Abu Hurayrah has been narrated by Bukhari to have said...

Abu Hurayrah has been narrated by Bukhari to have said: Of all the companions of the Prophet, I have the most number of narrating the Prophet’s hadith s with the exception of ‘Abd Allah ibn ‘Amru because he used to write whatever he would hear from the Prophet while I was not writing them.[^6] After the demise of the Prophet (S), however, the second caliph ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab prohibited the writing of hadith .[^7] This state of affairs persisted until such time that ‘Umar ibn ‘Abd al-‘Aziz during the latter part of the first century AH annulled this prohibition and he wrote to Abu Bakr ibn Hazm to record in writing the hadith s of the Messenger of Allah (S).[^8] This task was not realized until the end of the first half of the second century AH because according to Ghazzali, the first writers of books on hadith among the Ahl as-Sunnah were Ibn Jarih, Mu‘ammar ibn Rashid, Malik ibn Anas, and Sufyan ath-Thawri[^9] who were related to the second half of the second century AH and the years of their demise were 150, 152, 179, and 161 AH respectively.

Yet, this process was never suspended among the Shi‘ah, and great Shi‘ah among the companions of the Prophet (S) such as Salman al-Farsi, Abu Dharr al-Ghiffari and Abu Rafi‘ al-Qibti made the pioneering steps in the field of writing and composition. Ibn Shahr Ashub says, Ghazzali believes that the first book written in the Muslim world is the book of Ibn Jarih on the works and types of exegeses { tafasir } narrated from Mujahid and ‘Ata’ in Mecca.

Next to his book is the book of Mu‘ammar ibn Rashid San‘ani in Yemen; then, the book Muwatta’ of Malik ibn Anas in Medina; followed by the book Jami‘ah of Sufyan ath-Thawri. This is not correct, however, for the first book in the Muslim world is written by the Commander of the Faithful ( ‘a ) who compiled the Qur’an. Next to him, Salman al-Farsi, Abu Dharr al-Ghiffari, Asbagh ibn Nubatah, and ‘Abd Allah ibn Abi Rafi‘ had also made steps in writing and composition.

And after them, Imam Zayn al-‘Abidin ( ‘a ) composed the Sahifah al-Kamilah .