Nafi Mawla ibn Umar

Nafi bin Sarjis Abu Abdullah ad-Dailami , also known as Nafi` Mawla ibn `Umar , was a scholar of Fiqh jurisprudence and muhaddith from the Tabiun generation who resided in Medina. He was a student of Ibn Umar.

Biography Nafi was originally a resident of Daylam (now including the Gilan region in Iran) who was captured during Muslim conquest of Persia and became a slave before being manumitted by Abdullah ibn Umar. He studied religion from the Companions of the Prophet, and especially from Abdullah bin Umar and Abu Sa'id al-Khudri.

He became a teacher for prominent scholars such as Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri, Ayyub as-Sakhtiyani, and Malik ibn Anas.

He became Mufti during the caliphate of Umar ibn Abdul Aziz and was sent by caliph to teach Islam to peoples in Egypt.

Golden chain of narration

Malik's chain of narrators was considered the most authentic and called Silsilat al-Dhahab or "The Golden Chain of Narrators" by notable hadith scholars including Muhammad al-Bukhari. The 'Golden Chain' of narration (i.e., that considered by the scholars of Hadith to be the most authentic) consists of Malik, who narrated from Nafi‘ Mawla ibn ‘Umar, who narrated from Ibn Umar, who narrated from Muhammad.

Malik even goes as far as to say, "If I heard (hadith) from Nafi' narrating from Ibn Umar, I would not care if I did not hear it from someone else(as it is undoubtly authentic)."

Scholars such as al-Bukhari, al-Asqalani and Abu Ali al-Khalil have high confidence for hadiths authenticity narrated by Nafi. Sahih bukhari and Sahih Muslim contained at least 188 hadiths of various matters narrated by Nafi.

Modern researchers of Hadiths has attested the hadiths narrated from Nafi line were authentic by using method of Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani of Jarh wa Ta'dil(narrators biography evaluation). Ze'ev Maghen stated the authenticity of Nafi narration were "almost peerless", while Professor Bashar Awad, editor of Tirmidhi collection, and winner of King Faisal Prize award, also noted the "golden chain" of Nafi were often supported with validation by another Tabi'un-to-Sahabah chains.

Death Nafi is estimated to have died in 117 AH (735-6 AD), although there are other chroniclers who say that in 120 H.