3 of 4 · After 11 AH · the Umayyad era · Madinah and Iraq
Safinah رضي الله عنه
A Narrator of the Sunnah
After the Prophet ﷺ died, Safinah passed on what he had seen in the house where he served. He reported that the Prophet ﷺ would bathe from major impurity with a sa' of water and make wudu' with a mudd (Sahih Muslim 326), a lesson in not wasting water.
He also narrated that the Prophet ﷺ said: "The caliphate in my Ummah will be for thirty years, then there will be kingship after that." Safinah told his student Sa'id ibn Jumhan to count the caliphates of Abu Bakr, 'Umar, 'Uthman and 'Ali, and they came to thirty years (Jami' al-Tirmidhi 2226; Sunan Abi Dawud 4646). Al-Tirmidhi graded it hasan.
He lived on into the Umayyad era. The biographers do not agree on the year of his death; some place it in the time of al-Hajjaj, after 70 AH.
Even a servant's memory of how much water was used became part of the Sunnah; nothing done for Allah is too small to be preserved.
Where could you follow the Prophet's ﷺ example of moderation in everyday things?
- Sahih Muslim 326 Sahih · in the two Sahihs
- Jami' al-Tirmidhi 2226 Graded by Ahmad Muhammad Shakir: Sahih · Al-Albani: Sahih · Bashar Awad Maarouf: Hasan · Zubair Ali Zai: Isnaad HasanSahih
- Sunan Abi Dawud 4646 Graded by Al-Albani: Hasan Sahih · Muhammad Muhyi Al-Din Abdul Hamid: Hasan Sahih · Zubair Ali Zai: Isnaad HasanSahih
- Ibn Hajar, al-IsabahHistorical report
What the hadith grades mean
- Sahih (authentic): an unbroken chain of trustworthy, precise narrators, free of hidden flaws or contradiction. It is acted upon.
- Hasan (good): like sahih, but a narrator's precision is slightly lighter. It is also accepted and acted upon. "Hasan sahih" means it reaches sahih by its routes.
- Da'if (weak): a break in the chain or a narrator who is not reliable enough. It is not used to establish beliefs or rulings.
- Very weak (munkar, matruk): a seriously flawed chain or a narrator accused of lying. It is not relied on at all.
- Mawdu' (fabricated): falsely attributed to the Prophet ﷺ. It may not be narrated as his words except to warn against it.
- The two Sahihs: every hadith with a full chain in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim is accepted as sahih by the scholars of hadith.
- Historical report: biographies and histories (Ibn Ishaq, Ibn Sa'd, al-Tabari) record events with chains that are often incomplete. They are used for the story, not for rulings.
- Hadith scholars grade a narration; the four madhhabs do not. Where a hadith carries a ruling, the page shows which schools act on it.
Create a free account to keep your place as you go. Create a free account · Sign in