# How could Abu Hurayra narrate 5,000 hadith after only two years with the Prophet?

*Abu Hurayra's five thousand hadith, Umar's threat, and the Ruqayya comb report*

- URL: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/eokcnwggiba/s/34/
- Date: 2021-01-26 · Kind: question · Transcript tier: machine · Recording: Monday Nights with Mufti #199 | Q&A Unscripted & Unrestricted! 😉 | Mufti Abu Layth (2:50:05–2:59:20)
- Status: general teaching
- Watch from the start of the segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoKcNwGGIBA&t=10205s
- Recording page: https://muftiabulayth.org/r/eokcnwggiba/

**Topics:** The companions; Narrator criticism; Text criticism, reason and the Quran

**Question as asked:** Can you speak a bit about Abu Hurayra, who spent the last two years with the Prophet, his five thousand hadith, and Umar asking him to stop narrating hadith?

**Summary (not a quotation; machine-made, unchecked):** Mufti Abu Layth says it is implausible that Abu Hurayra narrated so much after about two years with the Prophet, that Umar restrained him, and that impossible reports such as the Ruqayya comb story should be rejected by Sunnis themselves.

**Checked position (checked by two independent reviews, not by the channel):** Mufti Abu Layth says it is implausible that Abu Hurayra, who spent about two years with the Prophet, narrated some five thousand hadith, that false memories likely entered his reports, and that Sunnis should themselves reject reports that are factually impossible.

**Evidence, his words at 2:50:19:** “i definitely think that a lot of you know there was a lot of um maybe false memories being transmitted and stuff like that” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoKcNwGGIBA&t=10219s)

## Longer summary

Asked about Abu Hurayra, who spent only the last two years with the Prophet yet narrated some five thousand hadith, and Umar telling him to stop, Mufti Abu Layth says he spent at best about two years with the Prophet and that he thinks many false memories were transmitted. He says Umar threatened to beat him if he heard him narrating, as reported in the hadith, and that Abu Hurayra narrated much more after Umar died, saying he could not while Umar was alive; Umar did this not as a personal matter but because he saw it as a danger to the religion, while Umar himself, ruling for about a decade, narrated only about 86 hadith, and five thousand would be believable from Umar, Uthman or Ali but not from someone who came in the last two years. He says Abu Hurayra was not evil, but that narrating became a claim to fame, which need not be a bad thing. As an example he cites a report in Musnad Ahmad and al-Mustadrak in which Abu Hurayra says he visited Ruqayya, the Prophet's daughter, as she held a comb after combing the Prophet's hair and he told her to honour Uthman, which Mufti says is impossible since Ruqayya died around the battle of Badr, years before Abu Hurayra became Muslim. He says Sunnis should themselves call such reports nonsense, whether the mistake was his or a later transmitter's, so that Shia critics are not the ones doing it.

## Sources and names cited

- Abu Hurayra
- Umar ibn al-Khattab
- Uthman ibn Affan
- Ali ibn Abi Talib
- report: umar threatened to beat abu hurayra for transmitting so much
- report: i entered upon ruqayya with a comb in her hand and she said the prophet has just left (unresolved; Abu Hurayra, Musnad Ahmad and al-Mustadrak, numbers not stated)
- Ruqayya bint Muhammad
- Musnad Ahmad
- al-Mustadrak (al-Hakim)
- the battle of Badr
- Shia

## Transcript (machine tier, 2:50:05–2:59:20)

[2:49:44] what's his name sinatra and things like that you can't beat it really i think musti please talk about right can you please read my question i just read your question oh i don't know you had a video speak a bit about abu hurairah spent last two years with the prophet and his five thousand hadith omar asking him to stop hadith yeah this is a uh yep that's a good question

[2:50:19] it's true you know i mean you see yeah because he spends at best really two years with the prophet i mean you're stretching it maybe two years one two months something but you know they try and stretch and say it's three years but it wasn't really even three years but even if and he transmits so many hadith um i definitely think that a lot of you know there was a lot of um maybe false memories being transmitted and stuff like that

[2:50:57] and this is why umar actually threatened and he threatened to beat him if he if he hears him transmitting in front of him he said if i catch you narrating these hadith [Laughter] he said you see this stick seriously it's in the it's in the hadith himself uh when umar dies he's he starts doing a lot more narrations and he says in some of them you know i couldn't do this whilst umar was alive because he he threatened me and said that if you do this i'm i'm gonna beat you up i'm gonna

