Abi Bazzah – Abu al-Tufayl...
Abi Bazzah – Abu al-Tufayl: I heard ‘Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, saying, “ You will not ask me about ANY articulate Book or ANY bygone Sunnah, except that I will tell you .” So, Ibn al-Kawa asked him about al-Zariyat , and he replied, “It is the winds”.[^6] This same sanad is relied upon by Imam Muslim in his Sahih : حدثنا محمد بن المثنى ومحمد بن بشار (واللفظ لابن المثنى) قالا حدثنا محمد بن جعفر حدثنا شعبة قال سمعت القاسم بن أبي بزة يحدث عن أبي الطفيل Muhammad b.
al-Muthanna and Muhammad b. Bashar – Muhammad b. Ja’far – Shu’bah – al-Qasim b. Abi Bazzah – Abu al-Tufayl [^7] This should be sufficient to establish the status of the above report as sahih . However, the athar proves a very heavy fact – that ‘Ali knew everything in all revealed scriptures as well as everything in the Sunnah of every single prophet and messenger till the Seal of them. This naturally includes the Suhuf , the Tawrah , the Zabur , the Injil , and the Qur’an.
Amir al-Muminin had perfect knowledge of them all. He also had complete knowledge of the Sunnah of every single one of the 124,000 prophets sent by Allah. Due to the significance of this athar , we will further confirm its authenticity to remove any possible doubts about it. Al-Hafiz (d. 852 H) says about its first narrator: محمد بن المثنى بن عبيد العنزي بفتح النون والزاي أبو موسى البصري ….ثقة ثبت Muhammad b. al-Muthanna b. ‘Ubayd al-‘Unaza, Abu Musa al-Basri....
Thiqah (trustworthy), thabt (accurate) .[^8] Al-Hafiz also has these comments about the second narrator: محمد بن جعفر الهذلي البصري المعروف بغندر ثقة صحيح الكتاب إلا أن فيه غفلة Muhammad b. Ja’far al-Hazali al-Basri, better known as Ghandar: Thiqah (trustworthy) , sahih al-kitab (i.e. ahadith from his books are sahih ) except that there was some negligence in him.[^9] Whatever negligence he had does not affect his ahadith from Shu’bah, the third narrator, at all.
He used to accurately record the latter’s reports. So, he narrated them from his books with perfect precision.
Al-Hafiz provides further information in this respect: وقال ابن مهدي كنا نستفيد من كتب غندر في شعبة وكان وكيع يسميه الصحيح الكتاب .وقال أبو حاتم عن محمد بن ابان البلخي قال ابن مهدي غندر أثبت في شعبة مني وقال ابن المبارك إذا اختلف الناس في حديث شعبة فكتاب غندر حكم بينهم وقال ابن أبي حاتم سألت أبي عن غندر فقال كان صدوقا وكان مؤدبا وفي حديث شعبة ثقة Ibn Mahdi said: “ We used to benefit from the books of Ghandar on Shu’bah . Waki’ named him sahih al-kitab .” Abu Hatim narrated from Muhammad b.