Sufyan ibn `Uyaynah

Abū Muḥammad Sufyān ibn ʽUyaynah ibn Maymūn al-Hilālī al-Kūfī (725 – ) was a prominent eighth-century Islamic religious scholar from Mecca. He was from the third generation of Islam referred to as the Tabi' al-Tabi'in, "the followers of the followers".

Biography

Ibn ʽUyaynah's father, ʽUyaynah ibn Abī ʻImrān, was originally from Kufa in present day Iraq where he was a governor for Khālid ibn ʻAbdillāh al-Qasrī. However, when al-Qasrī was removed from his position his successor sought out his governors causing ʽUyaynah to flee to Mecca where he then settled.

Ibn ʽUyaynah was born in the year 725-6 CE/107 AH. He was the client (mawlā) of Muḥammad ibn Muzāḥim and began his religious studying while still young. My son, the meanderings of childhood have now departed you, associate yourself with good and you will be from its people. And, know that none will be content with the religious scholars unless obedient to them so obey them and be content, serve them and grasp some of their knowledge. He lived in Mecca and had nine brothers. Of the brothers, five pursued studies in hadith with Sufyān becoming the most renowned of them. The names of the remaining four are Muḥammad, Ibrāhīm, Ādam and ʻImrām.

Death

Ibn ʽUyaynah performed the religious pilgrimage (Hajj) seventy times, saying that each time he went he supplicated Allah that that not be the last time he visit the places of Hajj. He said he was shy to ask this again on the seventieth occasion and returned to Mecca and died there within the next year.

In summary, his two known works are: al-Jāmiʼ al-Tafsīr