[2:51:36] because because he saw that and it's not about beating him up you see it's about because he saw it as an attack on the religion like how do you spread this information and how do you confuse people by because um you know it's because to these people you see you gotta remember to omar uthman ali all these people abu hurairah is a nobody you know he just come like yesterday and to them they've been with the prophet since you know before hijra and and they don't even like do you know

[2:52:13] how many hadith omar transmits take a guess [Laughter] considering that he's what alive or after the prophet what is he like he's alive after he you know he's ruling for what is that like about a decade yeah so how many hadith does he and he's in a position to rule so he's teaching how many hadith do you think take a guess let some people write some guesses

[2:52:47] um right he should invite a uh he teaches i mean he narrates about 80 i think is it 87 or 86 hadith like that's it [Laughter] i mean look if omar had transmitted 5000 it's believable you know as in he witnessed a lot if uthman had transmitted 5000 it's believable if ali had transmitted 5000 it's believable

[2:53:26] because these people they've been with the prophet for you know one and a half to two decades some of them you know so it's it's believable somebody who comes in the last two years of islam and transmits 5000 hadith it's like what the hell is that about and this is why omar was offended it wasn't about a personal thing he founded an offense he founded an attack on islam because he felt that you know you you see you could be it's likely it's very likely you're going to mislead people so he was like look i don't know what you're up to

[2:54:05] but whatever it is no and it's not that you see i'm not saying abu huraira is some evil person i'm not saying that but he definitely this became a claim to fame definitely and it may be a righteous claim to fame not you see a claim to fame doesn't have to be evil people can like it you know people could say oh look mufti you teach online and don't you like you know being able to teach people and people of course i like it i mean i'm sure everybody who you know it doesn't mean that it's a it's something that people don't like being in positions like that they do so

[2:54:45] abu huraira is no exception and then he would have mixed know that as a fact okay that he did make several so we just have to be a bit weary like there's a hadith check this out there's a hadith which is transmitted in the muslims of ahmed and is transmitted in mustadrak abu hurairah says this is hadith i'm telling you people he says

[2:55:18] says i you know i went to rokaya at a house like the khul went went in to a house and met her and she had a comb in her hand so i said oh calm and she said yeah the prophet the prophet of allah just went right now i was combing through his hair and he said to me as he was leaving so she's telling abu huraira and he said to me as he was leaving how are things going with uthman

[2:55:57] so i said they're going good and the prophet said how do you find how do you think what do you think of him and i said i think he's good he's he's a you know he's a good person and the prophet said you know what make sure you honor uthman very well because he is one of the closest people to me or closest people in behavior character to me or something now just take a look at this wonderful hadith that's being transmitted in

[2:56:30] muslims by abu hurairah himself saying i went and met you radhialla anha died at the battle of buddha that's like second history that's like you know what at least five years before abu reid has even become a muslim and come to medina so how the hell did you go to rokaya's house and she had a comb and she said this to you what how the hell did this happen [Laughter] so this is why you know it's like because of stuff like this some of the shia when they attack

[2:57:09] obviously they attack because of the and this you see because the sunnis are not doing a good enough job in saying that look this is nonsense so they are then doing it so you know i was reading with one of the shia guys he goes you know and had died in the battle of buddha did she come out of her grave obviously and they're disrespectful to the companions some of them especially to abu huraira and others so he says you know did she come out of the grave

[2:57:46] to visit this al-qaeda so but this but you see my point is when we have something like this we should just kind of say that look this is nonsense and this it nip it in the in in the butt and we should do that so other people don't have to do it sunnis should do that to their own tradition we should critique it and so take out you know the the flies in in the ointment because otherwise other people are going to say oh look at that look at that cool people so why was abu huraira doing this so

[2:58:23] obviously he is either he's making a mistake or somebody from him is making a mistake or maybe it's a false memory maybe it's somebody twisting it you see we don't know but we what we do know is that's factually wrong because the prophet's daughter had died long before so long before he beca he'd become a muslim so yeah

[2:58:50] let's wrap this up people so before we do that we have before we do that people as always we need insight in life some people may say lockdown quarantine [Laughter] what if we're locked in a room together and the key is lost you know this one so we need guidance people we need

## Cite

Mufti Abu Layth Archive, segment eoKcNwGGIBA/s/34. https://muftiabulayth.org/r/eokcnwggiba/s/34/

Not a fatwa: these answers were given to specific people at specific times. Ask a qualified scholar about your own situation.