that he is trustworthy? If yes, then kindly provide some examples where he quoted Minhal bin Amr or stated that he is trustworthy. I plan to write a paper in which I will need to prepare a rebuttal to the Qadiani religion. I need to address trustworthiness of Minhal bin Amr in my paper. I hope you can understand. – Ren Jun 27 '20 at 08:38
  • Al-Bukhari has narrated from him in his Sahih(too?) and Sho'bah (who was his student) stopped narrating from him because he thought having heard music and singing from his house. This is actually what was reported from imam Ahmad via his son 'Abdullah by ibn Abi Hatim in his book on Jarh wa Ta'adeel. Al-Bukhari confirms that Sho' bah was among Minhal's students in his at-Tarikh al-Kabir. Generally there's no major reason to doubt his trustworthiness. Note that all these statements refer to Minhal ibn 'Amr al-Asadi al-Kufi there are many other rawys with the same name. – Medi1Saif Jun 27 '20 at 14:18
  • @Medi1Saif, can you please tell me where did Bukhari quote Minhal ibn Amr in his Sahih? This is important to me because I am investigating trustworthiness of Minhal ibn Amr and why Shu'bah rejected him. I have not come across any hadith in Sahih Bukhari who has the Narrator Minhal Ibn Amr. There is a narrator called "Abu Al-Minhal" in Sahih Bukhari 541. However, I am not sure if this "Abu Al-Minhal" is the same "Minhal Ibn Amr" we are talking about here. NOTE:- Different weak and trustworthy narrators can have the same name!

    Abu Minhal can be found here:-

    https://sunnah.com/bukhari/9/18

     – Ren Jun 27 '20 at 14:29
  • Yes my research on sunnah.com ended with the result that al-Bukhari narrated from him in his al-Adab al-Mufrad while the authors of the Sunan certainly narrated from him. Maybe the statement is about a hadith in the introduction of a chapter of the sahih or the term "Sahih" simply is an error or misunderstanding on my site. In the introduction of chapters or subcategories al-Bukhari doesn't quote the full chain and these ahadith however having a high degree of authenticity don't reach that of those he might quote later. For this kind of ahadith the search function is disabled. – Medi1Saif Jun 27 '20 at 14:47
  • @Medi1Saif- Where Bukhari quoted Minhal ibn Amr in Adab Al-Mufrad? . A Shia website says Dahabi stated in Mizanul I'tidal that Bukhari and Muslim have quoted Minhal ibn Amr. -? ' , ? – Ren Jun 27 '20 at 23:21
  • Except with Muslim -this is what I found so far- the authors of the Sunan and al-Bukhari compiled ahadith narrated via him. Note that in some sunni books the authors say if this is not al-Minhal ibn 'Amr al-Asadi we don't know him. Apparently his hadith appears in shi' a sources too and they actually have two Minhal ibn 'Amrs and they have different claims on whom of their imams he narrated from (without intermediate). Therefore it seems for me reasonable to display the hadith he might have narrated to clearly identify him. – Medi1Saif Jun 29 '20 at 14:45
  • @Medi1Saif - You wrote, "Note that in some sunni books the authors say if this is not al-Minhal ibn 'Amr al-Asadi we don't know him." ? According to THIS SOURCE, the person in Bukhari hadith is Minhal Ibn Amr Al-Asadi! – Ren Jun 29 '20 at 18:00
  • I'm not willing to answer your request by now unless I've gone further with my research and got all information I requested from you. I don't know of any person called Sho'bah which is considered an authority in 'Ilm al-Jarh wa a-Ta'adil, the Shu' bah' I know of is the famous rawy of imam 'Asim also known as Abu Bakr ibn' Ayash and whoms statements maybe among the reasons why Hafs is considered a weak hadith narrator and even fabricator among scholars of hadith (maybe wrongly due to confounding him with another Hafs). The same applies to ar-Razi who is rather known as a physician and mufassir. – Medi1Saif Jun 29 '20 at 19:26
  • While Yahya ibn Ma'in is an authority in this matter. But there are at least two versions of his work that have reached us so maybe he gave two different qualification on a person. This even happened to later scholars for example a-Dhahabis statements on rawys in his summary of al-Hakims Mustadraj may differ a lot from those he made in siyar a'lam an-Nubala' and later works such as Mizsn al-i'tidal. – Medi1Saif Jun 29 '20 at 19:29

2 Answers2

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The people differed on him, although the majority seem to have considered him Thiqah.

They include Yahya ibn Ma'in, an-Nasa'i, Al-'Ajli etc. Bukhari, Ibn Hibban and Ibn Khuzaimah have narrated from him in their Sahihs (where they only include authentic narrations).

His student Shu'bah has narrated from him, and it is said that he only narrated from those he considered thiqah. However it is also claimed that he stopped narrating from him when he heard the sound of music and singing from his house. But other scholars have noted that this is not a valid objection since it is based on negative speculation, he did not ask him about it so it is possible that there was some explanation or that Minhal was unaware of it happening.

