Abu Abdullah Sufyan ibn Saeed Athawri was a great scholar of both Fiqh and Hadith. He was born in Kufah in the year 97 A.H. As such, he was a contemporary of Abu Haneefah.
In Hadith, Sufyan was one of the leading early scholars, reporting something like 30,000 Hadiths. He earned high esteem from many of those who helped put the study of Hadith at the highest level of Islamic scholarship. Ahmad ibn Hanbal, for example, says: “No one is closer to my heart than Sufyan.” Shubah ibn Al-Hajjaj who was a leading scholar of Hadith in his own right, testifies that Sufyan “knows more Hadiths than I do.” Such testimonies abound to the extent that many other scholars consider him to be the top Hadith scholar in his time. Yahya Al-Qattan describes him as the “one with the best memory he had ever seen. If he was asked about Hadith which he did not know, he felt very bad about it”. Many of the leading scholars placed him above Malik in his knowledge and scholarship.
Sufyan Athawri combined the study of Hadith with that of Fiqh, or Islamic law, and excelled in both. In fact, he had his own school of thought which was followed by a large number of people for about 200 or even longer. Some scholars placed him above the founders of four major schools of thought. Others considered him the fourth of these scholars, leaving out Ahmad ibn Hanbal. He achieved that excellence although he lived in Iraq where Imam Abu Haneefah had his greatest following and Abu Haneefah was seventeen years older than him. That gave Abu Haneefah a head start because he was recognized as a great scholar before Sufyan could make his impact felt.
The combination of the study of Hadith and Fiqh gives a scholar a particular distinction. He knows the principles of deduction of rulings and how to deal with basic religious statements in order to understand their meanings and implications before he could deduce a ruling for a specific problem. His knowledge of Hadith places at his finger tip an inexhaustible store of knowledge. He will then be able to avoid error in his judgment. It is not surprising, therefore, that three of the founders of the four major schools of thought, namely, Malik, Al-Shafie and Ahmad ibn Hanbal, were scholars of Hadith in their own right, in addition to their excellence in Fiqh. Sufyan Athawri belonged to that class. Hence his recognition as a founder of a school of thought which differed from that Abu Haneefah, his contemporary in Iraq.
His excellence in both branches led some scholars to place him among the scholars who relied on Hadith in their study of Fiqh, while others thought that he belonged to those who gave scholarly discretion an important role, like Abu Haneefah. Indeed, both views are right. Sufyan belonged to an elitist group of scholars who studied Hadith for its own sake and made use of it in their deduction of rulings, but they did not overlook the role of discretion and analogy.
In addition to his scholarship, Sufyan was known for devoting himself to worship, taking no interest in the pleasures and luxuries of this life. Had he wished, he would have been able to be close to caliphs and rulers who would be ready to favor him with high positions and financial rewards.
Had he done so, he would be earning whatever he could in a fair manner, because his excellence entitled him to the highest of positions. Yet, nothing of that was tempting to him in any way. He preferred a modest living which did not stop him from his worship or his scholarship. When he met rulers, he did not hesitate to speak to them frankly warning them against injustice or deviation from the Islamic path.
It is reported that he was doing his tawaf, walking around the Kaaba, when Al- Mansour, the caliph, saw him. Al-Mansour patted him on his shoulder and asked whether he recognized him. He said that he initially did not. Then Al-Mansour asked him to give him some piece of advice which would be of benefit to him in his rule. Sufyan said: “Have you implemented what you know so that I give you advice regarding what you do not know?” Al-Mansour asked him why he did not visit him, Sufyan said that God has warned against such visits, as he says in the Qur’an: “Do not be inclined toward the wrongdoers lest you should be touched by the Fire.” Al-Mansour allowed him to go and then said the following remark to those around him: “We have thrown grain in abundance to scholars and they came forward to pick it up, except for Sufyan who has turned his back on us.” Al-Mansour thus compared scholars birds who come forward when you throw grains for them.
Sufyan was recognized as perhaps the top scholar who knew almost everything on what was permissible and what was forbidden in Islam. It was not surprising, therefore, that students of Islamic scholarship frequently ask him to sum up the most important of his opinions in matters of faith and Fiqh. One such questioner was Shoaib ibn Jareer who said to him that he wanted such a sum up in order to follow it closely. If he would be questioned about it on the Day of Judgment, he would attribute it to Sufyan so that he would not be responsible for any error. I should perhaps repeat that he put his request in these terms. Sufyan, therefore, told him to write down the following sum up: “In the name of God, the Merciful , the Beneficent. The Qur’an is the word of God; it is not created. It began with God and returns to Him. Anyone who says anything other than this is an unbeliever. To be a believer is to combine verbal statement with action and intention. Faith can increase in strength and may decrease. The two companions of the Prophet meaning Abu Bakr and Omar, were the best of his companions.” He continued in this vain for sometime, before saying to his interlocutor: “Shoaib, you shall not benefit by what you have written down until you believe that wiping your feet covering in ablution to be legitimate, and to believe that to say ‘Bismellah Arrahman Arraheem’ in prayer privately is better than saying it aloud, and to believe in predestination, and to believe in the legitimacy and validity of praying behind every imam, regardless of whether he is pious or not. Jihad shall continue to be required until the Day of Judgment. Patience and perseverance in jihad under the banner of a Muslim ruler is necessary whether he maintains justice or not.” Shoaib asked him whether he meant all prayers. He answered: “No, but Friday prayer and Eid prayer you must offer them behind any imam you find. With regard to other prayers, you have the choice not to pray behind anyone, except someone you trust to follow the Sunnah. When you are questioned by God on the Day of Judgment, if He asks you to account for this, you tell Him that you heard it from me and leave me to answer for that.”
From all this, we realize that Sufyan was one of that very rare group of scholars who combined the study of the major branches of Islamic scholarship with great courage and supreme devotion to the cause of Islam. Sufyan died in the year 161, at the age of 64.