As mentioned above, he is among the narrators relied upon by Bukhari. You can find his mention and details in Fath al-Bari's preface under the section: أسماء من طعن فيه من رجال البخاري, which is a section on criticized narrators.

Among the ahadith that Bukhari narrated from him in his Sahih includes:

حدثنا عثمان بن أبي شيبة، حدثنا جرير، عن منصور، عن المنهال، عن سعيد بن جبير، عن ابن عباس رضي الله عنهما، قال: كان النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم يعوذ الحسن والحسين، ويقول: إن أباكما كان يعوذ بها إسماعيل وإسحاق: أعوذ بكلمات الله التامة، من كل شيطان وهامة، ومن كل عين لامة

... from Minhal from Saeed ibn Jubayr from Ibn Abbas that he said:

The Prophet (ﷺ) used to seek Refuge with Allah for Al-Hasan and Al-Husain and say: "Your forefather (i.e. Abraham) used to seek Refuge with Allah for Ishmael and Isaac by reciting the following: 'O Allah! I seek Refuge with Your Perfect Words from every devil and from poisonous pests and from every evil, harmful, envious eye.'

— Bukhari

UmH
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    Good that was my second step looking for al-Minhal from Sai'd ibn Jubayr and other known sahabah (at least Anas ibn Malik) and tabi'yn he might have reported from. Well my impression so far is that he widley is accepted, but some of his narrations are doubtful. He us not known to be a narrator with a big repertoire nor as somebody who was seeking the audience to spread his narrations. – Medi1Saif Jun 28 '20 at 09:13
  • I just would like to add here something. Is Minhal Ibn Amr actually different from Abu Al-Minhal who is mentioned in Bukhari 541? Secondly according to the following source, Ibn Hajr regarded Minhal Ibn Amr as a "Sadooq" narrator in Lisan Al-Mizan https://isnad.io/rijaal?query=al-Minhal+bin+Amr+al-Asadi&page=1 – Ren Jun 28 '20 at 09:45
  • They are visibly different names, Ibn Hajr's commentary says that Abu Minhal is Saiyar bin Salama. – UmH Jun 28 '20 at 11:16
  • @UmH- However, Tirmidhi states something really different: "And Abu Al-Minhal's (a narrator) name is 'Abdur-Rahman bin Mut'im." (Tirmidhi 1311) – Ren Jun 28 '20 at 11:55
  • They are different persons. منهال بن عمرو is not سيار بن سلامة is not عبد الرحمن بن مطعم – UmH Jun 28 '20 at 12:21
  • أبو المنهال المذكور في هذا الإسناد غير أبي المنهال صاحب أبي برزة الأسلمي في حديث المواقيت واسم هذا عبد الرحمن بن مطعم واسم صاحب أبي برزة سيار بن سلامة – UmH Jun 28 '20 at 12:39
  • @UmH - So Shu'bah rejected Minhal bin Amr just because he heard music from his house? Well, that is obviously not a good reason to reject someone. Please can you provide the original Arabic reference that states that Shub'ah rejected Minhal for such reason? I need to include it in my paper. Thanks. – Ren Jul 10 '20 at 11:15
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Manhal Ibn Amr was from the tribe of Bani Assad and the people of Kufa and narrated from Imam Sajjad (as). He is considered one of the companions of Imam Sajjad (as) and Imam Baqir (as). Source: [Article revision(Tanghil Al Maghal), vol. 3, p. 251.] Manhal was one of the followers of Ahl al-Bayt (as) who lived in Sham. On the days when the captives of the Ahl al-Bayt were in the ruins of Sham, one day Imam Sajjad (as) came out and met him, and talks took place between the two, and the Imam spoke of the oppression of the Ahl al-Bayt and the severe period of captivity.

Source: [Murder of Hussein (Maqtal Al Hussain), Muqarram, p. 462, Al-Futuh, Ibn A'tham, vol. 5, p. 155.]

It is also narrated from him that while bringing the holy head of Imam Hussein (as) to Damascus, a man recited the verse of the Companions of the Cave. A voice came from Motahar: "Killing me and turning my head is more amazing than the story of the companions of the cave." Source: [Proof of guidance( Esbat Al Hoda), vol. 5, p. 193.] He also met with Imam Zin al-Abedin on his return trip from Mecca. The Imam asked him about the status of the attack (the killer of Ali Asghar), then cursed the accursed one. Manhal was arrested when he arrived in Kufa. At Mukhtar's behest, his arms and legs were amputated, then thrown into the fire. Manhal recounted the story of his meeting with the Imam and his curse on the attack. Mukhtar was happy that the Imam's prayer was answered by him.

Source: [Baharalanvar, vol. 45, p. 332, Ma'aref wa Ma'arif, vol. 5, p. 2143.]

اللهم صل علی محمد و آل محمد
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